“Last Christmas” is a song that means a lot to many people. It’s right up there with–if not sometimes well above–Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” And yes, like the latter’s accompanying video, “Last Christmas,” too, possesses a snowy, winter wonderland motif, albeit instead of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley prancing around happily with Santa Claus and a dog like Mariah, they appear a bit more somber as they visit a ski lodge. And yes, going to ski lodges in groups was probably the 80s event.
As George tries to throw game on Andrew’s designated woman by playfully decorating the tree with some tinsel–tossing some onto her for good measure–it’s clear that this momentary euphoria is counterbalanced by the unquenchable dissatisfaction of this woman not truly being his (even though it’s not that convincing that he really gives a fig considering his homosexuality becomes more retrospectively apparent with each passing decade). While Andrew, his girl and others in their lodge party revel in the snow, engaging in merriment and a snowball fight, George looks on from afar, later trying to barely mask his disdain when Andrew brings a sparkler cake to the dinner table.
Making unnoticed lookie-loos from across the table at Andrew as he flirtatiously laughs with his girlfriend, it’s clear that George will forever be haunted by the memories of the Christmas season–and also perhaps, to those who believed he was straight at the time, the real reason why he dissolved Wham! The more he drinks to cope with seeing her interested in his friend, the more the memories start to flow. He soon flashes back to the two of them mucking about in the snow last year and then sitting by a tree as he gives her a very 80s brooch that she’s still wearing this holiday season as well (women like material regardless of the sentiment attached to it, after all).
As the video–and the ski trip–ends, everyone in the lodge group goes their separate ways, with George resigning himself to spending the rest of the holidays with a new woman. Because isn’t that what Christmas is all about: stifling your loneliness by any means necessary?
