Posted on by PeaceBang

Mrs. Claus

Random holiday thoughts, pumpkins, nothing about BTs.

I LOVE those Rankin-Bass claymation Christmas specials, but did you ever notice how nasty Santa is in “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer?” He really is — he doesn’t even get nice at the end. I’ve always loved the Mrs. Santa, though, the nag with the bun who is always begging him, “Eat Papa, EAT!” I’m like, “What, is Santa’s wife Jewish now, or just Old Country? She sounds like my Slovak grandmother with a plate of pierogies.”

mrs claus2

Then there’s Jessica, the red-haired hottie from my all-time favorite, “Santa Claus is Coming To Town.”
Jessica Claus

That special has all the best songs, and it has the Burgermeister Meisterburger and it has Winter Warlock who always makes me cry, and it has Mickey Rooney as a wonderful Santa. I know it’s just ridiculously ahistorical to claim that the tradition of leaving presents under the tree came from Jessica and Kris Kringle’s wedding but oh my gosh, that scene where they’re married under the snow-covered evergreens makes my heart ache. There’s this beautiful song and it’s so amazing and blessedly peaceful that I’ve been secretly wanting a Christmas wedding since I was a little girl.

And look how Jessica (Mrs. Claus) ages. ADORABLE!
mrs claus
She turns into chanteuse Barbara Cook!!
cook2

Anyway, darlings, PeaceBang is a very busy Mrs. Claus this week and might not have time to post anything until we get through the big day. She’s posting this silliness now because she is overwhelmed and confused by a thousand deadlines and just needed to clear her noggin.

You be good.

4 Replies to “Mrs. Claus”

  2. I love that you bring up the portrayal of Santa Clause in “Rudolph” because I remember as a child being disturbed by this portrayal of Santa. As a kid who had an early identification with the experience of being a misfit Santa seemed so obviously limited and completely complicit in the bullying of Rudolph and I could only imagine how many other animals and elves who could be deemed in any way devient. Certainly I thought in different language at the time but I was no less indignant for any limitations in diction. And while I have departed from the foccus on Mrs. clause I would like to voice a concomatant concern that I held in my younger years regaurding the Island of Misfit Toys. Here was this sanctuary for the marginalized and shunned and then when we hear the explanation of what is defective about these toys it centers around stunningly irrelevent issues in most cases. While I am sure the concept was to highlight the arbitrary and often meaningless aspects of a person’s identity that form the foccus for hate and resentment by others in seeing an illustration of this idea it just drove home for me the fact that what defines a person as beyond the boundary of the acceptable or dominant group in most cases is not irrelevent or suberficil and it is not meaningless either. Taunted for my apearance or what I found fun and interesting etc. I could not resonate with dimwhitted playthings swollowing the role they where dealt never asking why Charlie was such a bad name rather than Jack or why jelly squirting guns wouldn’t be a hit on the toy shelves. Plus fill the gun with water or rename the clown and all was fine. I was a misfit who often would have willingly changed to fit in better and yet my survival was based on the work it took to embrace and defend qualities of distinctiveness and peculiarity. Doing that isn’t worth it if all that sets you apartis trite and of no consequences.

    One more point and it is a tangent to this but more on opic for the artical and it returns to Mrs. Clause. I just wanted to suggest a great portrayal of her that people might enjoy is in “Songs for a New World” where one number is Mrs clause who was seduced or charmed by Sanat as a young girl and after years of isolated existance as wife to Santa she has had enough and is leaving with plans to sue for the factory. She threatens to imply ethical violations if she needs to. It is just marvelous.

  3. I’ve never seen any Christmas claymation shows. I’ll have to use Netflix … for next year. No time this year.

Comments are closed.