Originally titled Cocks and Cunts, Christmas on Earth features several painted and masked performers (some in black and whiteface) engaging in a variety of gay and straight sexual acts.
The film's two separate black-and-white reels are projected simultaneously, one inside the other, with color filters placed on the projector lens, and, originally, an ad hoc soundtrack of contemporary rock radio.
[1][note 1] The 29-minute film was inspired by Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures,[2] over which Rubin clashed with censors alongside Jonas Mekas and P. Adams Sitney.
"[7] Due to its explicit nature, the New York City police tried to suppress the film;[12] for a time during the mid-1960s Rubin habitually carried her one copy around with her for safekeeping.
"Since 1983, it has been screened regularly," wrote Johan Kugelberg, "and is slowly but steadily taking its place in the canon of 1960s underground films and cultural milestones that unraveled American censorship law and opened the field for artistic studies of sexual narratives.