Catholic Christmas customs: "Kriskins"

[muckefuck]

If you have the misfortune to speak to me in the near future, expect an interrogation about a quaint custom from my childhood.

As a child, I attended two different parochial grade schools, one in St. Louis and one in a small town an hour's drive away. At both places, I participated in a Christmas tradition called "Kriskins". (Note that this is a [infelicitously-named] "phonetic spelling"; it's not a word I ever saw written in any authoritative context, only informally by fellow students.) At the beginning of the Christmas season (which, for Catholics, is basically coterminous with Advent, the "little Lent" of four weeks preceeding Christmas Day), all of my classmates drew each other's names from a box. Whoever got your name was an anonymous benefactor, expected to furnish small, thoughful surprises[*] in the coming weeks and a modest gift right around Christmas. It may sound like a customary gift exchange as practiced in situations where there are too many individuals involved for everyone to exchange gifts with everyone else, but there are two important differences: (1) Kriskins were strictly anonymous and (2) gift exchanges oblige participants to purchase only a single gift to be exchanged on or near Christmas.

My mother is one of eight children, so it should come as no surprise that her family eventually instituted a gift exchange. It wasn't the least bit unusual, however, for my mother to tell me, "Aunt Genevieve has your name this year and needs to know what you want." It would be strictly taboo, however, for someone to tell me, "Buster is your Kriskin and wants to know what to get you." Sure, people speculated and gossiped about who had who in grade school--even trades ("I don't want Stinky Robbins; I'll trade you for Buffy") weren't unheard of--but having your Kriskin revealed to you prematurely was simply not part of the game.

My final year of college, my dorm did "Secret Santas". The term struck me as a reasonable substitution since, having spent the previous Christmas in Germany, the likelihood that "Kriskin" was, in fact, an American corruption of Christkind[&] "Christ Child" hadn't escaped me. I remember being mildly surprised, however, to find what I considered a Catholic custom in a thoroughly non-denominational environment. No one else seemed to find it remarkable, so I concluded that it was a more widespread American custom than I'd realised.

Imagine my surprise, then, to find in the course of exchanging reminiscences with monshu that he'd never heard of such a custom under any name. He was born in Michigan but raised in California, which has got me wondering if about the regional distribution of Kriskins/Secret Santas. My working hypothesis is that it's of German-American Christian origin and ubiquituous throughout the Midwest but may not have spread throughout the Coasts. I'm working from very little data here, however, so anything y'all from your own experience could tell me would be helpful.


[*] Often--but not exclusively--gifts of small value. One Kriskin's surprise was a small treasure hunt through the library stacks. One year my "gifts" were poems by Celtic authors written out by hand and illustrated, tying in with a culminating gift of an English-language book of verse by Irish authors.

[&] Intriguingly, the Christkind as gift-giver is an invention of Martin Luther's, who found old St. Niklaus and der Weihnachtsmann ("Father Christmas") too papist bzw. too secular. As such, the term is associated with Protestants, making it a little surprising to find it being used in a strongly Catholic context.

Comments

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Growing up in Maine, I never heard of this custom. Since then (Chicago and Boston), I've seen Secret Santas around, but not Kriskins. Most of my Boston friends are transplants, though, so take that last bit for what it's worth.

[gopower.livejournal.com]

My (rather small) family never bothered with Secret Santas, though I've seen it many times on TV over the years. How that affects the transmission of regional/religious traditions I could not guess.

[stephe.livejournal.com]

I first did a secret Santa my freshman year of college, which was in MA. But, being college, there were people from all over hanging about, so I can't rule out a Midwestern influence.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

It existed in SE Michigan (as "Secret Santas") but I never was involved, so I don't know much in the way of details.

[prilicla.livejournal.com]

I went to overnight camp in northern Wisconsin for a few years in the mid-1970s, and we had Secret Santas as part of "Christmas in July." I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, and I'm pretty sure I heard about Secret Santas there, but I can't think of any specific examples. (Maybe I just saw it on TV, like gopower.) This is definitely the first time I've heard them called Kriskins.

[pne.livejournal.com]

"Kriskin" was, in fact, an American corruption of Christkind

That was going to be my first guess, as well.

I haven't heard of a custom such as you describe, either -- at least not with the additional surprises bit.

However, the drawing names, anonymous giving bit corresponds to a custom I know in German as "Julklapp" (though the name sounds Scandinavian to me).

Intriguingly, the Christkind as gift-giver is an invention of Martin Luther's, who found old St. Niklaus and der Weihnachtsmann ("Father Christmas") too papist bzw. too secular. As such, the term is associated with Protestants, making it a little surprising to find it being used in a strongly Catholic context.

See, this surprises me, because I associate the Christkind-as-bringer-of-gifts with southern Germany (and, by extension, Catholicism).

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

FWIW, here's what Wikipedia has to say:

Das Christkind ist ursprünglich eine Erfindung von Martin Luther. Im Mittelalter wurden die Kinder am Nikolaustag (6. Dezember) oder am Tag der unschuldigen Kinder (28. Dezember) beschenkt; die Bescherung am Heiligabend bzw. am ersten Weihnachtsfeiertag, wie sie heute üblich ist, gab es damals noch nicht. Die Protestanten lehnten jedoch die katholischen Heiligen ab. Ein Problem war hierbei jedoch der Brauch des Schenkens am Nikolaustag, von dem auch die Protestanten nicht abrücken wollten. Luther ersetzte deshalb den Nikolaus durch das elsässische Christkind, das am 25. Dezember Geschenke verteilt. Bis 1900 war bei Katholiken das Schenken am Nikolaustag üblich. Erst danach setzte sich das "evangelische" Christkind zusammen mit Adventskranz und Weihnachtsbaum auch bei Katholiken durch.

So apparently it had its origins in the South(west), but was spread through Evangelical actions. (I'm mildly surprised to hear that the Advent Wreath--which is so associated with Catholicism in my mind--was also a Lutheran innovation; hafta check that out further.)

[princeofcairo.livejournal.com]

The first time I ever heard of "secret Santas" was in Chicago, although I may just have moved in the wrong circles in Oklahoma.

[sfopanda.livejournal.com]

The only time I remember "Secret Santas" gift exchanges was each year at work when I lived in Minneapolis.

In the Bay Area, at every company I've worked, the head of the company bought everyone a gift (Managers did the same for their department.) This could just be a hi-tech company thing - I've never worked anywhere else.

This would seem to go along with your hypothesis...

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

We did it in New York 'burbs and we called it Kris Kringle.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

And I thought that Secret Santas were a deeply entrenched custom. I don't remember ever having NOT known about them.

Do you still have the illustrated poems? That's such a lovely idea.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

No, I gave the poems away! That was the entire point. I never had my doubts about the idea, but my roommate did. He was dating a close friend of the benefactee who reported that she went looking for her little surprise and found only "some song lyrics from Bob Dylan". (Actually, a poem from Dylan Thomas--the girlfriend's mistake, I suspect.) So he counselled me to give up the idea in favour of something more traditional, like candy. But I persevered. My reward was a great big hug in front of everyone.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Oh, I misunderstood: I thought that you had been the recipient.

It's a fabulous story.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see--awkward phrasing on my part. I've noticed when writing this that the lack of clear terminology for the two roles in the exchange makes writing about it a challenge. I'm not sure how we got around it in speech beyond "Whose name do you have?"

[luckymarty.livejournal.com]

We never did Secret Santas when I was growing up, but I didn't go to Catholic schools. I don't recall when I first heard about the custom, but I'm pretty sure it was before coming to the U. of C.

I distinctly recall reading about the Christkindl custom in one of the Christmas columns of Alois Buckley Heath, one of the sisters of William F. Buckley, Jr., so that's a data point that's Catholic, German (since she used the term Christkindl) and not Midwestern.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Um, I believe that would be Aloïse Buckley Heath. (At first I did a double-take. Then I began to wonder if "Alois" is only the latest in a long line of originally masculine given names to be commandered for female use.) And this may be the column you had in mind. I suppose it's appropriate to appropriate Sullivanesque usage and call this the "money quote":

I really didn't see how the Christkindl custom could go wrong, though. I still don't. In the Trapp family, at the beginning of Advent, everyone writes his name on a piece of paper and the papers are put in a basket, which is passed around as soon as the children have finished singing "Ye heavens, dew drop from above." Everybody picks a name from the basket, and the pickee, if you follow me, becomes the picker's secret Christkindl, and the idea is, you do your Christkindl a good turn every day until Christmas without letting him know who you are. It sounds simple, spiritual, and also fun, doesn't it? And it works out beautifully in the Trapp family. In fact, through Advent until Christmas, the Trapp household resounds with the glad cries of Christkindlen[*] who have found their shoes shined, their dollhouses tidied up, or the table already set the day it was their turn.

Apparently, the reference is found in Around the year with the Trapp Family (New York, 1955) and so, presumably, represents a genuine Austrian custom. Good work, luckymarty!

[*] Obligatory grammar nitpick: Christkindl is a Bavaric diminutive of Christkind, equivalent to Standard German Christkindlein. As even snowy_owlet can tell you, it is invariable in the plural. One Christkindl, two Christkindl. There's a certain charm to swiping the English irregular plural -en from children and slapping it on a German word, so I forgive Ms Buckley Heath entirely her bit of poetic license.

[markusn.livejournal.com]

In my kids' Waldorf school there is the custom of "Wichteln". Each student is assigned a benefactee (don't know how they do it, it may be a draw as you describe), and they are supposed to do them small niceties all through Advent, being their "Wichtel".

I didn't know that custom before. Now Waldorf schools are based on Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy, of course, and he's Austrian (Slovenian by contemporary borders, I believe), so there may be a link. I don't know if the custom is universal to the schools, though.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

We had Secret Santa in college in Boston, but I had never heard of it in Arkansas.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

I've only ever heard of Secret Santa; it was a common practice among office mates back in Omaha, and was for a single gift only. I vaguely remember doing some kind of secret gift giving, where you gave the person several gifts over several days, with dorm mates freshman year in Chicago, but I can't remember what it was called or if it was even about Christmas (it may have been a Valentine's thing).