The Facts About Christmas Elves

The Facts About Christmas Elves

Everyone knows about the busy village called Christmas Town, which lays close to the Arctic Circle, and is populated almost entirely by elves. However, almost no one knows much at all about the elves themselves, or how they came to be, which is why depictions of the elves of Christmas Town in popular media are always so different from each other. It can be confusing, and it's all the result of entertainers just making things up. This essay is meant to deliver the true facts.

The first Christmas Elves were not precisely elves at all. They were a group of Lapland reindeer herders that Saint Nicholas the second met and introduced to the custom of the Christmas holiday, while traveling cross country from Sweden to Finland, as a missionary. The colorful costumes worn by the Laplanders influence elf fashion to this very day. In fact, until he met the Laplanders, Nicholas's sleigh was drawn by goats that he had received from an old shaman named Jülepūkti. It was the reindeer herders who gave Nicholas his very first team of reindeer. They also knew about little magical people called Tonttu, and introduced Nicholas to them. The Tonttu were what you might call real elves. They began to assist Nicholas in his new endeavor of providing Christmas cheer to all who celebrated the holiday, especially children.

After the founding of Christmas Town, a few Laplanders and Tonttu moved in permanently, and they were soon joined by a group of Nisse, from Norway, and Gnomes from Sweden. After a while, little people from all over the world began to flock to Christmas Town. From Britain there came brownies, pixies, and fae folk of all sorts. From Germany, came the High Aelfs. When the Christmas holiday finally made it as far as the Americas, the Inuarutligac, Makiawisugs, Pukwudgies, and Moon Folk joined the throng.

I must tell you that some of these different types of elves would not get along well together, but that Nicholas put a powerful blessing on Christmas Town and the surrounding country, so that all who live there should love and accept each other. An unintended, though quite pleasant, side effect of this blessing is that all of the elves began to intermarry, and reproduce, with each other. This has been going on for more than fourteen centuries, and the result is that Christmas Elves have become their own distinct group. They are even closer related to humans than are other elves from around the world, thanks to the few humans who have come to live among them over the centuries.

With all of those different cultures coming together in one place, it being such a special place, and the absence of the big setback of the European Dark Age, Christmas Town made huge advances in very specialized technology. They learned to harness the energy of the Aurora Borealis, which they called Stardust, but non-elf scientists call nuetrinos, to power wondrous devices great and small. This was accomplished thanks to the extraordinary properties of metallic meteorites, and the unique smelting process which used the wood of what they call an enchanted forest, which is a vast forest of ancient oaks and evergreens, frozen beneath the arctic ice. The magical technology eventually allowed the elves to create special moving dolls that could be controlled anywhere in the world from Christmas Town. The system works through a form of bilocation trans-presence that allows the elves to be virtually in two places at once. They use these dolls to keep an eye on children who might be tempted to be naughty during the Christmas season. Sometimes the elves controlling the dolls can be a little bit silly, pulling mischievous pranks.

As you might imagine, all of this industry, along with the growing population of Christmas Elves, eventually outgrew the confines of Christmas Town. For that reason, many tunnels and caverns have been burrowed deep into the earth below, taking great care to remain beneath the shield of Nicholas's blessing. Even so, there is one tunnel that leads away from Christmas Town, out to the barren, frozen, wilderness where the geographical North Pole is located. There, marked by a literal pole made from the tall trunk of an enchanted evergreen, which is stripped of bark and painted with red and white diagonal stripes, is the location of North Pole Station Elf Observatory. Technically speaking, and as far as non-elf science is aware, the geographical North Pole is underwater. But what is not well known is that all of the rock, dirt, and assorted debris from the Christmas Town tunnels was used to build a small island, protected by a dome of Stardust to make it invisible. The station is constantly manned by two elves per season, who go back to Christmas Town when their service time is complete. Every elf is eligible for this duty, which is considered a great honor. The three month time of service is strictly adhered to, because Christmas Elves who spend longer than that away from Christmas Town begin to change, not having the constant joy of Nicholas's blessing.

While believers in The Church have long celebrated the nativity of the Prince of Peace, elves from around the world had many other traditions before learning about Christmas, and Christmas Town is a melting pot of all of those traditions. They love to decorate living trees with gold and silver, brightly painted ornaments, candy, fruit, and ribbons of all kinds. Bonfires are important social gatherings. Eggnog, gingerbread, candied fruit, potato dumplings, fruitcake, chocolate, and sausages, are important dietary staples. Many elves made toys, from the very beginning, but sometime in the mid nineteenth century the practice became a cultural touchstone for the Christmas Elves. Now it is a subject taught to every young elf in their schools.

One tradition that began right in Christmas Town was the celebration of the Krist Kindle, which was the elves' interpretation of the Prince of Peace. Every year one of the elves would be selected as a sort of ambassador to accompany Father Christmas. This elf would be dressed in a beautiful robe of white and gold, with a tiara or halo on his or her head, and greet all the children with a Christmas blessing. This became a very popular practice in certain Northern European countries.

While the title of Father Christmas rightfully belonged to Saint Nicholas the first, Nicholas the second, who had been given the title Sinter Klaas, was more than happy to accept the role of Father Christmas, in honor of the spirit of Saint Nicholas the first. This has been a tradition for all who bear the title of Sinter Klaas, or Santa Claus in American English, ever since. For many years after Nicholas the second joined Saint Nicholas the first in the afterlife, both titles were held by a specially trained Christmas Elf. Eventually, special humans of proven good character were allowed to bear the titles, and the Christmas Elves devoted themselves to the service and protection of their Santa Claus. They believe that every Santa Claus, among whose number they even include Saint Nicholas the first, whom they never knew, to be alive forever, in the spirit realm of their ancient traditions.