Will Ferrell as a third culture kid?

There are a lot of Christmas movies out there - some good, some not, some classic, some goofy, some cheesy, some highly irreverent. Odds are you have a favorite, maybe "A Charlie Brown Christmas" or "It's a Wonderful Life." Meggan and I? No buts about it, our favorite is "Elf." Will Ferrell is hilarious, and unlike most of his stuff, it's clean. Good plot, good comedy, good pick-me-up, nothing raunchy. An all-around fun flick.

We put it in the DVD player this week, and a whole new way to see the movie opened up for me: Elf is basically a third culture kid.

What is a third culture kid, or TCK? TCKs are kids who grow up between two cultures. Their parents are expatriates, living in a culture other than their home culture. Oftentimes TCKs don't really "fit" in the country where they live or their parents' home country. The two cultures combine to create a "third culture" (hence the name). A TCK of Nigerian parents raised in Germany would quite possibly feel like she has more in common with a TCK of Canadian parents raised in Brazil than she does with anyone from either Nigeria or Germany. In our world today, third culture kids come from military families, government diplomats' families, international business families, and ... missionary families. If we stay in Spain long-term, our kids will be TCKs.

So, how is Buddy the Elf a TCK? On the surface, the movie is about adoption. Will Ferrell's character, Buddy, is a human who crawls into Santa's sack as a baby in an orphanage. He is adopted by an elf father and raised at the North Pole. However, with the differences between elves and humans, Buddy's situation ends up more like that of a TCK than that of an adopted child. He cannot perform basic elf tasks at the level of the elves around him, and he stands out as the different kid. Some of his differences are useful, but many make him a misfit. When he returns to New York City, the same thing happens - he doesn't function like a normal human being. He has been raised in a perpetually upbeat culture, and he subsists on a diet of various forms of sugar. He commits some serious cultural blunders that any born-and-raised New Yorker would not make. He also has some skills that no New Yorker can match - his energy and ability for crafts and play, while sub-elf, are superhuman. He is an unparalleled bridge between the two worlds, and that becomes a great thing.

So this Christmas, as we expect our first child who will probably be a TCK, "Elf" takes on fresh emotional significance for me. When I see him doing things no one else can do, I glow with a hint of expectant pride. When I see his sorrow at feeling like he doesn't belong anywhere, I ache just a bit. And theologically, when I think of the day in the renewed heaven-on-earth to come at the end of the age, I rest in knowing that we will all feel as though we have come home.

If you've never seen "Elf," go watch it! If you like "Elf," watch it again and look for this theme. If you have personal knowledge of TCKs, take a look and let me know of any parallels you see that I haven't mentioned.

(Photo credits - Flickr user Positively Puzzled)