[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"Santa Claus/St.Nick is called “the right jolly old elf” or something like that in the poem “The Night Before Christmas”."

L. J. Ask the resident expert! (Mairdie!)

[mairdie]

http://henrylivingston.com/xmas/poemvariants/troysentinel1823.htm

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laugh’d when I saw him in spite of myself;

[little jeremiah]

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread...