Skip to main content

Christmas Countdown Characters #10

Jingle Belle - watercolour, pencil and ink sketch - Wilma Simmons 
J is for Jingle Belle 
These Christmas celebrities are becoming more curious as the month progresses. Jingle Belle is a very modern creation of comic  book writer Paul Dini. Jingle Belle is the teenage daughter of Santa Claus. Jingle Belle has a a strangely elfin look, and is forever a teenager - well, Santa and Mrs Claus don't seem to age, do they?  The Jingle Belle comics were first published in 1999 and the stories mostly relate the antics of a rebel teenager and her contentious relationship with her famous father. 
There are constant complaints of a non existent social scene - just a few elves and Eskimos to hang out with and practically the only excitement she claims  is to sneak a joyride in the old man's sleigh.
In spite of all that teenage angst, there appears to be a "Christmas" side to Jingle Belle. Here is an extract from a story she tells about a time when her father, Santa was having a bad day and thought of quitting Christmas were entertained.  

"Look dad ( Santa Claus) ," I  (Jingle Belle) said, "You’re beating yourself up because you feel you can’t give any meaningful gifts. Things like comfort, reassurance, or the strength to face one more uncertain day. But you forget, those are gifts most people already have, and whether they realize it or not, they exchange them with each other every day. When they help each other, when they listen, or smile, or even just leave each other alone. I don’t think you can give anything more meaningful than that. I don’t think anyone can."
My hand strayed toward the pile of toys on the table. "As far as the big ticket items go, I think they’re pretty well set. Still, if you want to give something extra, I hear a little foolishness ain’t bad. God knows there are a lot of kids down there who’d like to see there’s still one adult who remembers how to laugh. I’m pretty sure most of them would welcome a visit from a not so irrelevant, not quite outdated holiday icon,"  ... . Santa call it quits? Not this year, No way.   (from http://www.jinglebelle.com/)  Jingle Belle?  Not such a difficult  teenager after all! 

Another  contender for the letter J  is Joulipukki a Finnish Santa Claus, literally translated Christmas Goat. and of course  at Christmas, J is always for Jesus.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gourd Art

Last week, I rediscovered a few gourds "drying" in our garage... In fact, I was searching for them after doing a doll making workshop where we transformed gourds into doll bodies, with the addition of polymer clay and apoxie sculpt.  I have researched a little to identify the gourds I have - they seem closest to the water jug shape gourds. The gourds we used in the workshop were Chinese bottle gourds.  my gourd doll - a flower child /hippy fiddler?  Workshop dolls - Christmas sprite by Jane Lambert , and my doll  Flower doll also completed in the workshop by Lee Hennequin  Balloon seller - gourd art doll by tutor, Janice Laurent  Working with gourds made me very curious about the history and cultivation of gourds. A  gourd   is a plant of the family  Cucurbitaceae  or the fruit of the two genera of "calabash tree" .  The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some witho...

Countdown to Christmas 15 - Diamonds Forever!

How much would you pay for a Christmas  fruitcake?  The world's most expensive fruit cake has been estimated at $1.65 million. Yesterday, I wrote about the less than positive term "Christmas cake as it is applied to unmarried women, so again it amazed me that  in Tokyo, this most exquisite and expensive Christmas cake was created. It took six months to design and another full month to construct. The beautiful cake is fully edible ... that is except for the 223  real diamonds  used as decoration. This cake was part of an exhibition called Diamonds: Nature's Miracle  and was one of 16 exhibits showcasing creative ways with diamonds . Apparently, the cake was auctioned, fetching $1.65 million US. While there have been other very expensive diamond encrusted cakes since this one in 2005 with estimated values of up to $75 million, this Japanese designed cake was the forerunner of the extravagant diamond studded wedding cakes in the higher price r...

Countdown to Christmas 20 - Fruitcake song!

There are many songs about fruit cakes  - not all of them referring to the Christmas cake we know and love.It is really surprising to learn via Google that there are 89 listed songs with references to Christmas cake or fruit cake - not all of them complimentary.   Probably one of the most famous folk songs about Christmas cake is Miss Fogarty's  Christmas Cake (a favourite sung by The Irish Rovers).  This first recorded comical Christmas song was written by C Frank Horn in 1883 in Pennsylania, as a variation of an Irish folk song, 'Miss Mulligan's Christmas Cake' . The chorus might give you the hint that Miss Fogarty's cake was not for the faint hearted or those who suffered from a weak stomach.    Chorus : There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue There were caraway seeds in abundance Such that...