In the early 50's Beulah Rigg gave me a little ceramic Red Elf, conical hat, pointy-toed shoes and all. It was at some function at the Methodist Church that she gave it to me, probably as a joke, or perhaps she had drawn my name in a gift exchange. It sat on the mantle that Christmas and then was put away with all the other decorations and baubles of our Christmas. The following Yule Time it came out of hiding to grace a spot,  somewhere  in our home,  as decoration.

It was in the third year that my wife, Pearl asked if I would make her a small pine log with two holes bored in the middle for candles. I had just cut two feet from the bottom of our Christmas Tree, so finding the materials was not hard to do. I bored the two holes in the middle of "the Log", but she decided she didn't want them in the middle. So I sawed about eight inches from one end, and it was, in her words, "just perfect".

She put two red candles and some fresh greenery along with a few magnolia leaves I'd swiped from the tree in L. O. McClung's Yard, and then she spied the Little Red Elf. When she placed him on the log amidst the greenery, the small scene was complete.

For nearly sixty years now, the Little Red Elf has stood faithful watch and participated in the Christmas's of our family. The greenery is renewed each year, the candle dripping have accumulated in the rough bark and the dings and the dents have, each year, become more noticeable on it, just as they have on us. Like us with each other, and like the memories shared, The "Little Red Elf on the Coffee Table", becomes more precious each year. Each year we remember "Bute" Rigg and others of our life and we retell the story of the "Little Red Elf", and for just a while those people and those moments seem to live again!  

Merry Christmas from John and Pearl McCurdy
 

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