Even through the message behind Suburban Myth’s song is built on a simple idea, it opens all sorts of conversations and debates about the nature of the world around us. Remember as a kid, it was both an amazing and illogical place, your lack of true understanding of how things worked allowed for all sorts of magic and marvel to be conjured up. Then you grow up a bit and find that Santa Claus isn’t real, The Easter Bunny didn’t hide all of those eggs for you to find, The Tooth Fairy isn’t some sort of elven orthodontist, that these are all bit part characters that your parents play as required. You start reading history books and find out myths, legends, even religions, are built on little that could be called reliable evidence. The world seems to get darker and darker with every year.
And, getting back to the specifics of the title, what is Christmas once you have been allowed to draw back the veil and find that, like The Wizard in the Emerald City of Oz…again, not real, it is all smoke and mirrors, sham and humbug? And that is the quest that we find ourselves proposed by this song,. Where is the magic once you know the truth?
As Suburban Myth wax lyrical with ever increasing desperation, they recalls the Christmases of their youth and remember something fundamental, something which may have been lost in the glare of all the glitz and glitter that distracts from the true meaning for which they are searching.
Christmas might seem to be about presents and food and games and fun but behind every meal served up, behind every gift given is love. The love given by a parent, a family, a friend, be it in a hug or a hello, a card or a caring thought, the smallest gift, the tenderest moment. Christmas is a time of togetherness, of selflessness, of unity and charity…in its truest sense, of friendship and reflection, of giving thanks for the past and looking to the future. And, when you have got beyond the miracles and wonders of what Christmas might have seemed to have been about when you were a child, the true miracles and wonders reveal themselves when you look beyond such surface baubles.
Can You Help Me Find My Christmas? revels in the sonic sounds of the season, a slow-burning and graceful pop song which grows, through tattooing drum beats and choirs of voices, rising sonic power and a wonderfully appropriate sense of euphoria.
It’s a great song, and one which adds a human dimension to Christmas, reminds us that even though there are those of us who might not put so much store in religious aspects, it can be a time for celebration for all and it is those non-spiritual, non-commercial elements, those truly human sentiments, those acts of love which beat at the heart of everything and alway have.
Can You Help Me Find My Christmas? Yes, it was there all along, you just had to know where to look.
