What do elves do for community service?

Throughout the year, elves participate in a variety of community service projects. It is a centuries-old tradition that is passed down from each family of elves to the next generation. The projects that elves undertake vary from country to country, and elf to elf. However, a favorite project that is widely embraced by almost every elf family is the Assistance Project to Our Friend, The Easter Bunny.

The Easter Bunny is a mysterious creature who has a daunting task on her hands every Spring: to decorate and distribute beautiful eggs (and egg-shaped treats) to boys and girls around the world. Now elves know a great deal about the assembly-line work that is required to manufacture toys and games for untold numbers of children. And they know a thing or two about distributing those toys. But the added excitement of the Easter distribution operation is that the surprises are actually HIDDEN from the children so that they must search high and low for the tasty treats! What could be more fun than that?

And so, when Mrs. Claus passes around the sign-up sheet every year, the list quickly fills up with the names of elves, both old and young, who want to decorate, transport, and HIDE Easter eggs.

Emily's favorite part of the Easter egg project is gathering inspiration for her eggs. She wore her pink rubber garden boots so that her feet wouldn't get wet from the dew as she collected flowers from throughout the spring garden. If she were a fashion designer she might have created an idea board and shared it with the other elves so that there could be a cohesive collection for Easter Eggs 2021. But in elfin terms, she just shared her flowers with all of her friends so that they, too could be inspired by all that is currently blooming in the garden.

Edith always wants to get straight to the painting part! Nothing compares to mixing the colors on her palette and going to town on the eggs. One color gives a nod to the next, and brings out the playfulness of her designs.

Easter Bunny always loves her eggs and says, "Edith, your work is egg-ceptional and the eggs are too beautiful to hide!"

Eddie is the youngest elf in this year's Easter Egg community service project. And there was a problem. A big problem, in fact. Nobody bothered to tell Eddie how gigantic Easter Bunnies are! When you are a tiny elf -- and extra tiny because you are also a very young little boy elf -- the enormous size of the Easter Bunny can be very scary. In addition to their size, bunnies have a crazy way of darting about that is alarming to a little elf! So Eddie cried off and on the whole first day of the project. And there wasn't a thing that the Easter Bunny could say to comfort him. But, then, a wonderful thing happened. . .

Easter Bunny introduced Eddie to her newest baby bunny -- a tiny pink rabbit that was just the right size for Eddie. The little bunny quickly became Eddie's friend and he was no longer afraid of the other rabbits.

Eddie tried his hand at painting Easter eggs. Now that he was feeling much more brave around the bunnies, he decided to create an Elf Power Easter egg. Emily and Edith explained -- in the nicest elfin terms -- that the eggs were not normally elf-themed and that perhaps he could think of a better design for next year.

Once all the eggs have been decorated, and they have been distributed around the globe, the elves work until the early hours of Easter morning hiding all of their creations. And they are very, very good at this! Think about it. Elves are mischievous little creatures who are busily at work year-round and yet they are very seldom seen by human children -- and are almost never seen by human adults. You might say they are experts at covert operations. They apply this skill to the hiding of Easter eggs. . .and then they watch from behind the grasses, and flowers, and bird nests, and toys left idle in the yard, and watch as little boys and girls go in search of the elusive eggs.

Did you see any elves today on your Easter egg hunt today? I thought not.