A Florida Diner Asked The Manager To Stop Playing ‘Offensive’ Christmas Music, A Request That Went Completely Ignored
A Florida diner was apparently feeling exceptionally “Bah, Humbug” this Christmas season, asking the restaurant manager to turn off the “offensive” Christmas music. The request brought little more than laughs from the restaurant staff, and now the chef is sharing the story with the media, First Coast News is reporting.
These are the days of social media, which means that if someone annoys you or says or does something stupid, you can laugh at them and publicly shame them on the internet. And that’s what Chef Michel Lugo of Michael’s Tasting Room in St. Augustine, Florida, is doing with his story of a diner who’s playing the role of The Grinch.
God’s Watching Over “Michael’s Tasting Room”
Websitehttps://t.co/MPJjFDmkp5
“A customer’s War on Christmas”Story on Fox & Friends pic.twitter.com/I5ZpBMy4st
— Jesus Rock (@MeuanityLee) December 11, 2016
On December 3, according to Fox News, one of Lugo’s waiters showed him a customer’s receipt. On the back, the customer had written a rather pointed complaint about the Christmas music being played in the upscale tapas place in the historic seaside village. A flummoxed Lugo did what he thought was best – he shared it on social media, with the caption, “Really, what’s wrong with people[?]”
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10210094720797043&set=a.1917350545970.2108899.1608207504&type=3
It’s not clear, as of this writing, what Christmas music, specifically, was playing at Michael’s the day the offended diner was there. Most likely, he was probably playing through a streaming service such as Spotify, or perhaps one of the Christmas channels on Sirius/XM satellite radio. Or perhaps he was playing his own, personal playlist. (Hopefully, it wasn’t any of those utterly awful Christmas songs that need to be put away forever.) But really, it doesn’t matter. Michael’s restaurant, Michael’s rules.
As for the customer’s suggestion that the restaurant should play “Holiday music” instead of Christmas music, well, there are a couple of problems with that. First, about half of the songs that you think are about Christmas aren’t about Christmas; they’re about winter, or gift-giving, or they obliquely mention Christmas but actually have nothing to do with Christmas. Beyond that, however, if the diner is interested in music that focuses on winter holidays beyond Christmas – well, good luck with that. I can count on one hand the number of songs I’ve heard about Chanukah (and four of them are comedy bits by Adam Sandler). And as far as I know, I’ve never heard any songs about the ancient pagan celebration of Yule, or the Roman celebration of Saturnalia – two precursors to modern Christmas.
For Lugo, what we know of and celebrate as Christmas is only a religious holiday if you make it one.
“It’s all about celebration of family celebration of gathering with friends and people and it’s a tradition. It’s not about a religion it’s not about anything else. I am a Christian but I don’t push that as my agenda I think that Christmas is Christmas.”
But there’s a larger issue at work here, and you’ve probably picked up on it by now. There’s a simple solution to the problem of not wanting to hear Christmas music when you go to a restaurant: don’t go to restaurants that play Christmas music. Problem solved.
Lugo is getting plenty of support on social media. In the Facebook thread where he originally posted the receipt, comments have been almost uniformly positive.
“It’s so sad that people try to take Christ out of Christmas. If they don’t believe in Christ stay quiet and let those of us who know what the season is about enjoy it. I’m sure God is as proud of you as I am Michael.”
Do you believe the anonymous Florida diner who complained about “offensive” Christmas music being played at a restaurant was right to complain?
[Featured Image by Africa Studio/Shutterstock]
