By Foster Akpore
The outrage over the title A Very Dirty Christmas says less about a single film and more about the unease many Nigerians feel when sacred language collides with a season that has quietly become permissive.
The Christian Association of Nigeria is right to note that Christmas still carries religious weight for millions of believers. For Christians, it marks the birth of Christ and calls for reflection, restraint, and charity. Any phrase that appears to stain that meaning will naturally provoke resistance. Titles shape perception, and words linger longer than intent.
Yet the public reaction also exposes a wider contradiction that deserves honesty. December in Nigeria is no longer defined only by church services and family meals. It is now widely described as Detty December, a phrase that celebrates excess. Concerts run till dawn. Alcohol flows freely. Sexual boundaries blur. Cities become arenas of noise, money, desire, and spectacle. In that sense, “dirty” is not an invention of a filmmaker. It is already part of the season’s lived reality.
This is where the discomfort lies. Many who reject the title still participate in the culture it names. The same society that recoils at the phrase Detty Christmas often celebrates Detty December without pause. The language is new, but the behaviour is familiar. What has changed is that it is now spoken aloud.
There is also a deeper historical tension that complicates the moral outrage. Christmas itself did not emerge in a vacuum. Long before Christianity fixed December 25 as the date of Christ’s birth, pagan festivals marked the winter solstice with feasting, revelry, and ritual excess. The early Church, seeking to redirect rather than erase popular customs, absorbed and redefined the season. What followed was a Christianised festival layered over older traditions. This does not diminish Christian faith, but it does remind us that Christmas has always existed in dialogue with culture, not outside it.
Across the world, the Christmas period records spikes in alcohol abuse, domestic violence, sexual exploitation, and commercialised pleasure. From Europe to the Americas, from Africa to Asia, the weeks around Christmas are among the most indulgent of the year. Nigeria is not an exception. It is part of a global pattern where sacred memory and social licence collide.
Against this backdrop, the title of A Very Dirty Christmas, produced by Ini Edo, reads less like a deliberate insult and more like a mirror. Mirrors offend when they reflect what we would rather deny.
This does not mean the concerns of Christians should be dismissed. Language matters. Sacred symbols deserve care. Art should be conscious of the wounds it can open. But moral clarity also demands consistency. It is difficult to condemn a film title while ignoring the broader culture of excess that has rebranded December into a season of unrestrained pleasure.
The real question, then, is not whether the word “dirty” should sit beside Christmas in a movie title. The harder question is why the behaviour that gives the word its force has become normal during the very season meant to recall humility, discipline, and grace.
Until that contradiction is faced, outrage will continue to circle the surface, loud but unresolved, while Detty December rolls on, celebrated in practice and rejected only in name.
Dirty Words, Dirty Season: Why the Fight Over a Christmas Movie Title Misses the Real Moral Question
By Foster Akpore
The outrage over the title A Very Dirty Christmas says less about a single film and more about the unease many Nigerians feel when sacred language collides with a season that has quietly become permissive.
The Christian Association of Nigeria is right to note that Christmas still carries religious weight for millions of believers. For Christians, it marks the birth of Christ and calls for reflection, restraint, and charity. Any phrase that appears to stain that meaning will naturally provoke resistance. Titles shape perception, and words linger longer than intent.
Yet the public reaction also exposes a wider contradiction that deserves honesty. December in Nigeria is no longer defined only by church services and family meals. It is now widely described as Detty December, a phrase that celebrates excess. Concerts run till dawn. Alcohol flows freely. Sexual boundaries blur. Cities become arenas of noise, money, desire, and spectacle. In that sense, “dirty” is not an invention of a filmmaker. It is already part of the season’s lived reality.
This is where the discomfort lies. Many who reject the title still participate in the culture it names. The same society that recoils at the phrase Detty Christmas often celebrates Detty December without pause. The language is new, but the behaviour is familiar. What has changed is that it is now spoken aloud.
There is also a deeper historical tension that complicates the moral outrage. Christmas itself did not emerge in a vacuum. Long before Christianity fixed December 25 as the date of Christ’s birth, pagan festivals marked the winter solstice with feasting, revelry, and ritual excess. The early Church, seeking to redirect rather than erase popular customs, absorbed and redefined the season. What followed was a Christianised festival layered over older traditions. This does not diminish Christian faith, but it does remind us that Christmas has always existed in dialogue with culture, not outside it.
Across the world, the Christmas period records spikes in alcohol abuse, domestic violence, sexual exploitation, and commercialised pleasure. From Europe to the Americas, from Africa to Asia, the weeks around Christmas are among the most indulgent of the year. Nigeria is not an exception. It is part of a global pattern where sacred memory and social licence collide.
Against this backdrop, the title of A Very Dirty Christmas, produced by Ini Edo, reads less like a deliberate insult and more like a mirror. Mirrors offend when they reflect what we would rather deny.
This does not mean the concerns of Christians should be dismissed. Language matters. Sacred symbols deserve care. Art should be conscious of the wounds it can open. But moral clarity also demands consistency. It is difficult to condemn a film title while ignoring the broader culture of excess that has rebranded December into a season of unrestrained pleasure.
The real question, then, is not whether the word “dirty” should sit beside Christmas in a movie title. The harder question is why the behaviour that gives the word its force has become normal during the very season meant to recall humility, discipline, and grace.
Until that contradiction is faced, outrage will continue to circle the surface, loud but unresolved, while Detty December rolls on, celebrated in practice and rejected only in name.