Opinion: 3 Reasons Drag and Christmas Go Together

Somewhere near you, a Grinch is thinking about how they can stop drag performers from doing anything fun on a stage this holiday season. Attacking drag has been a major front in the culture war this past decade as conservatives look to ban performances around minors as part of their general push to deny anything by other than cisgender heterosexual people exists. Why? Because that’s how fascists have always taken power.

The thing is, drag and Christmas go together like elves on shelves and Santa’s surveillance state. You can’t keep drag out of Christmas any more than you can keep your dad from stuffing all the wrapping paper in a big garbage bag the second you’re done opening presents. If you put down the damn pitchforks for half a second and get jolly, you’d realize…

3. You’ve Seen Drag at Christmas Your Whole Life

On any list of the top five classic holiday movies, you’ll find 1954’s White Christmas starring Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby, and in it you’ll see Kaye and Crosby do a drag show lip synching the song “Sisters.” It’s a hilarious moment in the film, and you could argue that every drag queen since has been trying to recapture that delightful level of camp.

If you’ve ever gone to a church Nativity play, odds are you’ve seen children in drag. Thousands of churches across the land are casting their plays with whatever child can remember their lines and not pick their nose on stage, and many times that involves fudging the gender roles a bit. The 3 Wiseman get swapped to the more gender-neutral Magi, or some girl puts on a fake beard and boom, she’s drag prince Melchoir.

Despite what bots and ‘Phobes tell you, gender-expression is not inherently sexual. People do it for a variety of reasons. A draq queen might make a raunchy joke about Mrs. Claus working the pole, but so did the PG-13 Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Drag at Christmas is normal and has been for decades. It’s the recent backlash that’s weird.

2. Christmas is Gaudy as Heck

Christmas is easily the gaudiest holiday on the American calendar, which is pretty impressive considering we have Halloween and Mardis Gras. The second the Halloween candy comes off the shelves, every store is covered in red, green, and lights while our friends and neighbors compete to see who can fit the most inflatable dinosaurs wearing Santa hats on their lawn.

Sure, for some, Christmas is a time of quiet family togetherness and reflection on the life of Jesus. For others, it’s giant musical productions at churches that rival a Kiss concert in terms of spectacle. A drag queen lip-synching “Frosty the Snowman” is a lot closer to the latter, but it doesn’t mean either isn’t legitimately Christmas.

Jesus may be the reason for the season, but midwinter has been a time of celebration since the days of the cave and the wolf. Humanity feels the darkest and coldest nights around the solstice, and we respond with lights, songs, food, and presents. That’s always going to be a little tacky because nothing treats the winter saddy-sads like joyous cringe. That’s what Christmas drag is doing, no different than Houston’s own City Lights.

1. Drag Performers Have Had to Make Their Own Christmas

There is this ridiculous assumption that LGBTQIA+ people and Christianity exist on different poles. It’s nonsense. A majority of American Christians support marriage equality, and tens of millions of LGBTQIA+ people go to Christian churches. Some of them are even clergy.

However, LGBTQIA+ people have also experienced a ton of rejection from their childhood churches and congregations. Either they aren’t welcome home as their authentic selves, or they aren’t welcome home at all. That need for ritual and dogma remains strong, especially when the rest of the country is lit up with holiday cheer that’s being denied to you by the ones you love.

So, drag performers made their own Christmases in their community’s image. Buck Wylde is one of Texas’s most prominent drag kings, and he often produces drag events around Christian high holidays. When asked if the reason drag performers love Christmas so much was because of rejection, he said.

“There’s often a lot of hurt surrounding holidays in general for queer folks who may not be welcome home by their birth families, or at the very least they may have been made to feel uncomfortable at gatherings with family who might be well meaning, but ultimately just make them feel ‘black sheeped.’”

Wylde added:

“I produce a drag king brunch in Dallas called ‘Sausage Party.’ I approached the venue with the idea of a brunch on Easter, and they asked, ‘are you sure people will show up on a holiday?’ I told them I had a pretty good feeling a drag king brunch will be a welcome boon for queer folks on a holiday. And we were right. People showed the fuck out, and the brunch was packed. We all had the absolutely best time celebrating with each other and felt so warm and held. We laughed and sang and watched some great drag together. I dressed as Jesus and shot bread rolls into the air with a Nerf cannon during our Easter Egg hunt. It was a full community event, and we all breathed a sigh of relief in each other’s presence. Drag brunch was queer church that day and such a more positive rewriting of what a holiday can be.”

I realize that may seem blasphemous, but that’s how hundreds of Christian denominations see how other denominations celebrate. Do you think the Pope doing Christmas Mass in Rome approves of the way Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano puts on “The Gift of Christmas” like it was the Eras Tour guest-starring Jesus?

Drag Christmas has been institutionalized through decades of hate and marginalization. Despite that hurt, drag performers almost always do Christmas with a spirit of joy and giving, participating in the American idiom on their own terms.

It wouldn’t have happened if more LGBTQIA+ people had found a welcoming place around the Christmas tree. They didn’t, so they made their own, and now it belongs to them as much as anyone.

This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.