Where do Santa's elves come from?

[Jeff Wrangler]

I got to wondering how elves became part of the Santa story. I found this on Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_elf

So according to this article, it appears the idea originated with none other than Louisa May Alcott--except her story was never published. 

(Last night I thought I was going to see Elf (which I've never seen) on AMC, but they showed The Polar Express (which I had seen).)

Godey's Lady's Book was extremely influential in its day. Its famous editor, Sarah Josepha Hale, lived and died a few blocks from where I live. She got Abraham Lincoln to declare the first national Thanksgiving Day in 1863, right in the middle of the American Civil War. She also wrote "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Josepha_Hale

[Front-Ranger]

Interesting. Offline Chuck gave me several volumes of the Ladies Repository from 1885. They are bound periodicals that were published by the Methodist Church in Cincinnati. There is some religious information but there is much more about literature, etc.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Interesting. Offline Chuck gave me several volumes of the Ladies Repository from 1885. They are bound periodicals that were published by the Methodist Church in Cincinnati. There is some religious information but there is much more about literature, etc.

It kind of made this history M.A. sick when he once showed me how his boss had him destroy some perfectly preserved bound volumes of Harper's Weekly so they could mount and sell the maps and images from the Civil War. Apparently these things are not rare, but still.