Some people don’t believe in these fantasy characters

_Elsa_

‘Each and every year, we welcome figures like Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy into our homes with excitement, and why wouldn’t we? Their arrivals include a gift under a tree, in a basket, or under your pillow.

But have you ever stopped to think about the fact that we’ve all been convinced, since we were children, that these strange figures should be welcomed into our homes at night while we sleep? Or about the fact that to earn these presents, they have to watch us every minute of the day for a year to see if we’ve been good enough for a home invasion?

Jolly old Saint Nick just got a little scarier—here are the origin stories behind the creepy figures we let invade our space every year.

Cupid - Valentine’s Day is an incredibly commercialized holiday these days, and we typically don’t see or hear much from Cupid anymore. However, he was once a fairly integral part of the holiday, even though his story was a little strange—a chubby child who flies around giving people crushes on one another by spearing them with arrows.

In Roman mythology, however, Cupid was the God of love, though he really wasn’t the loving, fat little cherub we all believe him to be. No, many paintings and works of literature actually depict Cupid as being quite mischievous, and someone who actually aimed to cause havoc within people’s personal relationships.

 Leprechauns - They’re the cute little guys waiting for you at the end of the rainbow. They’re hopping away, shamrock-hatted, with their Lucky Charms. We think of leprechauns, mostly, as harmless elf-like creatures who cause a little mischief at most without going too crazy. However, in Irish folklore, they can actually be pretty tricky to deal with. 

“Early leprechauns,” according to Ancient Origins, “were described as sly old men that wore red suits and were often found working on a solitary shoe.” There’s even evidence that before being deemed “leprechauns,” they were “voracious warriors,” both male and female, and lived underwater.

By the eighteenth century, a trope arose in leprechaun stories: if human captures a leprechaun (wealthy, land-living shoemakers at this point), the creature will usually grant three wishes in return for his freedom. Unfortunately for the wish maker, this situation tends to end up like the movie Bedazzled, where the wishes come true, but not in the way the wisher wanted.

The Elf on the Shelf - Right up there with Santa is the Elf on the Shelf, an elf said to have been sent down from the North Pole to survey kids’ homes and make sure they’re being good. When the child falls asleep, the elf reports back to Santa and returns to the home by morning. 

The trade-off for having a creature break into your home is that, while the kids are asleep, the elf gets into all sorts of trouble and leaves a funny scene for them to wake up to. Unlike Santa Claus, though, the elf doesn’t even leave any present behind—we’re just letting it break into our homes to do Santa’s recon! They wake up and this intruder has played with their toys, made a mess of their food, and gotten into tons of other trouble along the way.’ (Source) 

Let’s continue – Look who showed up in Bamboo Forrest! 

Start at the beginning – A story about childhood imagination and make believe