Arguing about Fairytale of New York and its homophobic slur is Britain’s worst festive tradition

“Fairytale of New York” and its “faggot” lyric provokes impassioned debate each and every Christmas, without fail.

“Fairytale of New York” is, to many, the hallmark of the holiday season, despite it being what can only be described as an anti-Christmas song.

The 1987 banger, by Irish-Anglo band The Pogues and the late Kirsty MacColl, is about two lovers hurling insults at one another. Not exactly the holly jolly merriment that Mariah Carey or her straight male counterpart, Michael Bublé, would have you believe Christmas is about.

It’s a track so tightly tied to Christmas that some people take part in the “The Pogues Game” each year, where players see whether they can go out in public without hearing the song. It’s inescapable.

But going the holidays without hearing the song is a dream to some LGBT+ people. For them, it’s another Christmas, another culture war on whether a lyric of the song – “You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot” – should be sung.

While straight people decide whether they sing the vilified phrase or just mumble it and avoid an awkard moment.

It has its defenders, queer and straight, for sure. Some simply don’t care about the lyrics of a random Christmas song. Others feel that removing the word amounts to censorship.

So, how exactly did a song in which two Irish lovers swap loving terms of endearment – “bum”, “slut” and, indeed, “faggot” – get so popular?

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