Elf 256

Elf 256

Christmas is a competition for your children’s Love. Gifts are given to try and capture a feeling of awe that only a child has. The joy is in knowing at some level you have made a memory that will last a lifetime. A good gift from Santa gives a feeling of accomplishment that has no parallel. For me, as a young man, I could not compete with Grandparents that had more money than me. It seemed their gifts were the most cherished and liked. I always felt pushed out and forgotten on Christmas. No one was very excited about my gifts. I was treated with polite curtesy but failed to have a part of my kids’ real attention on that special day.

Let me introduce to you my solution, Elf 256. I told the kids that I had a contact at Santa’s Workshop. He worked on the stocking stuffers line. He would give Elf bags full of candy and cheap little toys. Nothing expensive. This was a deal I made, not anybody else. I had a piece of the magic that was mine that the kids could look forward to having.

I always felt that the gifts in the bags were not important. It was the idea I had an inside elf. Soon everybody wanted a bag. Who had I remembered to ask Elf 256 that they get a bag. I had even heard that other children, when they heard of this, were envious of my kid’s special connection.

A candy bar, a foil wrapped Santa, or a chocolate Christmas Tree were now special because they were from Santa’s shop. Many times, I would get a cheap nerf gun for them but ensure I got a little bigger gun. It was fun that I had done. My memory for them.

My children are grown now. I have not talked to Elf 256 for quite a while.

Last week, I was taking with my daughter about Christmas, and she said, “I believed in Elf 256 for so long. It was fun and I looked forward to getting and elf bag. Thank you, Dad.”

The feeling I got was so good. I guess it is silly to see this as a major point in a child life, but the reward was priceless. What is Christmas but a child’s dream? A store will make you feel that the Love you get is proportional to the bucks you spent. The nicer the gift the more love you will get. You are told oh that’s not true, but it seems that way as paper and trash are cleaned up on Christmas Day. You can see which gift captured one’s heart. The hits are what they remember and tell their friends about. The misses are put in a box, brought out at that spring rummage sell to get rid of excess things.

Elf 256 bags were a part of the dream. What was in them was a thing you could not touch, play with, or eat. It was not even for the kids really. It was for me. My part of the magic. I had an inside contact that no one else had. The investment was cheap. It provided a path to my kids that was mine, and no one else’s. The payback I thought was the fun we had playing with silly little toys and enjoying a piece of Christmas candy. It was not until later that I realized what I had done. The feeling I got from it was not anything that a store could sell you. They want you to believe that joy is for sell. The bigger the gift the better. Elf 256 gave me a part of the dream that has no price tag.