Kriss Kringle is an American name for Santa Claus dating back over 150 years. Oddly enough the name derives from the German phrase Christ kindlein or Christ kind’l, meaning Christ child. However, Kriss Kringle is not used as a name for Santa in Germany.
Here’s Kriss Kringle, a Christmas poem by the American writer Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907)…
Kriss Kringle
Just as the moon was fading
Amid her misty rings,
And every stocking was stuffed
With childhood’s precious things,Old Kriss Kringle looked around,
And saw on the elm-tree bough,
High-hung an oriole’s nest,
Silent and empty now.“Quite a stocking,” he laughed,
“Hung up there on the tree!
Little I thought the birds
Expected a present from me!”Then old Kriss Kringle, who loves
A joke as well as the best,
Dropped a handful of snowflakes
Into the oriole’s empty nest.
This article was posted on Friday, December 16th, 2005 at 11:40 am and is filed under Christmas, Christmas Poems, Countries & Cultures, English, Holidays Around the World, Kriss Kringle, Kriss Kringle, Languages, Poetry, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Leave a Reply
