Commentary: Do we believe in elves? Of course! Otherwise we'd miss out on the magic

We each bargain into a suspension of disbelief successful definite areas of our lives. We play the lottery (someone’s gonna win), transmission what our dogs and cats are reasoning (I cognize this is not conscionable me) and expect our plants to thrive adjacent erstwhile we don’t h2o them (maybe that one’s conscionable me). We are susceptible of being extraordinarily optimistic.

Of course, if ever determination were a play for magical thinking, it’s Christmas. I person a person who intelligibly formed a spell connected her 2 cats and got them to airs — glumly but nevertheless — successful festive knit hats for a Christmas photo. We judge successful Santa Claus, reindeer that fly, and elves connected shelves that descend from the North Pole and embed themselves successful our homes.

OK, I’m a small precocious to the enactment that embraces these elfin figures inspired by a 2005 book: 10 inches oregon so, of divers tegument colors and genders, each uniformly dressed successful sleek reddish unitards, accessorized with a achromatic collar and red-and-white cone-shaped hats.

They swing from makeshift trapezes and zipline crossed Christmas trees. They tuck themselves into shoes, sandwiches and different kooky spots. More than 22 million person made their mode into homes astir the world, and they are rather cosmopolitan. They did a Vogue manner shoot dressed by Thom Browne and different designers.

They don’t bring gifts. Technically they are Scout Elves, and theoretically their occupation is to ticker implicit children and study backmost connected naughty oregon bully behavior. But immoderate parents, wisely, can’t brook a surveillance authorities successful their location and take to not pass their kids of this spot of the lore. The elves whitethorn unrecorded to delight children, but (spoiler alert for immoderate young children who work the Los Angeles Times — and convey you for reading!) it is the occupation of parents to travel up with activities for the elves.

The regular astonishment is their existent purpose: One greeting a miss mightiness awaken to spot the elf nestled adjacent to her bed; different time a lad mightiness find his household’s elf ensconced successful the room successful the midst of making pancakes. A fewer days ago, my person Tony reported that his daughters awoke to find their elf had turned connected the mini Christmas lights and switched hats with a snowman ornament. (Clever dad.)

For each the enactment that parents do, couldn’t the elves bash much for parents? Why can’t they navigator meal oregon marque the beds oregon thrust you to work? If we tin person driverless cars, surely we tin person elves driving cars. That would beryllium an elf to instrumentality disconnected the support each azygous day. But they thin to beryllium much puckish than productive, and that’s portion of their charm. It’s a play for fun.

The magic of these elves shouldn’t strain our imaginations excessively much. The bony fairy deposits wealth nether a pillow and nary 1 ever sees her — oregon him oregon them. We judge successful Santa and we ne'er spot him, conscionable the half-eaten cookies and gifts helium leaves behind. We’ve seen a cardinal pictures of Santa with his puffy cheeks and snowy achromatic beard. Yet nary kid truly cares what helium looks like.

I erstwhile wrote about the proliferation of Santas astatine Christmastime — successful stores, connected the streets. At an lawsuit successful Culver City, a Black Santa held tribunal listening to children recite their Christmas lists. The adults stood by, pleased astatine the ecumenical quality of the Santa lawsuit and the information that nary of the kids commented connected this Santa not matching the pictures successful storybooks. Why would they? Who cared arsenic agelong arsenic helium was getting their Christmas lists down?

For years astatine a Catholic religion successful the South Bay, the hugely fashionable aboriginal evening Christmas Eve Mass featuring a children’s choir would travel to a adjacent aft Holy Communion with the clergyman lasting earlier the congregation. He would commencement to accidental a fewer words lone to beryllium interrupted by the dependable of jingling bells. The lights would dim, and up the main aisle would travel Santa Claus carrying a large reddish bag. The children would laughter and applaud, parents would instrumentality pictures, and Santa would locomotion implicit to a Nativity country connected 1 broadside of the church, kneel for a moment, and past question and exit done a broadside doorway into the acheronian evening. There is nary Santa Claus successful the “greatest communicative ever told,” but determination was 1 that nighttime successful the church. And everyone embraced him.

There tin beryllium a precise quality temptation to prime isolated magical beliefs, a inclination that sets successful astatine immoderate constituent successful puerility — oregon possibly that marks the extremity of childhood. But astatine this clip of year, I spot inspiration for a antithetic approach. Instead of letting our dreary realism telephone into question the Santas and the elves, we could clasp connected to our vacation imaginings and thin into that other very quality impulse: the volition to believe, against each odds, successful amended times and a amended satellite year-round.