It's Christmas Eve and I'm thinking about Hermey the Elf. Remember him? He was one of Santa's Helpers who didn't want to make toys; he didn't have a knack for it like all the other elves. Instead, he had dreams of becoming a dentist. Creepy. When I think about it, the whole concept of Santa's Helpers is a bit 'off.' As a child, it seemed natural to me to think there were little people on some far side of the world who liked making me toys. My parents remember me asking if elves ever get tired of working for Santa. As I understood, this is what they were created to do. Elves wouldn't be happy otherwise. Santa's Helpers lived for this stuff. All was perfectly acceptable in my 5 year old mind. In fact, it gave me more incentive to be a good little girl, and not a naughty one, so I could help the elves fulfill their purpose in making me more toys.
I'm a bit older now, and I wonder if I could feed this fairytale to other children. I would want my kids to experience the wonder and imagination that can come with Christmas, but not at the cost of skewing reality to this extent.
Let's examine the elf figure. Elves are "other." Elves look different from us regular folk. They have smaller bodies, bigger ears and perma-smiles. They live far away from us. They work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and they like it. They work at Santa's Headquarters which often resembles a factory assembly line; dream-like working conditions for the little workers. They thrive off the efficiency. We can accept this because they aren't really people, in the sense that we are people. The minor separation between us and them makes it ok, right? We're of a different kind.
So, where do our toys come from? Who makes them? Are these toy makers happy? Are they smiling? Do they live to please a Santa figure? Do they have a choice?
I think if the day comes when I'm responsible for telling my kids a Christmas story, it won't revolve around an ideology that benefits our comfortable lifestyle. Our Christmas story has greed plastered all over it to the point that we can't even admire a tree in its natural habitat. We have to chop it down and prop it up in our living rooms and accessorize the sap out of it. Why not go for a walk and admire the natural beauty of a pine tree?
It's time to re-invent Christmas. I'm bored with it, and these toys suck.
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