All Hallows' Eve at the North Pole

Christmas is just around the corner… and you’d think at the North Pole, the capital of Holiday Spirit, they’d already be prepping the Christmas trees and decorations. The elves want you to know that they always take time for fall festivities! While it’s true that the elves are already hard at work making toys, Halloween time offers a great opportunity for so much fun! And it can be very useful.

Halloween is a shortened version of All Hallows’ Eve. It was originally abbreviated to Hallowe’en. Hallows means saints, and Halloween is celebrated on the eve of All Saints’ Day. In Celtic celebrations, people dressed up in costumes to scare away or trick evil spirits. If you celebrate Halloween now, you know that dressing up is much more playful in our modern day celebrations. This makes Halloween not only a lot of FUN for the elves… but it offers a very convenient way for the elves to get a jumpstart on that naughty or nice list!

The elves love to dress up and visit different countries to go trick or treating! Not only do they get candy (elves just love sugar) but they can get a up close look at how all of the kids in the world are behaving. Are they sharing their candy? Are they saying thank you? Are they pushing other kids?

So it is a magical night where the elves walk amongst the children of the world. They also like to check on the harvests around the world. Many of our Halloween celebrations can also find roots from a variety of harvest celebrations. Corn, pumpkins, apples, and squash are all part of the autumn harvest, and play big parts in our Halloween celebrations. In fact, did you know that before carving pumpkins, people in Ireland carved turnips and potatoes? They made scary faces to scare off an evil spirit named Jack. And in England they were known to carve beets! When the Irish and British came to America, they began to use pumpkins instead and the Jack O’ Lantern was born.

So the elves also have carving contests. The elves can attempt to use any fruit or vegetable they can find. Some have even tried to carve a tomato… which didn’t come out so well, but it sure gave everyone a big laugh, and made a mess which the elves quickly cleaned up. So when you're out trick-or-treating, be sure to keep an eye out for your favorite elf from the North Pole.