Today I’m grateful for my Elf rabbit hole.

11.13.2023

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I watched the movie Elf tonight. It’s one of my favorite Christmas movies. I’ve seen it a million times. I know when all the good one-liners come along and I can practically recite most of the movie verbatim. I know this movie inside and out.

Or so I thought.

I’m honestly not sure exactly how tonight’s deep dive began, but before I knew it, I was several articles and multiple YouTube videos in to a seriously deep, and very interesting Elf rabbit hole. I learned behind the scenes tidbits and all kinds of fun facts about the movie.

A few highlights of my Elf research include:

- The elf costumes were designed to match those in the old classic Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

- The store manager at Gimballs wore a nametag that says ‘Wanda’ because Wanda Sykes was originally cast for this role. She had to cancel at the last minute and the guy that took her place thought it would be funny to use her nametag.

- The laughter that can be heard during the jack-in-the-box scene is the same laugh track used for the hyenas in Lion King.

- The scene where Buddy is feeling hopeless and declares that he doesn’t belong is filmed on a bridge to parallel George Bailey’s bridge scene in It’s a Wonderful Life.

- The actor that played Ralphie in A Christmas Story has a cameo in Elf as Ming Ming, the head elf.

I could go on and on.

I had a lot on my mind tonight and was in the mood for something light and fun to zone out to before bed. When I turned Elf on after dinner, I sure didn’t anticipate spending the entirety of the movie vigilantly researching hidden Elf easter eggs and other randomness on my laptop. But that’s exactly what I did, and I gotta say – it was kinda fun. I don’t even remember what else was on my mind two hours ago, so I suppose the light and fun zoning out mission was accomplished.

So, as silly as it is … I’m thankful for my Elf deep dive tonight. I am going to have to watch the movie again soon though, now that I know all the extra things to pay attention to.