muckefuck | Catholic Christmas customs: "Kriskins"

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Catholic Christmas customs: "Kriskins"

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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

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.

"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).

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

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...

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

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.

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.

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

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).

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