They probably have PRONOUNS too 
In all seriousness, as a kid I wondered why they looked like little pixie gnomes in American media when in Finland they typically look like smaller clones of Santa
They probably have PRONOUNS too
In all seriousness, as a kid I wondered why they looked like little pixie gnomes in American media when in Finland they typically look like smaller clones of Santa
Tomte/nisse predates Santa by a fair bit, closer to gnome than elf (Alv). Not sure why Anglos decided that Santa was associated with elves rather than gnomes though. You had to leave porridge out for the house gnomes to repay them for watching the animals (likely where Anglos got the milk and cookies from) or he’d fuck you up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisse_(folklore)
Granted, elf was also used interchangeably for dwarves and elves until the 19th century.