Witches Don't Do The Holidays

My boyfriend said something odd the other day. He made a comment about the fast approaching Holidays and how it was hard on him this time of year because of wanting to be home. I though my house was "home"; apparently not. Anyways, I replied with something like "So, you want to be back in Wisconsin after four months of living here because of a day on the calendar and you think your family members are gonna treat you any better than they did before you left - or while you have been here - on your return?" He then topped his initial thoughtless and hurtful statement with "Well, it's just a day on the calendar to you but to me it's a special time... just 'cause you don't celebrate Christmas doesn't mean others think it's just a day on the calendar like any other."

Well, of course...then it was on; I was fully engaged. I will have you know, I am the most tree (fake of course) decorating/light hanging/carol singing/Solstice village displaying/stocking stuffing/gathering with friends for food and gift exchanging/card sending/gift wrapping Pagan I know! The Winter Solstice isn't just Yule for me - we have no fireplace at our house to burn the Yule Log - only a little chiminea by the hot tub on the back deck...ah, modern Paganism at it's best but I digress. It's also my annual birthday celebration, the weather is my favorite (I adore snow), I am genetically wired to shop, Ms. Thing is bi-racial - so we light the kinara annually.... heck, about the only secular tradition we do not participate in is lighting the menorah and spinning the dreidle! Just because our Holiday traditions are not your Holiday traditions doesn't negate the entire Season of giving for us. Isn't that part of the beauty in being different?

Now, I get that he wants to be with his children and grandchildren for the festivities this time of year brings and I get he doesn't see Oregon as his home or me as his future wife any longer (why he remains here when he refuses to marry me or advance our relationship beyond room mate status is beyond me) but to imply because I am a Witch I don't comprehend or appreciate the significance of The Season is weird.

So, unrelated to this whole tirade-kinda' sorta'; not really- I told him jokingly later..."look, I am a Witch...Santa is an Elf...Witches and Elves get along, we understand each other, I am cool with Santa so spare me 'the you just don't get it' giberish." LOL. He said "Santa's not an elf..." apparently he doesn't have 'Twas the Night Before Christmas memorized which prompted this email to him and this blog to ya'll.

Happy Holidays, however you celebrate!



Apparently, it's a hot topic of debate. I grew up with him being an Elf....humans don't do that chimney drop thing. Here's what others are saying.

'QUESTION:
Is Santa an elf? I'm curious about a scientific issue.
In "The Night Before Christmas" Clement Moore says He had a broad face, and a little round bellyThat shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly.He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elfAnd I laugh'd when I saw him in spite of myselfBut when I'm at the mall asking Santa's helper for a new Mac Pro, he's not a little person.
We know that elves are small. That's why having Will Ferrell as an oversized elf made the movie "Elf" funny.
So I'd like to know whether Clement Moore meant that Santa is a real elf (in which case Santa's helpers at the mall are too big), or if Moore was using the word "elf" in some figurative way I'm
not aware of.

ANSWERS:
It depends. German/Scandinavian elves (and Irish sidhe) are human sized. Anglo-elves are twee little fairies with wings. Since Santa Claus is obviously Nordic and he's big, he could be an elf. Unless we get some DNA samples we can't be sure...
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I've met trolls in Norway and menehunes in Hawaii, but Santa is rarely seen in person so we can't check his height directly. That's why I figured we needed a team of linguists, historians, and anthropologists to work on the problem.
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Moore also says, in relation to Santa's size...
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,With a little old driver, so lively and quick,I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
I think he's mistaken, and that Santa is just far away - he therefore appears small just like an elf. The thick covering of fresh snow Moore reports means that there's a lack of visible objects for him to gauge Santa's height against, and this coupled with his sleepiness results in the confusion.
Either that, or he's been on the sherry and dreamt the whole thing up...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Let's not forget that in 'Lord of the Rings' the Elves are human sized whereas the Hobbits are smaller versions of humans...maybe Santa is an Elf as seen in LOTR but has simply put on weight and the hobbits have simply become known as elves...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Elves in Germany and Middle-earth may be large, but we're talking about North Pole elves, who by all reports are small. Of course, that's probably only because of differentiation over thousands of years of geographic separation. With modern mobility, elves from different backgrounds will be more likely to meet and intermarry so over the long term elf height will trend toward a higher average than Santa's elves. Although Moore reported that Santa was a "little old driver" and there was a "miniature sleigh", and didn't say explicitly say that Santa was in the sleigh, I think that's a reasonable assumption. But was Santa fully grown then? He already had a beard, so he must have been at least in adolescence. Also, we don't know how tall Clement Moore was, and he might have called someone "miniature" simply for being less than 5 feet tall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I thought Santa was actually a drunken Dan Ackroyd with a piece of salmon stuffed down his shirt.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Let's rewind for a bit and get back to the original question.
We all know that Santa is larger than what most English-speaking people think of as elves. (Just go to the mall and see for yourself)
Scandinavian elves are human sized, and Santa Claus lives at the North Pole, which is kind of like northern Scandinavia.
Scandinavians are taller than average. However, Santa Claus is immortal and has been around for a long time, so he's shorter than modern Scandinavians, but he could still be taller than the wimpy fairies that pass as elves in the English-speaking world. So, physical evidence doesn't tell us anything.
However, Saint Nicholas of Myra is the real Santa Claus, and he's Greek, and we know all Greeks are short and dark. This evidence leads me to think that Santa Claus is not an elf (since we know that you can't become an elf - Tolkein showed you can go the other way if you're an elf who marries a human, but not vice versa)
So I'm coming to the conclusion that Santa Claus is not an elf, but since he's a short Greek person, Moore mistook him for an elf.
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I say Elf.. he has to be nimble and somewhat small to be able to do what he does... Anyways.. isnt he like hundreds of years old? Werent people years ago much smaller on average than they are now? I think so.. So im going with Elf or very small man.
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I always pictured old St. Nick as a robust old man.
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I have to go along with Bruce on this one. Some of the oldest tales about Santa refer to him as an elf, and I believe only an elf can sustain all the magic it takes to do his job. I think Coca Cola's Santa is a fantastic image, but in my heart I don't think that's the real Santa Claus.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yeah the first mainstream image of Santa came from Coca-cola. But the stories I heard of him as first being a man giving out presents and doing good deeds during Christmas-then he became a Saint.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Santa's workshop is a sweat shop. He forces his elves to work long hours and pays them in crack cocaine -that's the only way he's able to keep overhead down and deliver toys for free.
So remember kids, every time you receive a present from jolly old saint nick, an innocent elf paid in sweat and blood for it.
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www.snopes.com/holiday/christmas/santa/cocacola.asp ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Santa is a strange, unnatural hybrid between human and elf. He is a changeling, which explains the chimney stuff
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------News Flash: Santa Slashes Elf Workforce in Half - Christmas Will Officially Suck!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ok, that last one was a blog title for a funny Hockey Jersey story told last year...as you can see, the debate rages on....this last one below was my favorite reply. I still say he's an Elf, and as a Witch, I am ok with Elves therefore it would reason to say, I am ok with the Spirit of Giving and the Holiday traditions this time of year.

He's the spirit of giving and kindness and takes many forms. The trick is to recognize him when you see him ;-)