Have Yourself a Bernie Little Christmas By Lauren Steiner
https://www.laprogressive.com/caroling-for-bernie/
“On the first day of Christmas, Bernie gave to me, an end to inequality. On the second day of Christmas, Bernie gave to me, 15 bucks an hour and an end to inequality.” And so begins the adpated version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” Bernie style. The rest of the song includes ten other aspects of Bernie Sanders’ platform.
Inspired by the Occupella singers in San Diego active during the Occupy movement, I sat down before Thanksgiving and adapted a couple of tunes. “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” became “Bernie the Greatest Candidate.” Then there was “Deck the Halls with Votes for Bernie.” And “Jingle Bells Bernie Tells, the Truth about Our Land.” And so on.
I enlisted the creative help of fellow LA for Bernie volunteer Debra Mayes, and together we created a few more songs. That led to an event page on Facebook for a caroling event on the Sunday before Christmas, and we were off. On the page, someone posted some adapted holiday lyrics by Bard for Bernie, aka Meira Marom from Brooklyn New York. Others posted their ideas. And soon enough, we had 16 songs.
...We posted the event on Bernie’s website as well and waited for the signups to come in. However, as with many events where people RSVP on line, most people who signed up did not show. Still, we had a core group of six at the Mar Vista Market that grew to 12 by the time we hit Santa Monica Place. One of our core members brought his guitar and a set of bells. The rest of us donned elf and Santa hats and reindeer ears. Most of us wore our Bernie shirts. And I brought rally signs for everyone to hold.
The reception we got was mostly positive. Fewer people stopped to listen to our whole set than I had anticipated. Many people listened to a few songs, took photos and videos and even posed with us. Some even took a songsheet and joined in. We got a lot of honks from drivers passing by. And we handed out some flyers and signed up a couple people to phone bank...
