SeedSing's Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Music: Day 8 - Christmas at Ground Zero

ed note: This article was originally published on December 8th, 2015

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a new awesome holiday song for every day of Advent. This is the greatest music of the season. Enjoy.

Day 8: Christmas at Ground Zero by Weird Al Yankovic

Opened Doors: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven

When I was a young child I was extremely frightened of being killed in a nuclear strike. Growing up in St. Louis, I would hear people say that the McDonnell Douglas plant my dad worked at was a prime target for the Soviets. The weapons being developed and built in the St. Louis area made us a prime strategic target, so I heard. The television movie The Day After  freaked me out even more with it's setting being in Missouri. Nuclear annihilation was never far from the front of my mind. If it was not for the joyous holiday season, I would be worried about being vaporized, mutated, or full of cancer. That fear would last the whole year.

"Christmas at Ground Zero" was included on Weird Al Yankovic's 1986 album Polka Party! Many people associate the great Weird Al with parody songs, yet "Christmas at Ground Zero" was one of his original tunes. The song uses classic and joyful holiday compositions with words that are absurd to our minds today. Weird Al makes fun of the popular culture associated with nuclear paranoia. Duck and cover, mutations, flying debris, fallout shelters, they are all combined with the yuletide celebration. No amount of atomic carnage seems to dampen Weird Al's holiday mood.

The video, directed by Weird Al, is a great companion piece to "Christmas at Ground Zero". The stock videos of duck and cover drills highlight the lunacy of nuclear paranoia. The inclusion of Hollywood Ronald Reagan counting down to the big day is a great touch. President Reagan was quite happy to increase our fear of being destroyed by nukes, and in hindsight his rhetoric is as absurd as Weird Al's tune. Reagan loved cold war paranoia, and he loved Christmas. Weird Al found married Reagan's to loves into something quite magnificent. That is the mark of a great director.

I am comfortable with the knowledge that I will not be vaporized while I duck and cover this holiday season. I am even more at ease that I will probably never need to dodge atomic bombs throughout the rest of the year. Anything is possible though, and if I need my radiation suit on New Year's Day, I will have the spirit in my ears with Weird Al's "Christmas at Ground Zero".

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. His biggest fear watching The Day After is that his family may have to move to Lawerence, Kansas. That is frightening.  Tell your tales of duck and cover by writing for SeedSing.