Let Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme Usher You Into Hell (the Holiday Season)
The drag performers’ holiday show gets weirder and more spectacular every year. They shared the secrets of their upcoming sci-fi Christmas extravaganza, which takes inspiration from 'Tales From the Crypt' and 'Freaky Friday.'
The most famous Christmas show in the U.S. at this point is probably Mariah Carey’s holiday spectacular—but, believe it or not, it is not even close to the campiest. That distinction goes to the Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Show, created and performed by the drag stars Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme, who have been touring on their love of Christmas for eight years, creating a brand-new holiday spectacular each season (and, in 2020, an accompanying television special and soundtrack). And because they’re singers and dancers and all that jazz, each show is brimming with music, often parodies of the big songs of the year—I recommend last year’s big blowout spoof on Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.” For this year’s tour, though, they stuck to the classics and cooked up a typically wacky theme based on sci-fi and horror classics like Tales from the Crypt and Twilight Zone. (Sci-fi Christmas? I’ll take two, please.)
I videochatted with Jinkx and DeLa in October, a few months after Jinkx finished up her Broadway star turns in Oh, Mary! and Pirates! The Penzance Musical. We spoke about what to expect in this year’s holiday tour, the lack of a big unifying pop song in 2025, how Christmas songs are the last remaining musical monoculture, and how they come up with the original parody songs for their show. “Sometimes it means me coming up with a really funny idea and going, ‘This is a DeLa song,” Jinkx told me. “Or when she’s like, I think you should just sing ‘Santa Baby,’ but make it about fucking Krampus. And I’m like, ‘Thank you, DeLa. That’s all I needed. It was right in front of me and I just needed you to say it.”
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