25 Days of Christmas - Day 4: Discovering the Movie Elf and Rediscovering the Spirit of Christmas

I have never been a huge Will Ferrell fan. He basically plays the same characters in all his films with very subtle changes in his performances. His range is minimal at best and his comedic timing is reminiscent of a children's television show. Bottom line, he annoys me. That doesn't mean that I don't enjoy some of his films on occasion. Elf is no exception.

My boyfriend and his best friend insisted I watch the film with the last weekend. I did, begrudgingly, as I'd never seen it. I was pleasantly surprised by how... cute the film was. It put me in the Christmas mood. The film is about an elf named Buddy who accidentally crawls into Santa's toy bag at an orphanage as a baby. Once Santa gets back to the North Pole and finds the human baby, the head Elf decides to adopt the baby and raise him amongst the other elves. Poor Buddy grows up realizing he's different from everyone else given his huge size and lack of toy-making ability. He decides to journey to New York to find his biological father. As you can imagine, what follows is an example in "fish out of water" hilarity. At the climax of the film, Santa needs help getting his sleigh back in the air by bringing back the Christmas Spirit. The scene is cheesy but cute and it got me thinking about the Spirit of Christmas.

Christmas is always considered a magical time. A time where we put aside our petty differences and help out our fellow man and woman. It's a time of imagination and rediscovering our childhood enthusiasm for the fat man in a red suit who squeezes his wide behind down our chimneys. It isn't just about trees and presents but about that special part of ourselves that cares for others. Even Ebeneezer Scrooge found the Spirit of Christmas again. If he can, then so can you.

I consider myself an "okay nice" person. I'm not a "nice nice" person who ALWAYS has something decent to say about everyone including my enemies. That title is reserved for my friend Sarah, who truly is the nicest person I've ever met. I aspire to be that nice, but I have a long ways to go. Plus, my past bitchiness will never be forgotten by some people, so maybe I'm just a lost cause. However, at Christmas, I always try to reach out to people who need help the most. Despite anything going on in my life, I know there are people in the world that have it worse than me. That's why I like the Be an Elf program. You get to read actual letters to Santa written by needy children and fulfill their Christmas wish by buying and sending present to them. While I agree that we should be giving back to the community 365 days a year, not just at Christmas, this charity initiative is special to me because it's for children.

So even if you're just an "okay nice" person the rest of the year, be a "nice nice" person this Christmas and be an Elf to a kid who still believes in Santa Claus and the Spirit of Christmas.