Charming to this day.

Agreed. The first half is better than the second half, but except for one scene, it was a charming movie.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

Even though I am up there in years, I still have hung on to a little bit of the child in myself when it comes to suspending disbelief while watching fantasy films.
And to my mind, there are isn't any better fantasy film dealing with Santa Claus than this one.
Now, granted the last half of the movie is over the top slapstick about the corrupt toymaker recruiting Dudley Moore's elf character to make candy canes that let people fly.
But, the first third of the movie that deals with the origin of Santa Claus still warms my heart like no other Santa Claus movie ever did or has ever done since. And, I am not ashamed to say that, still to this day, when he takes to the sky on his first flight, I get goosebumps.

As a kid, this was the one they put on TV every Christmas. I think it's fading from public consciousness now though.

Kids today probably grow up watching Elf every year.

This would be one of those Saturday afternoon movies that would come on and I'd watch or fall asleep too. It was my first introduction to Dudley Moore and I loved him in this movie (he reminds me of Davy Jones). Anyway, I love it for it's little time capsule of 80s-ness.