There is a Kriss Kringle, but please don’t say so
Monday The Associated Press emailed out its holiday style guide, a set of reminders for writers and editors who this month will be wrestling with whether to put a space in the middle of Christmastime (no), whether to capitalize solstice (no), howto spell the name of the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights that begins Thursday (it’sHanukkah) and whether to refer jauntily to “Xmas” (again, no).
One entry in particular caught my eye: “Kriss Kringle,” it said. “Not Kris.”
My advice on Kringlewould be yet another no. Avoid it. As a synonymfor Santa Claus it carries that same whiff of desperation for word variety as “Jolly Old Elf,” “St. Nick” and “Father Christmas.” Journalists and lyricists may deploy these from time to time to avoid repetition, but you never hear them in ordinary conversations.
Furthermore, Kriss Kringle isn’t particularly precise. The Online Etymological Dictionary notes that Kriss Kringle derives “fromGerman Christkindlein,” meaning “Christ child.” The entry adds, “Properly baby Jesus, not Santa Claus.”
The conflation is due to a tradition in parts of Europe that the gift bringer at Christmas is an incarnation of the young Jesus, not the old fat guy in the sleigh. Howthese two generous spirits merged with the traditions associated with the fourth-century Greek St. Nicholas ofMyra (say thewords “SaintNicholas” and “Santa Claus” really fast a few times and they’ll merge in your mind) has been the subject of considerable scholarship.
And adding to the potential confusion is that Kriss Kringle is howsome people refer to the gift-giving practicewe refer to as Secret Santa.
The extra “s” on Kriss is likely to look like a typo to some readers. A Google search for “Kris Kringle” returns 1.5 million hits, whereas a search for “Kriss Kringle” gets only about 95,000. A Nexis search of the majorU.S. newspapers database over the last
five years has Kris in 589 stories and Kriss in just 53.
The AP’s vice president for standards, JohnDaniszewski, emailedme that the wire service relied on the Kringle preferences ofWebster’sNewWorld College Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, the AmericanHeritage Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary. “All four use Kriss Kringle,” he said.
So to be proper, add the “s.” To be safe, drop the term altogether.
‘Custody’ now in linguistic jail
Speaking of terminology, here’s a heads-up for those whowant to keep current: In family lawcircles these days, the old, familiar battle terms “custody” and “visitation” are out.
In a little-noticed change written into Illinois lawabout five years ago, “the term ‘parenting time’ (shall be) used in place of ‘visitation’ with respect to time during which a parent is responsible for exercising caretaking functions and nonsignificant decision-making responsibilities concerning the child … (And) the term ‘parental responsibility’ (shall be) used in place of ‘custody’ and related terms such as ‘custodial’ and ‘custodian.’”
This may sound squishy, but it makes sense. The oldwords carried correctional connotations — Whois in custody? Prisoners. Whohas hours for visitation? Prisoners.— and the suggestion of children as property.
But the major reason for the change, which has been happening nationwide, is that “it’s anotherway to remove the winner vs.
loser approach to marriage dissolution,” according to Elizabeth Green Lindsey, the Atlanta-based president of the American Academy ofMatrimonial Lawyers. “Using differentwords shifts the focus toward the idea of shared parenting— where each parent has their individual relationship with the children and one isn’t deemed superior to the other.”
Lindsey said, “If I have custody and you just get to visit, that suggests that I’m more important than you are. That’s not good for anyone in a divorce proceeding.”
“To a child ‘visitation’ can be a very hurtful term,” added Peter Salem, executive director of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts inMadison, Wisconsin. “It minimizes the relationship. So the change in language is symbolic of the tone that we’d like to set for everyone. The idea is thatwe’re not designating winners and losers, we’re reorganizing the family.”
‘Good Cheer’ is going online
For more than 20 years, my colleagueMary Schmich and I have hosted and performed at “Songs of Good Cheer,” a holiday singalong programfor charity put on in conjunction with the Old Town School of FolkMusic. It’s a wonderful event that features top local musical talent and a variety of familiar and unfamiliar songs of the season, all belted out at top volume by more than 400 guests at each of six shows.
Obviously continuing that traditionwould be impossible during this pandemic year, but, as Mary wrote in her column last weekend, we’ve mounted a virtual version, recorded safely at our homes and in the school’s auditorium on Lincoln Avenue, then edited together using digital sorcery. Access to the video stream of the showand the downloadable songbook is $25 per household, with proceeds going to support community partners of the Chicago Tribune’s holiday community giving campaign and to support the Old Town School, which, like so many arts organizations, has had a tough 2020.
The stream will post to a YouTube channel on Dec. 18. For tickets and other information, call 773-728-6000 or go to oldtownschool.org/concerts.
Re: Tweets
The winner of thisweek’s reader poll to select the funniest tweetwas “I amno longer impressed that Sacha Baron Cohen tricked Rudy Giuliani” by @mileskahn. The poll appears at chicagotribune.com/zorn where you can read all the finalists. For an early alertwhen each new poll is posted, sign up for the Change of Subject email newsletter at chicagotribune.com/newsletters.