Santa has a Birthmother; The Kringle Elves Didn’t Have a Home Study.

“Santa Claud is Coming to Town” has always been my favorite Christmas story. I think I was partial to Jessica being a pretty Rankin-Bass creation with her trippy cartoonish solo, plus I liked the way they told the story of Santa Claus and explained how it all happened.

Ye Olde St. Nick was a Foundling!

In case your childhood memories are lost or you had a deprived childhood with no TV, I will refresh your memory with this nice beginning synopsis from Wiki:

The story begins in the gloomy hamlet of Sombertown, which is ruled by the ill-tempered Burgermeister Meisterburger . A baby arrives on his doorstep, with a name tag reading “Claus” and note requesting that the Burgermeister raise the child as his own, despite the Burgermeister’s objections. He then orders his right-hand man and lawkeeper Grimsley to take the baby to the “Orphan Asylum”. On the way there, a gust of wind blows both sled and baby far away, to the mountain of the Whispering Winds. There, the animals hide him from the Winter Warlock  a powerful wizard who dislikes anyone trespassing his land. The animals then bring the baby to the other side of the mountain to an elf family by the name of Kringle. Led by Tanta Kringle the elf queen, they adopt the baby and name him “Kris”.

Yes, in case you have not thought about the innocence of a Christmas special in terms of adoption; Santa was a foundling and was adopted by the elves. Wiki said it. Rankin-Bass said it. I said it. It’s true. FACT!

Santa Claus Had a BirthMother

Now we don’t know what the circumstances that lead to Santa’s relinquishment were. We can assume that since this happened in the past, that there were the not the stringent legal fail checks around relinquishment.. Oh wait. Silly me! There ARE NOT stringent legal fail safes surrounding  adoption! Ho Ho Ho!

Anyway, one might guess that Santa Claus’ Birthmother was feeling the ill effects of economic downturn in the Sombertown under the Burgermeister Meisterburger’s rule. Kris Kringle ( his adopted name) didn’t seem to be a “newborn” though aging the Rankin-Bass claymation figures is kind of hard. It’s not like we can check their teeth. Anyway, we can guess that Santa’s birthmother tried to raise her baby for a bit of time before surrendering;  if nothing else because a newborn would NOT survive long enough for the social workers forest animals to deliver the baby to the elves in THAT weather!

It seems that Santa’ Claus’ birthmother, like many birthmothers, she went for what she perceived as “better”, leaving the child originally on the Burgermeister Meisterburger’s front steps. No home study there and we hope he would not have passed the psychological components as he was holding on to just a little bit of anger. Alas, Santa’s’ original mother must have overlooked that  and was blinded by  his obvious wealth, power or biggest house in town… or she was just not given enough information to make an informed decision about her baby. In any case, she surrenders the small Santa child and walks away from history.

“Please sir, Take care of my child  and protect him from the dangers of the Mountain of the Whispering Winds. He will be exceptional if only given only given the love he needs”

Yup, even in Claymationland a baby ONLY needs love. Love fixes everything. Yada-yada.. another birthmother is quickly written out of the story and completely forgotten.

The Kringle Elves As Adoptive Parents

OMG! The elves lived in RAINBOW River Valley!! This really is all too easy!

So, the forest social worker animals leave the baby with the elves. Again, no home study, five brothers and an old women; clearly all overweight? No age requirements. I know it’s claymation, but really? Are we actual expected to believe  that a bunch of freaking squirrels and chipmunks are a good judge of character? But that’s what happened. The forest animals bring the baby to the “nice” elves.

Tanta Kringle did not seem to have an issue with the fact that they just found a baby. Actually, she seemed to think like many, “Oh a baby. What a WONDEFUL idea!”. Yes, I’ll take him. Yup.. Santa’s Gotcha day!

When Santa’s original name was pointed out by one of the elves, she replied like many adoptive parents as well, especially the ones that adopt from overseas:

 “Claus? What an unusual name! However( screw that weird shit), we shall call him Kris. Kris Kringle”

Santa Claus; the People Pleasing “Happy” Adoptee

Now, Santa must have been one of those adoptees that didn’t openly suffer a “Primal Wound”, though we can easily say that he sure fit the bill of being a “people pleaser”!  Hello.. did we ever stop to think about why Santa feels the need to constantly be giving presents? Buying peoples affection?  Not worthy of their friendship and love without the material gifts? Santa literally buys his way out of everything and wins over everyone, including the future Mrs. Claus, with gifts! I’m sorry, it’s just not a healthy way to live.

There are other ways where we can see the adoption clearly affecting Santa’s early years.

Clearly, the opportunity to have a genetic mirror was lost as Kris was way taller than all those tiny elves and he was crazy younger. There was no Mr. Kringle, so he couldn’t have been passed as a “change of life” baby. Not that they tried to obviously hid that he just appeared on the doorstep. However, we don’t see what happened behind closed doors. Sadly, we see little of his childhood years and Santa’s autobiography is still forthcoming. However, there is one scene that is also quite poignant in Santa Claus’ Adoptee story.

Tanta Kringle makes a very typical adoption mistake and assumes that HER Kringle family history is also Kris’ family history. The Kringle family history, “The First Toymakers for the King” ,is obviously important enough that it even got its own song! Now of course, she includes Kris in all the “we” talk, but while Kris can be proud of his adopted linage, it’s still him trying to fit into his adopted family values of being the “first toymakers to the King” In some ways, it really is an awful lot of expectations to place on a child! The dolls MUST smile, the boats MUST float, etc.

However,  while we see no signs of Santa wanting to know the story of his relinquishment or search for his identity, and he happily puts on his “real Kringle suit” in yet another attempt to fit in. Ok, so it can be seen that Tanta Kringle was just making Kris a suit as a kind gesture, but also could it be that she wanted to make Kris seen as a Kringle before he went out in the world? Is she trying to somehow make sure he knows “who took him in, who taught him to read, wiped his butt, etc.” And yes, Kris was very thankful and even continued on to grow a beard because; “Since I am a Kringle, I had to grow one sooner or later.” No mention that the Kringle beards were all pure white and Santa was originally quite a ginger!

Shush.. no one can tell you are adopted,  Kris!

Santa Claus “Real Identity” No OBC Here

Now, we will give it to Tanta Kringle, she didn’t hid this original name tag deep in the linen closet or burn it, but kept it for him in a special place (close to her heart!) around her own neck. So she could whip it out when the Kringle name was gonna get Santa ass back in the pooky.

“Not call myself Kringle. What other name would suit me?”

“There is one. You were wearing this when we found you as a baby. See what it says?”

“Claus? Claus?” Asks Santa pensively… he almost looks triggered for a second.

“You’re real name. You must use it now.”

So even if Santa didn’t search, he still has his original identity returned to him.

I can go on and on with that all day. I had half a thought to play with the fact that the elves (adoption) are all happy and brightly colored while the Sombertown folks (assuming that is Santa’s original kinfolks of sorts) are all dark and dreary, but while amusing, it might be considered reaching. Perhaps I should add this happy tale to the reasons why I thought it was a good idea to relinquish my child to adoption? I always blamed “after school specials and made for TV movies” but Santa Claus is Coming to Town is a happily ever after Adoptee story, too!

It’s still my favorite Christmas Special and I have to say that there is one very, very important lesson that must be taken from the story that can used as  a mantra just like  “Just Keep Breathing.”

“Just Put One Foot in Front of Another”

Come on!  Sing it with me. I know you want to.