4202868 BH Christmas Images

FWU – Schule und Unterricht
VHS 42 02868 29 min, Farbe
Holidays in GB and the USA
Christmas Images
FWU –
das Medieninstitut
der Länder
®
Lernziele
Erarbeiten der weihnachtlichen Ikonographie im
anglo-amerikanischen Raum;
Beschreiben deutscher Einflüsse auf Weihnachten
in England und den USA;
Beschreiben und Erklären anglo-amerikanischer
Einflüsse auf Weihnachten in Deutschland;
Erarbeiten des Christmas Spirit in einer kommerzialisierten Weihnachtswelt;
Recherchieren zum Thema Sozialleistungen TANF
in den USA;
Recherchieren von Hilfsprojekten für bedürftige
Menschen zu Weihnachten im eigenen Umfeld in
Anlehnung an das im Film gezeigte Beispiel in
Chicago und evtl. Initiierung eines eigenen Projektes;
Erarbeitung und sprachlich-musikalische Darstellung des Santa Rap.
Weihnachtsbaum von Deutschland nach England kam, besuchen Ebenezer Scrooge im
Charles Dickens Museum und überqueren
Trafalgar Square, wo der größte Weinachtsbaum, eine jährliche Erinnerung Norwegens
an den 2. Weltkrieg, steht und besuchen
zum Schluss das größte Spielzeugkaufhaus,
Hamleys in der Regent Street, wo uns endlich Father Christmas den Unterschied zwischen „Happy Christmas“ und „Merry Christmas“ erklärt und eine Strassenkapelle
draußen „Oh Tannenbaum“ spielt.
Film 2: Santa Claus in Chicago (11:05 min)
Wir sind in Chicago. In den Strassen spielen
coole brassbands und die Stadt ist reich dekoriert mit den bekannten Weihnachtsfiguren. Kinder besuchen mit ihren Eltern Santa
Claus in speziellen Santa Häuschen, um ihm
ihre Wünsche mitzuteilen. Der Wechsel von
-30°C in der lärmenden windy city Chicago
in das +30°C heiße Florida gelingt mühelos.
Hier sitzt man gemütlich am Strand, während die Kinder Weihnachtsbriefe schreiben
und sie, adressiert an Santa Claus, Northpole, in den eigenen Landbriefkasten werfen. Auf dem Rückweg nach Chicago besuchen wir den berühmtesten Santa Brady
White, der gerade auf Tournee ist. Schon
Madonna saß auf seinem Schoß und nun
spricht er mit den Kindern über Weihnachtswünsche und Träume.
Aber nicht allen Kindern werden die Weihnachtswünsche erfüllt. Es gibt viele arme
Kinder, Alte und bedürftige Familien in den
USA. Ihre Briefe an Santa Claus, Northpole
werden in der Hauptpost von Chicago im
Rahmen einer alljährlichen Sonderhilfsaktion der amerikanischen Bundespost gesammelt. Bürger der Stadt wählen einen oder
mehrere dieser anrührenden Briefe aus und
schicken die Geschenke anonym an bedürftige Menschen mit dem Absender From Santa
Vorkenntnisse
Wissen über Bräuche allgemein und über Weihnachten im Besonderen;
Weltwissen
Zum Inhalt
Drei Filmbeiträge zeigen eine fortschreitend
sekulare Weihnachtswelt in England und den
USA. Die Filme sind unabhängig voneinander
einsetzbar und durch Recherche und Quellenstudium zu ergänzen.
Film 1: A Christmas Journey in England
(14:15 min)
Wir reisen über Tetbury nach London, beobachten ziemlich witzige Familien beim
Weihnachtsbaumkauf, treffen einen gut gelaunten Father Christmas, erfahren von ihm
etwas über holly und missletoe, besuchen
die Damen im Arboretum und erleben Prince
Charles beim Anknipsen der Weihnachtbeleuchtung in Tetbury. In London erreichen
wir mit dem Doppeldeckerbus den Buckingham Palace, lassen uns erzählen, wie der
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Claus, Northpole. Viele der abertausend
Briefe an Santa Claus jedoch, die in der Vorweihnachtszeit hier eingehen, bleiben ohne
Antwort liegen. In einem Epilog spricht die
Leiterin der Sonderaktion über die Hintergründe und die große Armut in den USA und
eine anonyme „Santa Claus“ erzählt, warum
sie hier ist.
Henry Livingston‘s famous poem, ”Account
of a Visit from St. Nicholas” (see below), is
in this regard a time-capsule well worth unpacking. It would be erroneous, however, to
suggest that the late arrival of Christmas in
America is responsible for its modern commercial gloss – for the role of St. Nicholas
in commerce and as a bringer of gifts was
fixed long before the famous words ”ho, ho,
ho” ever resounded in Coca-Cola® road
shows. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of
merchants; chapels dedicated to him were
built on medieval market squares and the
saint‘s legacy permeates the history of the
Hanseatic League. When Santa Claus and his
English twin, Father Christmas, today hold
court in department stores and shopping
malls, they continue an ancient tradition.
Film 3: Santa Rap (2:30)
Brady White und Schülerinnen der Samuel
Morse Middle School proben einen Santa
Rap, der für diesen Film erfunden wurde.
Background Information
Christmas is both a Christian and a modern
secular holiday. In the (western) Christian
tradition it is celebrated on the 25th of December marking the birth of Jesus Christ,
whom Christians believe to be the son of
God. The calendrical assignment, however,
does not derive easily from the New Testament (Matthew 1, 18-25; Luke 2, 1-10).
Today‘s Christmas in The United States and
in England is fundamentally a 19th century
creation in which German cultural influences
have also had a considerable shaping hand.
The route of the Christmas tree to England
during the reign of King George III and, assisted by the press, its spread throughout
England during the reign of Queen Victoria
(www.royal.gov.uk) is one case in point. That
such influences operate at levels deeper
than those of a mere exchange of symbols
was recognized in Charles Dickens‘ 1850
Household Words essay, ”A Christmas Tree“
(http//library.educationworld.net) which,
inspired by ”a merry company of children
assembled round that pretty German toy, a
Christmas Tree,“ passes through vivid descriptions of toys and recollections of childhood Christmas memories in England to the
banks of the Rhine and a concluding wish
that ”(e)ncircled by the social thoughts of
Christmas-time, still let the benignant figure
of my childhood stand unchanged!“
Yet Christmas was not a holiday celebrated
by all Christians. Particularly because of its
Catholic and Anglican trappings, Christmas
had no place in the Puritan scheme of things
in 17th century New England. Christmas arrives ‘late‘ in America because the adherents
of the Reformation movements who first
ventured to the New World had left it behind
in the Old World. This in part accounts for
the relatively neutral footing which Christmas achieved in America in the 18th century –
in Dutch New York, for example, where the
Catholic Saint Nicholas, or Sinterklaas, was
already being transformed into an increasingly secular ”Santa Claus” who was down
and back up the chimney before the children
woke up, no longer on the morning of December 6th, but rather on the morning of December 25th.
3
The role of the exporting German toy industry is another case in point, as the closing
scene at Hamleys on Regent Street in our
Film 1: Christmas Journey in England wishes to suggest. Moreover, it was German
immigrant Thomas Nast, 1840-1902
(www.thomasnast.com and
www.machall.org), America‘s acclaimed
political cartoonist, who was the first to
visualize and extend Henry Livingston‘s
Christmas world, bringing to it whatever
Nikolaus or Weihnachtsmann imagery a
small child could carry from Landau, Pfalz
to America in his cultural baggage; and it
should not be forgotten that no language
other than German, in Theodor Storm‘s neologism ”weihnachten“ as verb, has so empowered Christmas as linguistic magic wand:
”es weihnachtet sehr!“ Perhaps it is because
Christmas cannot ‘happen‘ in English so easily, that Americans and English are so determined each year to ‘make it happen‘ – if
needs be armed with aerosol snow ”to make
you think it‘s winter wonderland.“ But no holiday is completely autarchic. While Germany
sent England the Christmas tree, England, so
to speak, wrote back on the world‘s first
Christmas cards – Victorian inventions.
many to be the work of Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863), the well-off, creepily moralizing, light-fingered son of the Episcopal bishop of New York, although it has been demonstrated recently that neither Moore‘s
spirit nor opus can assist the claim of authorship. Wherever the name Moore appears
in conjunction with this poem, wherever
reindeer are misnamed ”Donner and Blitzen“
rather than New-York Dutch ”Dunder and Blixem“, the spirit of Christmas is not at work.
But this is not the first time that churchmen
have missed the spirit of Christmas.
Livingston‘s famous poem was published
anonymously in 1823 in New York‘s Troy
Sentinel. The story of its reappropriation is
the subject of Don Foster‘s Author Unknown:
On the Trail of Anonymous. (New York: Henry
Holt and Company, 2000. ISBN: 0-8050-63579.) Author Unknown is a fascinating and
wittily written tale of the literary and familyhistorical detective work carried out by Foster and Livingston‘s 5th greatgranddaughter,
Mary van Deusen.
The poem itself can be read in its various
historical forms under www.henrylivingston.com and is the subject of the FWU production 42 02875 Christmas Arbeitsvideo/
4 Kurzfilme, Kurzfilm 1: Amerikanische Weihnachten, where it appears in German translation based on the 1823 Urtext
(www.fwu.de/fwu-db/prest-image/
material/42/028/4202875/index.html or
www.fwu.de/service/unterricht/index.html).
Christmas Images
Two literary works are central to Christmas
in The United States and Christmas in England – both as documentations and as sources of still vital imagery. In chronological order these are the ”Account of a Visit from St.
Nicholas“ by Henry Livingston Jr. (1748-1828)
and ”A Christmas Carol“ by Charles Dickens
(1812-1870).
The poem is markedly secular despite its
central figure, a Dutch pipe-smoking St.
Nicholas who, in early 19th century New York,
could just as well have been called Santa
Claus. The bouncingly light-hearted poem is
written in anapaests from the perspective of
a father for his children. He knew the workings of their night-before-Christmas minds
”Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas“ is
the key to Christmas in America. The poem,
which begins with the famous line ”Twas the
night before Christmas“, is still thought by
4
where ”visions of sugar plums danced ...“
and in this regard Livingston‘s simple poem
is far headier than one may at first glance
think. But it is indeed also a lively piece, so
lively that it apparently bounced out the
door with a life of its own only to land in the
collected works of C.C.Moore (1844) safely
after Livingston‘s death, where it is still the
only bounce of life to be found.
tance. Christmas in America is built upon
quotations, extensions and parodies of this
poem.
Thomas Nast was the first to illustrate it and
to extend its contents (although he assumed
he was doing so to a poem written by
C.C.Moore) by anticipating one of the questions of children unanswered in the poem:
”Where does Santa Claus come from?“ It was
Nast who gave Santa Claus his North Pole
home and workshop – faithfully extending
the workings of the imagination that had
shaped the poem.
In the ”Account“, St. Nicholas arrives on
Christmas Eve in a toy-filled sleigh pulled by
eight reindeer whose famous names, according to Livingston family lore, were the
names of the horses in Livingston‘s stable
(Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet,
Cupid, Dunder and Blixem). He lands on the
roof, comes down the chimney, fills Christmas stockings hanging at the fireplace with
toys, goes back up the chimney and continues onward on his global mission to the children of the world: ”He sprung to his sleigh, to
his team gave a whistle, And away they all
flew, like the down of a thistle: But I heard
him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight – Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.“
Reindeer number nine, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, was hitched to the lead of the
sleigh in the 1950s. Originally a cartoon figure in a Montgomery Ward Christmas giveaway booklet created by copy writer Robert
L. May, Rudolph rose to stardom in a song
written by May‘s brother-in-law, composer/
lyricist Johnny Marks (1909-1985) and sung
into eternity by America‘s singing cowboy,
Gene Autry (www.autry.com) whose renditions of Christmas hits shaped Christmas for
all postwar generations.
Livingston, in the words of his devoted 5th
greatgranddaughter, ”was a child-adult. He
saw life as something that was so warm and
so giving and so exciting. He loved to tell
stories to children. He loved to make up fairytales – to tell them about flying, about elves...“. Livingston‘s Christmas world is one
free of the birchen rod, one free of oppressive doctrine; and the capacity of St. Nicholas
(in his more secular guise ”Santa Claus“) to
come through chimneys is not at all unviable since in Livingston‘s poetic world he is a
”jolly old elf“, he, his sleigh and reindeer are
”miniature“. Indeed, in a simile, they are
compared to leaves flying in a hurricane.
In this tradition, we have extended and updated Livingston‘s poem in ourFilm 3: Santa
Rap – a challenging rhythmical exercise for
students of English as a foreign language,
though guided expertly by Samuel Morse
Middle School students and in tongue-incheek rehearsal by co-author Brady White,
”Santa to the Stars“
(www.santatothestars.com and
www.tvsanta.com).
”A Christmas Carol“ (1843) relocates the
seasonal passage from darkness into light
which underlies Christmas to the soul of the
story‘s central character, Ebenezer Scrooge,
whose anti-Christmas words ”Bah! Humbug!“
are equally as famous as their opposites:
”Merry Christmas!“ and ”Happy Christmas!“
Santa Claus grows in stature and girth as
the Christmas holiday itself grows in impor5
(two versions of the same thing which have
their own transatlantic histories). In Carl
Kolb‘s and Julius Seybt‘s translation of
Dickens‘ famous story of a change of heart,
Scrooge says: ”Pah! Possen!“ (Charles
Dickens. Weihnachtserzählungen. Düsseldorf: Artemis & Winkler, 2000. ISBN: 3-53806895-X. Charles Dickens. The Christmas
Books, Vol. 1 (A Christmas Carol/The Chimes).
London: Penguin Books, 1985. ISBN: 0-14043068-7.)
intertwined with the ‘philosophical‘ question
of the existence of Santa Claus since at least
1897 when 8-year-old Virginia O‘Hanlon asked her famous question of the editors of
the New York Sun: ”Please tell me the truth,
is there a Santa Claus?“ – a question which
is also the subject of the famous 1947 film
”Miracle on 34th Street“ and its remake. The
answer to the question is not the sentimental yes of the Sun‘s reply (”Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus ...“), but rather the yes of
action by people who have come to realize
Virginia‘s motivations in asking the question
in the first place. ”Quite naturally I believed
in Santa Claus“, O‘Hanlon observed in the
1930s, ”for he had never disappointed me.
But when less fortunate little boys and girls
said there wasn‘t any Santa Claus, I was filled with doubts.“ (http://beebo.org/
smackerels/yes-virginia.html)
According to actor Jonathan Gillard Daly,
who has lived in Scrooge‘s skin on stage for
many Christmas seasons and who appears
in character in a brief vignette in our film:
”‘Humbug!‘ is a slang word, and it was invented, I think, about 100 years before Dickens
wrote ‘A Christmas Carol‘ – nobody quite
knows where it comes from – but it means
‘a lie‘, it means ‘a hoax‘, ‘a trick‘ – and so, to
Scrooge, Christmas is a trick and a lie because his idea of Christmas comes from
when he was a little boy and his father brought him to a boarding school and left him
there over the holidays and wouldn‘t let him
come home. He made him study there all by
himself – in this dark, dreary, lonely, cold
place. So for him that became Christmas and
anybody saying Christmas was happy was
tricking him – was hoaxing him. That‘s the
humbug that Christmas is.“
The gap between Christmas image and
Christmas essence is bridged each season at
such places as the Chicago Post Office on
Harrison Street where people from all walks
of life have come to realize that ”Santa
Claus“, when written on a gift tag or on a
package as sender, is the signature of
anonymity – the means to bracket off the
giver from the act of giving. Such letters-toSanta Claus programs as that of the United
States Postal Service featured in our Film 2:
Santa Claus in Chicago date back to about
Virginia O‘Hanlon‘s time and, rather than
visions of sugar plums, provide that sea of
sorting room Christmas images with which
these background notes conclude.
In the end, Scrooge is convinced by the
ghost of Christmas yet to come, who leads
him to a vision of his own grave at which
site Scrooge takes account of his life, that
Christmas is real and not a hoax, that it is
truth and not lie, that it indeed does hold
something essential – that it is something
far more than mere image.
Pedagogical Suggestions
1.) Investigate Germany‘s (as well as Austria‘s) influences upon Christmas in England and The United States.
2.) Analyze any Christmas song of the postwar era recorded by America‘s singing
It is this discourse that is still at the heart of
Christmas. In The United States it has been
6
Herausgabe
FWU Institut für Film und Bild, 2003
cowboy Gene Autry (www.autry.com).
3.) Trace the ‘green thread‘ of Christmas in
Dickens‘ ”A Christmas Tree“ (1850) and
”A Christmas Carol“ (1843). In what contexts do holly, mistletoe and ivy appear?
Learn the traditional carol ”Deck the
Halls with Boughs of Holly“
(http://www.smart-central.com/
HolidayPages/deck.htm) ... then do so.
Hang mistletoe in your classroom.
4.) Learn the Santa Rap. Compare it with
Livingston‘s ”Account of a Visit from
St. Nicholas“.(www.fwu.de/fwu-db/
presto-image/material/42/028/4202868/
index.html)
5.) Attend a performance of ”A Christmas
Carol“.
6.) Download Livingston‘s ”Account of a Visit
from St. Nicholas“ from
www.henrylivingston.com and analyze
it in conjunction with the FWU film
42 02875 Christmas Arbeitsvideo/
4 Kurzfilme, Kurzfilm 1: Amerikanische
Weihnachten.
7.) Find and discuss programs or grassroots
efforts similar to the Letters-to Santa
Claus program of the United States Post
Office in Chicago.
Produktion
Gregory Hahn Filmproduktion im Auftrag des
FWU Institut für Film und Bild
Buch, Regie und Kamera
Gregory Hahn
Mit Dank an:
Familie Adkins, Familie Bailey, Randy Bynum,
Jonathan Gillard Daly, Mary van Deusen,
The Dickens House Museum, David Hahn, Hamleys,
Matthew Haynes, Bonnie Johnson,
Alida LaCosse, Henry Livingston Jr., Mystic Village,
John Nixon, Samuel Morse Middle School,
Florian Schweizer, Gina Shaw, The Snooty Fox, United
States Postal Service/Chicago,
The Westonbirt Arboretum, Brady White,
Stefany Whiting, Judy Winiarz
H.R.H. Prince Charles footage
courtesy of the BBC/Bristol
”Santa Rap“ © 2003 Gregory Hahn & Brady White
Begleitkarte
Gregory Hahn, Ph.D.
Bildnachweis
Courtesy of Mary van Deusen
Pädagogische Referentin im FWU
Karin Beier
(For further background information about
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) in the USA use google „TANF+Chicago” or +any other city. See also: Barbara
Hahn, Armut in New York. Geographische
Rundschau 55 (2003) Heft 10.)
Verleih durch Landes-, Kreis- und Stadtbildstellen,
Medienzentren und konfessionelle Medienzentren
Verkauf durch FWU Institut für Film und Bild,
Grünwald
On FWU homepage you find Livingston‘s
poem in English and German, Santa Rap and
film transcriptions (http://www.fwu.de/
fwu-db/presto-image/material/42/028/
4202868/index.html or http://www.fwu.de/
service/unterricht/index.html).
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© 2003
FWU Institut für Film und Bild
in Wissenschaft und Unterricht
gemeinnützige GmbH
Geiselgasteig
Bavariafilmplatz 3
D-82031 Grünwald
Telefon (0 89) 64 97-1
Telefax (0 89) 64 97-240
E-Mail [email protected]
Internet http://www.fwu.de
00
2‘3/11.03 ARS
Nur Bildstellen/Medienzentren: öV zulässig
FWU – Schule und Unterricht
®
VHS 42 02868
29 min, Farbe
FWU Institut für Film und Bild
in Wissenschaft und Unterricht
gemeinnützige GmbH
Geiselgasteig
Bavariafilmplatz 3
D-82031 Grünwald
Telefon (0 89) 64 97-1
Telefax (0 89) 64 97-240
E-Mail [email protected]
Internet http://www.fwu.de
Holidays in GB and the USA
Christmas Images
zentrale Sammelnummern für
unseren Vertrieb:
Telefon (0 89) 64 97-4 44
Telefax (0 89) 64 97-240
E-Mail [email protected]
MATTHIAS-FILM
Gemeinnützige GmbH
Gänsheidestraße 67
D-70184 Stuttgart
Telefon (0711) 24 34 56
Telefax (0711) 2 36 12 54
E-Mail [email protected]
Internet http://www.matthias-film.de
Weihnachten in Großbritannien und den USA ist zwar ein
christliches Fest; dessen Ikonographie mit Santa Claus,
dem Rentierschlitten, dem Weihnachtsbaum, ein deutscher Kulturexport, und Ebenezer Srcooge ist dort aber
wesentlich eine Erfindung des 19. Jahrhunderts. Heute
bestimmen besonders US-amerikanischen Bilder auch
unsere Wahrnehmung des Festes. Drei Filme, gedreht an
Originalschauplätzen in England und den USA, spüren
dem kulturellen Crossover von Weihnachtsbildern nach,
vermitteln den besonderen und ganz unterschiedlichen
‚Geschmack‘ des britischen und amerikanischen weihnachtlichen Geschehens und zeigen, dass neben der
Kommerzialisierung des Feiertages auch der sekulare
Christmas Spirit als tätige Nächstenliebe durchaus
lebendig ist. Die Kurzfilme sind 1 A Christmas Journey
in England 2 Santa Claus in Chicago 3 Santa Rap.
Schlagwörter
Feiertage, Weihnachten, Christmas, Nikolaus, Santa Claus,
Father Christmas, Weihnachtsmann, Weihnachtsbaum, Queen
Victoria, Prince Charles, Tetbury, London, Chicago, Florida,
England, USA
Geschichte
Geschichtliche Überblicke • Formen der Weltauffassung,
Religion, Kultur
Bilingualer Unterricht
Alle Urheber- und
Leistungsschutzrechte vorbehalten.
Keine unerlaubte Vervielfältigung, Vermietung, Aufführung, Sendung!
Fremdsprachen
Englisch • Landeskunde; Literatur; Bilingualer Unterricht
Allgemeinbildende Schule (6-10)
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