Elvin, The Littlest Elf

An original story by Roger Dillon, Copyright 1998

Elvin was an elf. Now, all elves are small but Elvin was the smallest of the small, the littlest elf at the North Pole. He was only half the size of the average elf. Because of his size he was always picked on by the other elves in elf school. Now with the Christmas season coming Elvin was doing what all elves do; helping Santa Claus to get ready for Christmas.

Elvin's job was in the mail room opening and reading letters to Santa. He was too small to work at the regular elf workbenches. His nose barely reached the top of the workbench. He was too small to carry and pack toys. About all anyone could find that he could do was to open letters and fortunately, Elvin was a very good reader. He had spent many hours reading because he was too small to play any of the games that the other elves played. Other elves would never pick him to be on their team. He was just too small.

One day as Christmas was approaching, Santa Claus called a meeting of all the elves. "Men, we have a problem." said Santa. "We're behind schedule and we're all going to have to work very hard to be ready for Christmas this year." There were groans heard throughout the room at Santa's statement because they had already been working very hard. Then Santa said "I have a little incentive for you. We'll have a contest! As you all know I never take anyone with me on Christmas Eve because the added weight makes the sleigh too heavy for the reindeer to pull. This year I have decided to add a couple more reindeer to the team and take one of you with me. On Christmas Eve I will decide who has contributed the most to the effort and take that elf with me!" Now the groans turned to excited chatter among the elves. This was unheard of! Never had such a privilege been offered to an elf, to accompany Santa on Christmas Eve.

As the elves returned to work with renewed enthusiasm, Elvin said to one of the other elves, "Wow! I would love to win and go with Santa!" The other elf started rolling on the floor laughing. "You?" he said. "Ha ha ha! How would you ever win? How could someone as little as you possibly contribute the most to Christmas preparations? Ha ha!" Elvin silently wished he'd never said anything and dejectedly returned to his work.

After about an hour the door opened and in walked an older elf named Pooter dragging another mailbag. Elves do not live forever but they do live to be very old and Elvin figured Pooter to be about 900 years old. He was really too old to be working so hard but he never complained. Elvin really liked old Pooter. Pooter was the only elf that had never said anything unkind to Elvin. As a matter of fact, Elvin had never heard Pooter say an unkind word to or about anyone! As Pooter dumped out his sack of mail in front of Elvin he said "I sure would like to go with Santa before I die. I've always dreamed about doing that." Elvin replied "Maybe you can win Pooter. Carrying the mail is an important job!" But Pooter just sighed and said, "Nope. It'll be one of the toy supervisors who wins. The toys are very important." With that Pooter turned and walked out the door going to get another bag of mail.

The next few days before Christmas were really hard for Elvin. The elf that heard his wish that he could win the contest had told the other elves about it. Now they were all picking on Elvin about it. "Elvin, you might win the prize for the littlest contribution!" said one in a very mean tone of voice. Another told him, "You're just lucky you can read or there would be nothing you could do to help around here at all. You're too little to be good for anything!"

It was the afternoon of Christmas Eve and Elvin had finished all the letters. His job was done. He went to the workshop to see if he could help with the packing of the toys but was told to leave, that he was just in the way.

Now Elvin was really depressed. When he left the workshop he didn't go back to his room. He went for a walk. Not far from the North Pole was a cave that he liked to go to when he was feeling down. He went there a lot. He was alone there but at least no one was reminding him of how little and useless he was. He entered the cave and hid in his favorite little nook, dreaming of what it would be like to be big.

Santa Claus and Egbert, his chief elf, had also taken a walk that afternoon. Santa felt it would be more private to take a walk than to try to talk in the house. They had to decide who the contest winner was. Who had contributed the most to Christmas preparations? They walked into the cave a little while after Elvin had come in but they didn't see him. He overheard as they talked about all the different workers and their efforts. He never heard them even mention his name and he became even more depressed.

Suddenly there was a rumbling noise, which grew louder, and louder, becoming a roar! As Santa and Egbert stood in the center of the cave, unsure of what was happening, the entrance of the cave completely collapsed, trapping them all inside! After the rumbling had stopped Egbert ran over and started trying to dig his way out. "It's no use Santa!" he said. "There is too much snow and ice for us to move. We need a lot of help!" Santa was worried. "No one even knows where we are!" he exclaimed. "And it's only a few hours until Christmas!" He sat down on a rock with his head in his hands, thinking. Suddenly his head jerked up. "Egbert! I can tell we're getting fresh air in here! There must be another opening!" With that Egbert began feeling his way around the wall of the darkened cave until he saw a small light coming from above in the back of the cave. "I've found it Santa! It's very small though. Come lift me up and maybe I can crawl through it and go get help!" Santa lifted Egbert up to the opening which was a very narrow passage about twenty feet long but Egbert could not even get his head into the opening. Santa slumped to the floor of the cave. "No one will ever find us in time to get us out of here tonight. Christmas will be ruined!" Egbert said, "If only I could get through that opening!"

"Maybe I can." said a very small voice from the darkness of the cave. "Who said that?" asked Santa. "It's me, Elvin." Elvin said as he walked into the dim light from the opening. Santa looked at Elvin, then he looked at the opening, and then he looked back at Elvin. "You know, I think you might!" said Santa and he lifted Elvin up to the opening. Even for Elvin the passage was very tight but he was able to get into it and began to crawl upward. There was no room to move so he inched his way up very slowly. About five feet from the top the passage became even narrower and Elvin thought he was stuck. "I'm stuck!" he cried. "That's just great!" said Egbert. "I knew he couldn't do anything to help!" But Santa said; "Now Egbert, Elvin is trying as hard as he can!" Elvin heard Santa's words and said to himself, "No! I'm not trying as hard as I can! I've started believing what everyone has said about me, that I can't do anything. I'm really going to try as hard as I can!" Elvin started moving again and after a few minutes he had made it past the tight spot and reached the opening at the top. As he crawled out into the light he called down to Santa and Egbert, "I'm going for help! We'll be back soon with all the equipment to get you out!" And he ran off to the worker's village to get help. Soon he returned leading a large group of elves with digging tools and in just a short time they had freed Santa from the cave.

As the final loading of the sleigh was going on Santa called all the elves together and announced "I have decided who has contributed the most to this Christmas trip! I'm going to take Elvin with me. Without him there would have been no trip this year!" Elvin couldn't move. He was stunned. His wish had come true! The other elves, instead of picking on him now were patting him on the back and cheering. Old Pooter came up to him and hugged him and whispered in his ear, "I'm glad you won. You deserve something good." As Pooter turned and walked away Elvin finally found his voice. "Excuse me Santa." he said. "I have something I'd like to ask you." as he motioned for Santa to bend down to him and he whispered into Santa's ear. "Why Elvin! That is certainly a surprising request!" exclaimed Santa. He looked straight at Elvin for a moment and then turned to the other elves. "I've changed my mind," he said. "Instead of a trip with me the prize is the granting of one wish." He glanced at Elvin and smiled, "and Elvin, I am granting your wish." Turning back to the other elves again, Santa announced "At the request of Elvin and for his many years of service to me and the Christmas efforts, Pooter will go with me tonight!" Now it was Pooter's turn to be stunned. The old elf stood there, tears forming in his eyes as the dream of a lifetime was coming true for him. He once again walked over and hugged Elvin but this time Elvin whispered into Pooter's ear, "You deserve this more than anyone Pooter. It has been your dream for so long!"

Finally the sleigh was loaded and Santa Claus and Pooter were strapped in and ready to go. All of the elves stood around to cheer them off as Santa called Elvin over to the sleigh. "Elvin, in your time here we have judged you by the size of your body, which proved to be very useful today, but the true measure of a man is the size of his heart. By that measure Elvin, you are a very big man!"

As the sleigh took off the elves cheered and waved, then turned to go back to their rooms. One of the elves came up to Elvin and asked "Wasn't it hard to give up your dream?" "Actually no." Elvin replied. "While I had wished for it, riding in the sleigh was Pooter's dream. My dream was something else." As he walked away, Elvin knew his dream had come true as well as Pooter's. He knew what it was like to be big!

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