Jingle Belle Kringle — a unique take on Santa’s teenage daughter — is, shall we say, a niche Christmas character. She is the brainchild of veteran comic-book author Paul Dini, who also helped give rise to Harley Quinn. (Once you know that and have perused enough of each character’s stories, it explains a lot.)
But through nearly two decades of existence, she has seen nothing close to mainstream action. Kind of like how hockey cannot sustain the same consistent public buzz as baseball, basketball or football.
As with other optional figures in the Kringle bloodline, there have been sparse depictions of Santa’s daughter(s), all of different names and personalities. There were the 2000 and 2001 TV films, Once Upon a Christmas and Twice Upon a Christmas. And a theatrical film starring Anna Kendrick is in the works with a targeted 2019 release.
All the while, Jingle Belle has all but strictly been confined to comic books. She debuted in 1999, and has since evolved into something of a cult figure among teen readers. Dini himself has acknowledged the character’s potential as a favorite for growing girls.
The illusion of a narrow scope of appeal may complicate the incentive to enliven Jingle on a screen. Then again, nothing has stopped the annual hordes of Hallmark holiday movies.
Surely another network would listen to the right pitch if Dini ever drafts a Jingle Belle special script. And in a 2011 interview with Newsarama, Dini made his interest in such a project clear.
But an equally clear condition would entail keeping creative control. In that vein, he told the site, “I may have to get into it and make the sucker myself.”
If he does, to employ a cheesy-but-too-good-to-resist pun, his vault has one icebreaking storyline to derive from.
On July 1 (Canada Day), 2001, Jingle suited up for her local hockey team, the Mighty Elves. In the installment of the team’s title, her troublemaking streak fills her North Pole summer. She is placed on the Elves as a way of keeping busy; too busy to wreak havoc at another military base, as she does early in the story.
Besides the title team, the backstory implies influence from The Mighty Ducks. But the slightly more mature demographic Dini targets can find shades of Slap Shot in the plot.
Jingle’s participation in the game begins as a mandated diversion from her criminal propensities. Her team is a bona fide sad sack in the standings. When she joins, her initial lack of interest is as clear as a freshly Zambonied sheet of ice.
How aggressive is her apathy? Let’s just say it makes one wonder if she was adopted and never met her biological father, Ogie Oglethorpe.
But as is practically obligatory in stories with a Christmas tinge, the game grows on Jingle. She rises to the Mighty Elves’ captaincy and channels her aggression against rival player Tashi Ounce.
In “The Mighty Elves,” Santa enlists Jingle Belle in hopes of diverting her from destructive time-killers and turning his team around. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
In a subsequent chat with Comics Alliance, Dini singled out the issue as “a turning point for Jingle.” He elaborated that it “established her as an athlete with a love for winter sports.”
Someone was not afraid to acknowledge the obvious. That is, one sport and one holiday tend to lap the rest of those synonymous with winter.
Critics’ heads turned when Jingle Belle laced up her skates as well. “The Mighty Elves” was one of six nominees in the humor category at the 2002 Eisner Awards.
Since then, little has happened for the character outside of her core audience. One year ago, Dini entertained the tantalizing possibility of Jingle crossing paths with Harley Quinn.
Speaking with Russ Burlingame of ComicBook.com, he offered, “I think that would be a lot of fun. …‘Harley Quinn and Jingle Belle Wreck Christmas.’ Something like that.”
That would surely elevate the former’s profile, especially on the heels of Suicide Squad. But the prospect is uncertain at this point. While Harley has landed on a live-action big screen, Dini has turned his coat from DC to Marvel. And he himself acknowledged that DC’s interest is a prerequisite to the Belle-Quinn crossover.
Regardless, Jingle Belle has options outside of what would be a perceived coattail ride. One easy option is to address the modicum of media bearing a more natural crossover, namely Christmas with hockey.
One year before Dini introduced his series, the Warner Bros. movie Jack Frost came close on this front. The 1998 family flick qualifies as a Christmas film with relative facility, and includes numerous hockey scenes. But the title character’s son’s tournaments are far from central to the plot.
Conversely, if Dini had the will and the time, he could checkmark everything by building on his most successful edition of Jingle Belle. He has already established the feud between Jingle and Tashi. Their sparring essentially makes the Mighty Elves and the Snow Leopards (Tashi’s team) the Arctic’s Charlestown Chiefs and Syracuse Bulldogs.
Whether he were to recycle that material, sprinkle in new elements or start on a clean sheet, Dini would do multiple audiences a favor with a Jingle Belle special. In his 2011 Newsarama interview, he said himself, “once teenagers read it, I think it appeals to them because they’ve kind of moved beyond the ‘little kids’ Christmas stuff.”
He added, “I think that relatively very few teenagers are aware of it. The more years I do it, the more gradually people will become aware of it.”
What better way to keep doing it than through a seasonal TV program that will cross-check Rankin/Bass off the pubescent psyche?
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