Well, gnu, I'm not suggesting Santa Claus doesn't exist...I'm suggesting he isn't an Elf. I don't think children really care whether or not he's an Elf, do they?

JennieG - You can't be serious. There have been many famous female Elves in stories about Middle Earth and other such tales and there's no such thing as an "Elfette". A male Elf is an Elf. A female Elf is an Elf. They're all Elves. And they live in total equality quite regardless of gender, so what's the point of designating a female Elf by some separate term like "Elfette" when she's already a fully-fledged Elf in the first place?

When a female Elf goes to war, she is often referred to as a shield-maiden, however, that being a special honor. Elves are particularly proud of their fighting shield-maidens, and it's a role taken up by a fair number of female Elves (perhaps 15 or 20 per cent of them) as a regular thing, and by all of them when it becomes a necessity. They are well versed in the use of weapons such as the sword, the dagger, the spear, and the bow.