Jinkx Monsoon & BenDeLaCreme Are Giving the Lesbians Exactly What They Want for Christmas

Is it even the holiday season if Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme aren’t hitting the stage together? What began as a holiday outing between two friends has snowballed into, “The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show,” an annual tradition, complete with bigger productions, wilder antics, and plenty of festive mischief.

As they do every year, the duo has created a brand-new show from the ground up, an achievement they have every reason to be proud of. “When we started this, it was a much simpler show. [The] 2018 [show] was largely songs and banter, and we didn’t travel with dancers, we didn’t travel with a huge crew,” DeLa tells GO, reflecting on the show’s massive growth.

“We made a decision a while ago that we would write a new show every year, unless there was a year that it just seemed like it made sense to dust off the classics, and that just hasn’t happened yet,” Jinkx tells GO. She adds that the state of the world keeps giving them new material to be inspired by: “Our world has been such a nutso cuckoo banana cracker factory of a shit show. It’s been like living in some kind of dystopian circus nightmare, and it’s just too much material not to comment on, you know,” she says.

The duo are also thrilled to create an event that brings queer folks together each year to celebrate. “What’s beautiful about it is that people are rising in response to that, and they are building community. They’re doing it through shows, they’re doing it through potlucks, they’re doing it through whatever. But we’re getting back in the same room, and that is important right now,” DeLa says.

The show has evolved quite a bit over its nearly decade-long run. Past installments have featured everything from sentient Christmas treats and Dickensian ghosts to AI body swaps, and, of course, elf attacks. While they are keeping tight-lipped about what this year’s show has in store, there’s no question it will deliver the cheeky humor, high camp, and unapologetic queer joy fans have come to expect.

And this year, fans are getting a double dose of Jinkx and DeLa’s holiday hijinks, onstage and on the page. So if you can’t make it to the show, the holiday spirit can come home with you in the form of Jinkx & DeLa: How the Queens Made Christmas. The book is written by BenDeLaCreme, with Jinkx Monsoon, and features illustrations by Anika Orrock. It’s a charming little holiday tale that sees the two queens mysteriously trapped in their own holiday story. It’s a playful blend of holiday classics, with a rhyming scheme reminiscent of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” but because it’s these two, it’s a blizzard of cheeky double entendres — and it’s oh-so-delightfully queer. Best of all, it feels perfectly in keeping with the holiday spirit.

But perhaps even more moving than the story itself, is the story behind it, which DeLa explains in her author’s note. She dedicates the book to four boys she knew growing up who died by suicide after struggling with their queerness. In the dedication, she writes, “They never got to grow up because, as kids who were queer or exploring their queerness, they didn’t know there was a place for them… That’s why this looks like a kids’ book. That’s why our shows look like kids’ shows. They are for the kids we never fully got to be.”

It’s a reclamation of both childhood and the holidays, which is something DeLa understands firsthand. The holiday show is more than just a performance for her; it’s a reclamation of the holiday season itself.

“I did have a pretty idyllic Christmas when I was very young, but it sort of took a hard shift during my young adolescence, and that’s what I associate Christmas with,” explains DeLa. “This has very much changed my experience of the holidays … [and] the fact that people have rallied around it so much and share that experience and relate to it, and the number of people that turn out for that reason is more than we ever could have predicted, and that is a really, really beautiful piece of this.”

For Jinkx, the holidays have always been a time of cheer, starting in childhood, when her grandmother’s home was the gathering place not only for her family but also for all the “misfits” who needed somewhere to celebrate the holidays together. “My grandma was known for [welcoming] so many people in the community, and by doing this show, it’s almost paying forward the pleasant childhood memories that I have. I’m able to share it with people who might not have those childhood memories, namely DeLa,” says Jinkx.

And it’s that welcoming spirit, along with a whole lot of dirty jokes and catchy songs, that makes The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show such a special event each year that shouldn’t be missed. And if there’s one audience that has embraced this holiday tradition with particular enthusiasm, it’s the lesbians, who hold a special place in both queens’ hearts. DeLa, in particular, credits queer women and transmasculine drag kings she befriended as a young performer in Chicago with helping her find herself and discover a sense of community. “The lesbian community that I found really taught me about the values that I carry today,” she tells GO. “I truly credit them with that.”

“[The reason] our show … resonates with lesbians and all human beings alike is our very palpable friendship, with an underlying sexual tension,” Jinkx jokes. “No, I’m joking. Our very palpable friendship onstage is made possible by our very powerful friendship offstage. Like we say, we chose each other multiple times in our lives, and we continue to choose each other. And that is not a lightly made statement.”

And chosen family, like the kind Jinkx and DeLa share — and, by proxy, share with their audiences — truly is the reason for the season.

This year’s tour begins November 6 and continues through Dec. 30, with stops across the U.S. and Canada, and the book is available now.

For tickets and tour dates, VIP packages, or to purchase a copy of the book (or two, after all, they make for a great holiday gift), visit jinkxanddela.com.