Did You Know?

Figgy Pudding provides 83% of your recommended daily allowance of holiday spirit.

Special agents apprehend one of Santa’s original reindeer, FLOTSAM, in a counterfeit toy sting.

Investigations

While most children associate them with the protection of the president, The Elf Secret Service was originally charged with the mission of protecting children from Christmas fraud. In Victorian England, a miserly banker named Ebenezer Scrooge started a wave of humbuggery that led to certain individuals dressing as Santa Claus and committing either fraud or cat burglary. In other parts of the world, merchants had taken to mass producing toys that they then sold to unwitting parents, explaining that Santa was now charging for the delivery of toys.

In 1886, Santa’s head elf Jingle Joe formed The Elf Secret Service, and they immediately set to work investigating and prosecuting the naughtiest of Christmas criminals, (or “chriminals,” as they are sometimes called.) Within a year of their formation, Christmas fraud rates had been cut by 85%.

With a staff of over 300 elves working in 15 different divisions—including Electronic Fraud, Tree Fraud and the Department of Department Store Santas—the Investigative Branch is the largest of Santa’s Secret Service.