The Christmas elf is so familiar now that it could easily be the first character you think of when you hear the word ‘elf’ – outside of J. R. R. Tolkien’s works, that is.
The very recent Christmas custom of the ‘Elf on the Shelf’ has lately brought elves to particular prominence in the modern British Christmas. But how did Santa Claus – whose origin as a folkloric transmogrification of St Nicholas is well known – acquire elves as helpers, and who are they? The origins of the modern Christmas elf turn out to be both complex and surprising, simultaneously ancient and very modern.
In the earliest sources which depict Santa living in Lapland, he is assisted not by elves but by benevolent witches
The link between Santa Claus and elves was established in Clement Clarke Moore’s beloved 1823 poem A Visit from St Nicholas, now better known by its opening line ‘’Twas the Night Before Christmas’. Here, Santa Claus is ‘chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf’.
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