Tinsel was bored. He had been with Santa from the very beginning, helping him decide on what gifts to make to brighten children’s Christmases. It had been easy in the beginning. Expectations had been simple. Children were overjoyed at receiving the wooden toys and rocking horses the elves had created year-round to fill Santa’s sack.
It had become more complicated when humans began mass-producing plastic and created different kinds of toys. But Tinsel had kept up with the times, coming up with new designs and new ways to create gifts that would amuse each succeeding generation of children. He had even managed when manufacturers had created videos and the early video games.
But now, with the advent of streaming and virtual reality, Tinsel had been left behind. He could no longer keep up with the demands of the new generation. Instead of having the elves make those kinds of gifts, Santa had outsourced their manufacture.
Of course, the elves still made the older items, but the demand was not so great as it once had been. It was only October, and there was nothing left for the elves to make. And Tinsel didn’t know what to do with himself.
Until an idea struck him! What if he and the other elves occupied themselves with making the entire month of December magical for children? What if they each moved in with a family and created surprises for the children to find every morning?
Jumping out of his chair with a gleeful spring, he raced off to tell the other elves and to start planning how they would extend the magic of Christmas for children the world over.
This story was inspired by the Elf on the Shelf phenomenon, which started with the book. I wrote a story last year that more directly referenced this. Today I decided to go more with an origin story for it. The idea for this didn’t come to me until I started trying to find a story for an image I created with the prompt “bored Christmas elf.”
Elf on the Shelf has become so popular that there are websites dedicated to it. Here’s a link to the Canadian one.
As always, none of the links are affiliate links. They’re provided only to let you check out the references I make.
My grandchildren love the elf, my daughter's imagination has been stretched to it's limit 😁
Nice origin story. 👍