What’s up with the Elf on the Shelf?

Ok, I admit it: I’m getting old. It was one thing to have Santa and, in our case, my wife celebrating her Dutch heritage on St. Nick’s day. When, though, did the Elf on the Shelf become part of the tradition? It has its own name, customs, and rituals. It moves to different locations throughout the house, watching over the tiny inhabitants and reporting their behavior to Santa; all while being mysteriously mischievous himself. Seriously? I don’t get it!

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What’s more interesting to me is that in our somewhat secular, post religious era, mythology is alive and well. James Fowler, in his classic work Stages of Faith, talks about the “mythic literal” stage of faith in children, which gives way to later stages of faith. However, in the current context, fewer and fewer young adults seem to articulate any coherent religious ideology: “none” is the most popular religious designation. So, what do we make of our expanded holiday elf mythology when most households embrace the mythology of Santa and the Elf while not necessarily ascribing to a religious identity.

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Perhaps the “elf” and Santa are yet another way that we embrace the longing for the mystery and transcendence that we have difficulty putting into words. We want our children to embrace the “magic and mythology” of the season, and by extension, perhaps we want some of it for ourselves. Myth, in the truest sense of the word, points beyond itself to something greater. So, what do Santa and the Elf point towards? It’s possible that they point to a hope for Transcendence. It is not surprising that some studies of family health suggest that one of the qualities of healthy families is the belief in something transcendent: a religious ideology, or a cause like saving the environment, reducing hunger, or other social justice causes. Transcendence points to something that is bigger than family, but that gives families meaning and something to be part of.

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• Transcendence suggests a desire for accountability: it suggests that there is something greater than us. Remember the old song: “You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town.” The song, in all of its hokey lyrics, speaks of something bigger that we are accountable to. In our anxious culture where it seems like anything goes and civility is difficult to find, perhaps down deep we hope for some level of accountability.
• Transcendence suggests a longing for meaning. In the midst of our very broken world, with war, poverty, and instability, we long for meaning. We want something greater than ourselves to believe in: something that makes sense of the world. We long for the words of Isaih, the prophet of old, to be true: “The lion will lay down with the lamb, and they will beat their swords into plowshare.” During this holiday season, we long for and pray for peace but also for some sense of meaning.
• Transcendence suggests something to hope for. Children at this time of year are slightly off the wall! They are circling gift ideas, and are excited about what Santa might bring them for Christmas. As adults, we too hope: perhaps not for gifts, but for our children to be OK, for positive family gathering, for health, and on a much larger scale for peace in a broken world. In the words of Handel's Messiah, “And the glory, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed.”
• Transcendence suggests something greater to live for. Living for success, multiple social media likes, or material acquisition will, in the end, leave us empty. At close of day, we long to believe our lives have meaning and significance. One of the themes that unite all world religions is the longing for “witnessed significance”. We long to know that our lives have meaning and value and we long to be seen. The great psychoanalyst, Erik Erikson, suggests that at the end of our lives we struggle with the question of whether we lived our lives with integrity or end with a sense of despair, wishing that we had lived very differently.

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So, this holiday season when you hear about the Elf, or hear songs about Santa, listen for a longing for transcendence. The season reminds us that there is something greater to hope for, to live for, something that brings us meaning, something that organizes life. May the words of the prophet of old come true in our lifetime: “the lion will lie down with the lamb and swords will be beaten into plowshare.”