Just the other night K’s school held its “Holiday Concert.”  I proposed an informal over/under bet.  Which would be greater, the number of unexpurgated Christmas Carols or the number of Hanukkah songs?  While I thought myself to be clever, the question was moot.  The single “Hanukkah” song was only tangentially related to the holiday — simply stating that “Shalom Aleikhem” means “peace to you” — and the “Christmas” songs were two: Jolly Old St. Nicholas and Here We Come a-Wassailing (Caroling).  So the Christmas songs would have won the day, if only technically, but hark!  The latter carol has been altered!  Now you are saying to yourself, “Come on.  A real live communist could barely object to that song.”  I concur.  Leave it to your local public school choir teacher, however, to find something objectionable.  Here is the chorus to Here We Come a-Wassailing:

Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail too;
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God send you a Happy New Year.

And here are the last two lines as sung by the second-graders:

And we wish you and send you a Happy New Year
And we wish you a Happy New Year.