The Elves are Where?

Last Friday I blogged about the main attraction for many kids this time of year – Father Christmas, Papa Elf, the Jolly Ol’ Elf, the Fat Guy in Red. You know who I mean. Today, how about reading about the rest of the elves, the little helper bees who make all that Santa is known for actually happen.

Elves, and all their compadres such as fairies, gnomes, trolls, pixies and the like, have been part of European folklore for centuries. In the mid-1800s, according to Scandinavian legend, elves began to reveal their true purpose when they became helpers to Santa. Turns out that elves have a natural proclivity towards two things – making toys and taking care of reindeer. They are still not perfect workers, however, as most elves have a tendency towards mischief.

I didn’t have much luck discovering on-line where the picture of the classic Christmas Elf comes from – the pointy ears, pointy hat, pointy-toed shoes, green and red costume, tights which are sometimes striped, perpetual smile. I didn’t have much luck discovering much else about the history of the Elf, more elusive than Papa Elf.  

The movie “Elf” doesn’t clear up a lot of those questions, as after all, it is just a movie. And we all trust what we read on the internet more than what we see in a movie, right? Right. But anyway, it’s still a great Christmas classic and Buddy the Elf is the epitome of spreading joy and happiness during the Christmas season.

Luckily the Elf on the Shelf concept came out after my kids were well past the stage of believing in the make-believe. Yesterday, I asked a co-worker who has a young child what this Elf on the Shelf thing is all about. She told me that their family’s elf (I forgot his name already) is rather a mischief-maker, messing up its child’s room and arriving back from the North Pole each morning in some rather interesting places, ie, hanging from the ceiling fan. The whole idea of this elf on the shelf sounds overwhelming to me. When I was a mom with little kids at home, I had enough work to do just getting them ready in the morning without having to worry about where my elf was going to show up.

(Go to the Wikipedia article about Elf on the Shelf and read to the end where the experts give their criticisms on this trend. Are they nuts, or what?)

Needless to say, I don’t have a elf on the shelf, or anywhere else for that matter. I have enough other Christmas decorations. Don’t anybody get any ideas about inundating me with elves.

Nope, instead I got penguins on a shelf . . .

And snowmen on a shelf . . .  

Dolls in a house . . .

And Peanuts on the floor. And not a rhyme in sight. 

And I'm okay with that.