An editor urged copy editors at The News & Observer to avoid seasonal cliches such as "'Tis the season" and "Deck the halls." I am all in favor of writers coming up with interesting new turns of phrase, but sometimes one man's cliche is another man's cultural lifebuoy.
John McIntyre's list is the source for my colleague's self-declared "war on Christmas." McIntyre is right about every one of those seasonal phrases. I myself would like for everyone to eschew "'Tis the season," but I don't like blanket bans on words and phrases. I once worked for an editor who never let us headline writer use "set" in a headline, as in "Board sets election date." It was a ridiculous rule, and as soon as I was out from under that editor's thumb, I used "set" every chance I got.
Beyond my natural inclination to rebel against a word ban, I see value in using phrases that are familiar to our readers. True, most of our readers nowadays don't know the reference to "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus," and that's fine, too. But we can still evoke the past with our literary and cultural references. There is nothing wrong with alluding to Dickens or Gene Autry or C.S. Lewis. We are writing for a newspaper; it's a mass media medium* (for the time being anyway), and we can share our common heritage. Just think how hard it is not to cry when the folks in Bedford Falls gather to sing "Auld Lang Syne" at the end of "It's a Wonderful Life."
Of course, the culture is shifting. We baby boomers who make allusions to the Beatles will give way to the Millennials who refer to Green Day or Kanye or Ghostface Killah. If the phrase fits, it will resonate with the readers it means to reach. By the way, I want some writer to work "Olive the Other Reindeer" or "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" into a story this season.
What do you think of seasonal cliches? Are you sick of "'Tis the season," "The Grinch" and "Bah, Humbug"? Please comment here or send me an e-mail message, pam.nelson@newsobserver.com. I'll post the messages here.
* I discovered this error when I reread my post some time later.
Comments
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Jack Frost and seasonal cliches
Tue, 02/16/2010 - 15:56 — OurDailyFredA friend of mine had the misfortune to wind up "editing" a weekly community newspaper paper that was so afraid of complaints that the owner refused to run crime stories. Being editor meant that he wrote most stories.
He mentioned "Jack Frost" in a reference to approaching cold weather, and over a couple beers I challenged him to see if he could work Jack Frost into every issue for the duration of the season.
It was about the only thing that would get me to read the paper, and he kept it going for about six weeks. The next week I thought he had missed inserting it, but I eventually found it in a story on winter driving. He wrote in about the third graf, "Contents of your trunk should be inspected prior to departing on a winter trip, ensure the spare tire is inflated and that everything is present including the jack. Frost can also ...."