I’ll keep it real with y’all, despite considering myself an avid Sufjan fan, I’ve yet to fully-dive into his Christmas output due to how daunting it is. There are 100 tracks from the core albums alone (not counting any singles or EPs I might be forgetting), and my choice here was a completely random one as Taylor asked me to join this project. I figured “why not?” and decided to choose the track name that made me laugh the most and hope the best from there.

Well, I do have a bone to pick with Mr. Sufjan Stevens here. Despite the fact that the song is called “Come on! Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance!”, there are no mentions of elves in the song. There’s lots of mentions of Santa and Jesus, but not one elf is mentioned throughout the song. With the track name, I’m thinking, oh hey, this could be like a story song about the elves having a little party for all the hard work they’ve done for their boss, but alas, it’s just another song about being excited for Christmas and loving Jesus.

On a more serious note though, are Santa’s elves his slaves? As far as we know, none of the elves are paid and their compensation is whatever lodging Santa gives them on the North Pole. Alternatively, is the North Pole a communist commune where there is no currency and the elves work not for money, but for personal satisfaction and for the love of children across the world? Or is it an ethnostate with Santa and Mrs. Claus being the only exception?

Ok but for real though, this is a fine, serviceable Sufjan Christmas song. The instrumental arrangement here sounds lovely and could have easily fit on Illinois with some more polish. The way the song and the instrumentation builds and builds on top of itself towards the end before the tension releases, only to build itself back up again as the chorus and verse 3 duel it out before the outro and chorus do the same, before releasing again one last time. Overall, “Come on! Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance!” is another lovely addition to the Sufjan Christmas canon, but I would like an answer to the questions I’ve raised throughout this write-up, sound off in the comments about what you think.