
In
English-speaking cultures, Christmas elves are diminutive
elves
An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda''.
In medieval Germanic-speakin ...
that live with
Santa Claus
Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Chris ...
at the
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...
and act as his helpers. Christmas elves are usually depicted as green- or red-clad, with large,
pointy ears and wearing
pointy hats. They are most often depicted as
humanoids, but sometimes as furry mammals with tails. Santa's elves are often said to make the toys in
Santa's workshop and take care of his
reindeer
The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...
, among other tasks.
They were first introduced in literature by
Louisa May Alcott in 1856. Santa is much older, emerging in U.S.
folklore
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
in the early 17th century from
Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...
with attributes of various European
Christmas traditions
Christmas traditions include a variety of customs, religious practices, rituals, and folklore associated with the celebration of Christmas. These traditions are diverse in their origins and nature, with some having an exclusively Christianity, Ch ...
, especially from English
Father Christmas and Dutch
Sinterklaas
Sinterklaas () or Sint-Nicolaas () is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Other Dutch names for the figure include ''De Sint'' ("The Saint"), ''De Goede Sint'' ("The Good Saint") and ''De Goedheiligman'' (derive ...
. The association of Christmas presents with elves has precedents in the first half of the 19th century with the Scandinavian
nisse or tomte, and Saint Nicholas himself is called an elf in ''
A Visit from St. Nicholas'' (1823).
Origin
The origins of the elf are said to have been derived from
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...
, which refers to the ''álfar'', also known as ''huldufólk'' 'hidden folk'. The elf character is most likely to have combined this Norse legend with other Scandinavian and Celtic cultures and myths regarding elves,
fairies
A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...
and nature spirits. In various regions of Europe there were similar supernatural beings that can be connected to elves, such as
kobold
A kobold (; ''kobolt'', ''kobolde'', cobold) is a general or generic name for the household spirit (''hausgeist'') in German folklore.
It may invisibly make noises (i.e., be a poltergeist), or helpfully perform kitchen chores or stable work. ...
s from Germany and
house spirits named brownies in Scotland. In medieval Europe, elves were seen as nefarious and were often linked to demons.
The Christmas elf appeared in literature as early as 1850 when Louisa May Alcott completed, but never published a book titled ''Christmas Elves''. The image of the elves in the workshop was popularized by ''
Godey's Lady's Book'', with a front cover illustration for its 1873 Christmas issue showing Santa surrounded by toys and elves with the caption "Here we have an idea of the preparations that are made to supply the young folks with toys at Christmas time".
During this time, Godey's was immensely influential to the birth of Christmas traditions, having shown the first widely circulated picture of a modern Christmas tree on the front cover of its 1850 Christmas issue. Additional recognition was given in Austin Thompson's 1876 work "The House of Santa Claus, a Christmas Fairy Show for Sunday Schools".
Saint Nicholas as an elf
In the 1823 poem ''
A Visit from St. Nicholas'' (commonly known as '' 'Twas the Night Before Christmas''), often attributed to
Clement Clarke Moore, Santa Claus himself is described in line 45: "He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf". Prior to the influence of Saint Nicholas in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
, the job of giving out gifts was done by the
Yule goat. By 1891, the saint had merged with
Tomten, which was previously an elfish / dwarfish farm guardian. Following the work of
Jenny Nyström, this hybrid figure became known as
Jultomten.
Contemporary pop culture

In the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Ireland, the modern legend of Santa Claus typically includes diminutive elves at
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
; green-clad elves with pointy ears and pointy hats as Santa's employees / assistants. They make the toys in Santa's workshop located in the North Pole. In recent years, other toys—usually high-tech toys like computers, video games, DVDs, and DVD players, and even mobile phones—have also been depicted as being ready for delivery, but not necessarily made, in the workshop as well. In this portrayal, elves slightly resemble nimble and delicate versions of the
dwarfs of
Norse myth.
In recent films (e.g. ''
The Santa Clause'' series and ''
The Christmas Chronicles''), the elves' jobs also include operating police and air forces protecting
the North Pole, helping Santa outside the Pole when he is captured by the real-world police, and as Santa's
secret-service-like bodyguards (''
Fred Claus'').
The elves are generally said to live for hundreds, or even thousands, of years, despite the fact that in some cases they appear eternally youthful as children.
In films and television
Christmas elves have had their role expanded in modern films and television. They are generally portrayed in live-action films either by
little actors, children,
forced perspective to make normal-sized actors appear diminutive, or
computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a specific-technology or application of computer graphics for creating or improving images in Digital art, art, Publishing, printed media, Training simulation, simulators, videos and video games. These images ...
(CGI); otherwise by
traditional animation
Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawing, drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there wa ...
,
stop-motion animation, or
computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating Film, moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Virtu ...
according to the format of the film. For instance:
* The 1932
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
traditional animated short film ''
Santa's Workshop'', features Santa Claus and the elves preparing for Christmas.
* Santa's elves feature prominently in the
Rankin-Bass 1964 stop-motion TV special ''
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.'' A distinctive, colorful costume design was created, with red, green, blue, or pink outfits topped with cone-shaped hats. Most elves fit the short, plump stereotype, but for diversity, one elf is taller and thinner than the others and wears
horn-rimmed glasses. The special was sponsored by
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston.
Over the year ...
, and the elves were featured in the GE small appliance commercials.
* In the 1985 live action feature ''
One Magic Christmas'', there are no elves; Santa runs his toy factory using "
Christmas angels", who are deceased adults.
* In the 1985 live-action ''
Santa Claus: The Movie'', the elves are a type of craft
guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...
making traditional toys by hand and looking after Santa's
reindeer
The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...
.
* In the 1994 live action feature ''
The Santa Clause'' and its sequels, Santa's elves are portrayed by children or teenagers, despite being hundreds of years old. Bernard, the number one elf, was portrayed by sixteen-year-old
David Krumholtz. By the time
the second sequel was made in 2006, Krumholz was too old to play an elf and was starring as an adult in
his own television series, so the number two elf was promoted to number one.
* The Christmas Elves are featured in the 1998 TV movie ''
Like Father, Like Santa''.
* The 2003 live-action
Will Ferrell comedy ''
Elf
An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic peoples, Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in Norse mythology, North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda'' ...
'' pays homage to the 1964 ''Rudolph'' special by copying the colorful costume design for the elves, who are all portrayed by forced perspective of the normal-sized actors.
* In the 2007 live-action ''
Fred Claus'', most elves, such as head elf Willie (
John Michael Higgins), are created by forced perspective. The single exception is Santa's bookkeeper Charlene (
Elizabeth Banks), who is a human-sized elf.
* Disney used the theme of Christmas elves for their 2009 short film, ''
Prep & Landing'', which tells the tale of an elite group of elves that make houses ready for Santa's deliveries. It was the first holiday
television special made by
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that produces animated feature films and short films for the Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a s ...
.
* The Christmas Elves were featured in the 2011 animated film ''
Arthur Christmas''.
* In the 2012
DreamWorks Animation
DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios, Inc, Universal Stud ...
animated film ''
Rise of the Guardians'', elves are very short beings who wear pointy hat-like clothes and assist Santa at the North Pole, but they don't make the toys, the elves are only led to believe this, as
yetis are actually responsible for making the toys in the film.
* ''
The Christmas Chronicles'' (2018) portrays the elves as diminutive CGI creatures with their own language, spoken also by Santa. They are about two feet tall with a two-head total
body proportion, large eyes, and long, pointed ears. Their bodies are covered with a thin coat of fur and they have S-shaped hairy tails, giving them a somewhat rodent-like appearance. In the 2020 sequel ''
The Christmas Chronicles 2'', they are divided into two camps, with one faction of "naughty elves" led by
Belsnickel, who plots to overthrow Santa.
In literature
Valentine D'Arcy Sheldon's children's picture book, ''The Christmas Tree Elf'', tells the origin story of how Santa met his elves. It also introduces Blink the elf, who introduces Santa to the elves and saves Christmas by extinguishing a Christmas tree fire.
A strong connection to Christmas and elves can be found in the popular fairy tale "
The Elves and the Shoemaker" published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. In this tale a shoemaker, who had not been able to meet the demand to make more shoes, is greeted by several elves just before Christmas to finish all the shoes for him.
Around the world

In European countries, Santa has differing helpers depending on the country. In the Netherlands and Belgium, Saint Nicholas is accompanied by
Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) whose inclusion has become a controversial issue for the
blackface
Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...
depiction of the character.
In
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, the companions are the
Knecht Ruprecht and in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
, they are known as Hoesecker.
In Nordic countries, Christmas Elves are considered
nisser and not elves and they will usually wear only red instead of the green and red outfits that they are known for in English speaking countries.
See also
*''
The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition'', 2005 children's book
References
External links
All about "Santa's elves"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christmas Elf
Literary characters introduced in 1856
Santa's helpers
Elves
Fictional toymakers and toy inventors
North Pole