Okay, this season is actually winding down (though I have to say my favorite week of the winterdays is this one, when all of the pressure of Krismas is off, businesses are running in slow or shut down, and the only thing left to do is to have a great New Year’s Eve). But the concept is clearly here, as this bit of simultaneous desire for Krismas indicates.
Krismas time is here!
December 29, 2004 by will shetterly
5 Responses to “Krismas time is here!”
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While I understand the sentiment of “Krismas,” it should be pointed out that the very name “Kris Kringle” came from an effort on Martin Luther’s part to “put Christ back into Christmas.” It is an alteration of the German “Christkindl” (Christ child) that created the name “Kris Kringle.”
Luther hoped to picture Christ as the actual “giver of gifts” with St. Nicholas as the trusty assistant, I believe. Didn’t quite take, as we can witness…interesting that, with these roots, it would morph all the way into a refutation of the claim that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” We often yearn to return to the pure source of traditions, yet we are always, inevitably, caught in “the messy middle.”
Rod, good link! The Christkindlein connection has nagged at me. I found one site that said it was merely the most popular theory, but it didn’t offer any other theories. For a few days, I found the story extremely implausible (that the old servant got confused with the Christ child). Then my comics fanboy self remembered that in his first appearance, Lex Luthor had hair. But in his second appearance, the artist apparently mixed up the original Luthor with his bald assistant, and voila! Bald Luthor forevermore. If it can happen to Lex, it can happen to Santa.
Still, Kris is so delightfully pagan, the furry old man of winter, that I don’t mind if his name isn’t entirely dissociated with Christianity.
Also, for all that I think the holiday should become Krismas, I’ve made my peace with Christianity. If anything, it’s my Christian self that wants to cut Krismas loose so Christians can think more about doing good than getting goods.
“If anything, it’s my Christian self that wants to cut Krismas loose so Christians can think more about doing good than getting goods.”
Well said! Sign me up for that.
Also, if you want a little fun with these Christmas myths (and some surprisingly relevant political commentary) all within the pages of a novel, try The Terrible Twos by Ishmael Reed. Not a major work, but good (I thought). Introduced me to a legend about St. Nicholas that I’d never heard before. Seems that he was at the Council of Nicea and became so enraged at “the Arian heresy” (from which we UUs sprouted) that he actually slapped Arius in the face. (Or, in other versions of the legend, “boxed his ears,” or “slugged” him). Ho, ho, ho!
I think there is probably Christian Connections to Kris Kringle, just as there are pagan connections to everything about Christmas.
But Kris Kringle does seem to be one of the first American Incarnations of some of our modern beliefs about Christmas. I think much of the idea behind Krismas is that we can choose to celebrate what we wish out of Christmas without having Fundamentalist Christian Dogma.
Personally, I think that the Jesus, as represented in the bible, said some wise things, and said some stupid things. But in either case, I don’t think I want to celebrate a whole holiday dedicated to him. So I’ll choose to celebrate a holiday about a completely fictious character instead ;-)
- Jacob Walker (Co-Krismas Creator?)
Rod, been meaning to read some Ishmael Reed. I’ll try to keep that one near the top of the mental list. Do you know of any good books about the Council of Nicea? I’ve been picking up all kinds of interesting bits of lore about it, and really would like to read something definitive someday.
Jacob, nice reminder that regardless of the inspiration for Kris Kringle’s name, the character has always been considered fictional by adults.
I googled “Krismas” to see how many co-creators we might have. It appears to be a standard spelling in several languages; I loved finding wishes of “Hapi Krismas” and “Meri Krismas” in messages that were otherwise opaque to me. I also found a cat named Krismas, a Malaysian play called “Krismas in Kulim,” birthday wishes to a woman named Krismas who was apparently born on December 25 (though I couldn’t tell if that’s her legal name or her online name), a very odd version of “The Twelve Days of Krismas,” and Krismas Dinnah, by Maggie Pogue Johnson, an African-American writer who wrote this poem in that ludicrous attempt to transcribe southern dialect that was so adored in the 19th century. And I stopped there. But it’s kind of nice knowing that the US version of “Krismas” is over a century old.