Santa’s chief elves have ‘hall of fame’ credentials

In the 1860s, illustrator Thomas Nast’s drawings of Santa Claus that appeared in Harper’s Weekly, a news magazine based in New York City, set the stage for the North Pole to become designated as the official home of St. Nicholas, his wife and their extended family of elves.

 

Dan Miller, editor of Today’s Family, a publication headquartered in Eastlake, Ohio, commented that Nast (shown below) chose to “firmly plant Santa at the North Pole because it was remote and magical. His drawings of Santa’s snowy workshop shaped the popular image we still use today.”

 

Elves have long existed as part of mythology, so their existence at the North Pole is not surprising.

Author Louisa May Alcott (shown below) had written about Santa’s elves as early as 1855, and Harper’s Bazaar, a New York City-based women’s fashion magazine, published a poem in 1857 titled “The Wonders of Santa Claus” that toldhow Santa kept “a great many elves at work.”

 

Godey’s Lady’s Book, published by Louis Godey of Philadelphia (shown below), featured an illustration of Santa’s workshop in 1873, in which Santa is surrounded by toys and elves.

 

These are more modern renderings of the Santa’s Workshop village that has developed at the North Pole.

An image that was highly popularized was Norman Rockwell’s 1922 painting for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. It shows a crew of elves dutifully putting the finishing touches on toys while Santa has dozed off.

 

Did you know that six of the original elves have been elevated into Santa’s “Hall of Fame?” 

That’s a story told by Ritesh Bhavnani, the founder and publisher of Manimal Tales, a business located in Sanford, N.C. (He uses the pseudonym of Sue Donhym.)

 

(The company produces personalized children’s books, making each child the star of his or her own unique story.)

First, there’s the head elf named “Shinny Upatree.” He’s Santa’s oldest friend and co-founder of the “secret village and magic workshop” at the North Pole. 

Shinny is the general manager of the operation and was responsible for the recruitment and hiring of the other members of the core team.

“Pepper Minstix” came from Spain to serve as chief of security and assure the safety of all personnel employed on the premises. He’s tough and brave. It’s important that Santa’s North Pole compound stay secluded and well-guarded.

 

“Alabaster Snowball” came from England to assume duties as the administrator of the “Naughty or Nice List.” He holds a degree from the University of Oxford and is a certified statistician. With a keen interest in technology, Alabaster has developed a computer system for checking on kids’ behaviors.

 

“It’s ingenious; it updates the Naughty or Nice rating for every boy and girl every 15 seconds,” according to Sue Donhym. “That way, Santa Claus has the latest skinny on everyone, and toy production can be adjusted accordingly.”

The toy manufacturing process is the responsibility of “Bushy Evergreen,” who is the head toy making elf at Santa’s workshop. He comes from “sturdy Canadian stock” and developed a knack for woodworking at an early age.

 

“When Bushy got Shinny’s call to come to the North Pole, Bushy loaded all the wooden toys he had built over the years into his wagon (his really, really big wagon pulled by a really, really big horse) and headed off to the land of ice and snow,” Donhym said. “And so began Bushy’s stay at the North Pole as chief toy maker.”

Bushy began teaching his carving secrets to hundreds of elf apprentice toymakers. The only trouble was kids grew tired of “boring, wooden toys.” They wanted more sophisticated, action-oriented, high-tech toys. Leave it to Bushy to invent a new magical toy making machine, capable of making anything imaginable.

 

But leave it to Mrs. Santa Claus to repair the gol-durn thing when it breaks down.

“Wunorse Openslae” is a Nordic elf whose ancestors were Vikings. His assignment at the North Pole was to design and build Santa’s magical sleigh.

 

Furthermore, he created a potion containing “magic dust” and used it to train eight reindeer to fly. He continues as the reindeers’ chief caretaker.

 “Sugarplum Mary” is the “head of sweet treats” and labors in the kitchen alongside Mrs. Claus, baking cookies, chocolates, candies and other sweets for everyone at the North Pole and for distribution to the “Nice-Listers” on Christmas Eve.

 

Mary grew up in the Northern Mountain Province of Asia (Vietnam), where she learned to make irresistible sugarplum pudding, sugarplum cookies and sugarplum fudge to warm the hearts of the neighboring valley people.

“Her special treat, made specially for Shinny Upatree, is a batch of double-crunch, chocolate-peanut butter, sugarplum cookies with itty bitty marshmallows on top,” Donhym said.