Elf On The Shelf Essay

This show can be seen on TV every Christmas season. Then Ron Howard takes this short film and draws it out to be a two and a half-hour long movie. The worst aspect of the movie is that it makes a mockery of Seuss's main message: “Christmas doesn't come from a store.” This movie is all about selling, from those furry talking Grinch dolls to endless fast-food tie-ins.

The film Elf (Berg et al., 2003) follows the adventures of Buddy, a human adopted into Elf culture, as he journeys from the North Pole to find his human father in New York City. As an orphan waiting to be adopted, Buddy was accidentally taken to the North Pole in Santa’s sack. Buddy grew up immersed in the Elf culture and way of life, and was not told of his human origins until he was well into adulthood. Upon learning this, Buddy travels to New York City to find his birth father Walter, a grinch-like publisher at a children’s book company. Unwelcomed by his father, Buddy befriends Walter’s son Michael and begins to make a life in New York, dating a shy, Elf-portraying department store employee named Jovie.

Fourteen days, four hours, and exactly forty-one minutes till Santa will be traveling around the world making everyone’s next morning full of joy. As I am aware, this is an exciting time year for elves. Many create the toys that will be unwrapped while others have the great pleasure of baking cookies, taking care of Santa’s reindeer, and of course the hardest job of all, working to read different letters from various of children around the world. Figuring that you are currently reading my letter, I know that you probably have piles of letter embroidered with name of the place all kids think about: to the north pole. Inside most of these letters, I know from writing a few myself, that many kids are asking the either one of two questions: “I’m I on the naughty list” or in other letters there are variations of “May I pretty please with a cherry on top get ____ for christmas”. However, today I am not writing about these main topics, I am writing you this to you in hopes that I can be enlightened of the magic of passion and creativity that you are so lucky to be surrounded by everyday. Moreover, you may be pondering this and wonder why I would be asking for a request such as this. I have just finished a semester of a passions within a creativity class and was hoping to share with you what I learned and hope to hear what your perspective may be. So, my current intention throughout the rest of this letter to show you something new

Elf revolves around a premature human named Buddy, played by Will Ferrell, who was misplaced in Santa’s sack on a Christmas night many years ago. As he grows up Buddy starts to ask more and more questions about his real family. His adopted father then sends him to New York City, where his real family lives. As Buddy arrives to the Big Apple, he encounters multiple challenges such as his father, his new job, and his love life. When Buddy arrives his biological father is constantly a scrooge because it’s Christmas time and he is having trouble writing a children’s book. Buddy doesn’t help his situation because all he wants to do is have quality time, but to his father he is being an annoying child. Buddy also has to find a way to cope with a job. As he wanders into a mall, Buddy is mistaken by

This leads into the most important difference between the book and the movie. In the movie it depicts that going to the North Pole to see Santa was all a dream, while in the book it made it all seem real. When children go see this movie, they might think that since the boy is having a dream that Santa must not be real. A lot of research has been done about kids believing in Santa. Gail Vines wrote about “the Santa delusion” from psychologist’s perspectives. According to Gail Vines (2007), children are able to

Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol ‘A Christmas Carol’ written by Charles Dickens tells the story of a man named Ebenezer Scrooge who is taught the true meaning of Christmas and is shown the errors of his ways. ‘A Christmas Carol’ was published in 1843, this was a time of social and political unrest. Dickens motivation for writing this story was to encourage employers to treat workers well, he uses the Christmas Carol to portray this message. Charles Dickens felt strongly about the working conditions and poverty that many people endured. He wanted to encourage employers to treat their workers well.

Santa Claus must exist. How else would you describe this change in the way humans interact during these otherwise dreary winter months? Santa Claus is the catalyst of human goodness, sparking within us a genuine care for our neighbor, bringing us together for this wonderful season. Think of a world without Santa Claus!

The Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Boogeyman, and Santa Claus, what do all of these have in common? For me, it is the innocence of a child. Children seem to be more gullible and believe anything you tell them; they do not know the difference between a lie and the truth. During the Christmas of 2003, I was five years old and still believed in Santa Claus. The fact of believing in Santa Claus expresses the innocence of a child and brings the magic to Christmas.

old sinner! Hard as a steel and sharp as a flint, from which no steel

The purpose of this report is to research and examine Toys "R" Us, the world's largiest toy chain store, so as to provide the company with strategic recommendations for future success. To throughly understand the company, the analysis is divided into multiple focus points: industry analysis, firm strategy analysis and firm financial analysis. The analysis concludes with rating that we give the company's stock as well as our strategic recommendations for the company to increase it's overall preformance.

During April we bring out the dusty, furry white bunny costume to fabricate the reason for millions of colorful eggs scattered in the grass. Malls hire fat white men, dress them up, and create elaborate displays of Santa’s workshop to create the illusion that “Santa has come to town”. We as a society accept lying to children for the benefit of their innocence and imagination. In Lars and the Real Girl, the town holds the same views when they lie to Lars and pretend Bianca (the sex doll bought online) is a real person and more importantly Lars’ girlfriend. Sadly the only person in town that struggle to go along with Bianca’s existence is Lars’ brother Gus, but Dr. Dagmar is able to bring Bianca to life when she hints, “ She is real. She is right out there ” after Gus had declared, “She is not real.” The similarities between Lars and lying to children are that we lie to benefit the person being lied to. In Lars’ case, the town was finally able to connect to him once Bianca arrived in town. They saw it as beneficial to play into Lars delusion as they watched him blossom into an active member of the community — a substantial difference from his normal solitary lifestyle. Similarly parents with children believe making up fictional characters to create a delusion like Santa, brings magic into their child’s life. It is also commonly understood, as a community the folk tale of Santa and naturally anyone in contact with young children are very cautious when on the subject. Many times friends, teachers, and neighbors will join in on the tale of old Saint Nick, just as the town had joined in Lars’ delusion. Typically as an unspoken rule, it is known that you do not tell a young child Santa is not real. Revealing to a child that Santa is a made up Christmas folk tale before they are ready to hear the truth, is worse than telling them the lie. Society would view

It can be argued that Christmas as a holiday is far removed from the way it was first envisioned. That said, there are certain element that many people share or celebrate making it an arguably complex holiday. As the preeminent children’s author of his generation, Geisel serving heavily on the minds of his young readers helped shape what Christmas means for many people with his narrative How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. Though at the surface the work is a simple morality tale that promotes unity over consumerism, it has subtle nuances that make the work interesting on several

A feel-good Christmas story for older kids and their parents, Elf trades heavily on Will Ferrell's physical comedy skill set. The film offers good and awkward moments in equal measure in the tale of an out-of-place "elf" searching for his real father and trying to reignite the Christmas spirit. There’s been a lot of hatred and prejudice clogging the news outlets during winter, even during a time of year when a large percentage of the world is supposed to be celebrating the arrival of Christmas and flurries of warm, fuzzy thoughts. Even if you’re not celebrating Christmas, there are still plenty of reasons to have warm, fuzzy thoughts. And the warm fuzzes, you know, can cross cultures, languages, climates, and skin colors. They can be profound, too, or silly. In the midst of so much intolerance and confusion, of bitterness and cynicism, I feel, once again, that a little bit of a good movie can do a lot to bring to mind the silliness of war and the healing power of peace and understanding, even under the most ridiculous of circumstances. Which is why, today, I recommend—seriously—the movie Elf.

A child learning about the myth of Santa Claus helps the process of development, and stimulates their cognitive development. Children will become interested in other ideas once they come to the realization of it being no Santa Claus. On the Today Show, Karri-Leigh Mastrangelo, a television producer and mother of two children, signified her belief that “there is a huge difference between telling your child a lie and allowing them to believe in the magic and mystery of the holidays.” It is One-Hundred Percent healthy for your child to believe in Santa Claus according to multiple psychologists and researchers. You cannot compare lying to your child about situations they could not understand versus allowing them to believe in Santa Claus. Dr. Janet Serwint a professor at the John Hopkins School of Medicine also stated, “Teaching your kids the myth of Santa Clause will not scar them for life.” While supporting my argument, this simple statement brings about questions amongst parents. If it does no psychological harm, then there should not be any concern of fraudulence towards the

1. Was Japan an attractive market for Toys “R” Us? Do you think there were any cultural obstacles to product acceptance? Strong competitors?