Shinny wears a makeshift copy of Santa's outfit that he says he created somewhere around 400 or 600 years ago. As pieces of the outfit wear out and fall off, he replaces them with makeshift hunks, chunks and patches. Shinny is definitely on the cutting edge for creative attire.
Shinny is the leader of the Elves and is Santa's oldest friend and co-founder of the village. Everyone pretty much ignores his crankiness because without ol' Shinny, there wouldn't be a North Pole Village and maybe not even a Santa Claus.
SHINNY UPATREE has been around so long, he's even forgotten how old he is, but he remembers when the North Pole Village was just one cold, one- room igloo. That was before he was known as Shinny. His original name was Ooopsy Shenanigan.
Ooopsy had left his homeland to live on his own, so he didn't have to deal with any typical elf village responsibilities. He wanted to be a hermit. And that was that. But that was before the fellow named Santa Claus arrived, lost, in the vast frozen northern wasteland with all his great ideas to honor children on Christmas.
In fact, it was Ooopsy (soon to be Shinny) who introduced the idea of having a Christmas Tree in the house. Actually, he'd built his igloo around a baby fir tree because it looked so healthy and green. It eventually grew so big it took over his igloo, and he had to cut a hole in the igloo's roof so it could keep growing.
With the tree filling the igloo, Ooopsy had to find a place to put all his personal items. Since he didn't have a closet, a dresser, or even shelves in the igloo, he started hanging his belongings on that tree...his spectacles, his watch and chain, a pipe, some favorite glass beads, a crystal prism or two, his reading glass, some bright gold and silver coins, etc. Every night when he built his cooking fire, the firelight made everything on the tree shimmer and twinkle with magical light.
And that was when this jolly fellow named Santa Claus came along in his sleigh and found Ooopsy. Watching the old elf shinny up and down the tree with all his belongings, Santa was very amused and came up with the nickname of Shinny Upatree, which Ooopsy liked a whole lot better than Ooopsy. (Wouldn't you?). Santa was so taken with the beautiful twinkling tree that he decided that everyone should have such a tree to celebrate Christmas. And that is how the Christmas tree was born, right there in Shinny's igloo.
Even though Shinny had originally gone off on his own to be alone, when he heard of Santa's ideas to make Christmas a magical time for children all over the world, Shinny became the first true believer in Santa Claus.
He started contacting other elves in faraway lands to see if they too believed in Santa's love for children and Christmas. Shinny was very particular about the elves who were invited to help build the first village at the North Pole. From all over the world, the elves that came brought with them their old trades as builders, furniture and toy makers, artists, painters and designers. And all of them, every last one, brought with them elfin magic, the ancient birthright of all elves everywhere.
Santa and Shinny welcomed them all, and in exchange for the kindness and the sense of belonging they felt, each one of the elves, like Shinny had done before, gave a little portion of their own magic to Santa Claus. Because, if the big fella was to ever realize his dream, his great loving vision of bringing Christmas to the children of the world, he'd need all the magic he could get. The rest is, as they say, history. As the centuries wore on and Shinny Upatree grew in stature among the other elves as their elder and leader. Santa Claus could always leave it to Shinny to make sure everything got done on time and in darned good order.
Of course, Claus worried about his oldest friend, because in the last couple of hundred years, as the world population of children grew and grew and grew, Shinny's patience had grown shorter and shorter and shorter, because the work load had gotten heavier and heavier and heavier. In an event still remembered centuries later, Santa and all the elves went to Shinny and told him that they'd all decided to take all the burden off him. They were going to be delegating out his work and actually dividing up Shinny's chores among everyone else. You should have heard him yelling, stomping and throwing furniture!!! As everyone ran for cover, they laughed, figuring Shinny's answer to their suggestion was..."NOOOOOOOOO!!!" So Shinny is still in charge of all yearly preparations for the annual big night. And because he always manages to get the job done, everyone cuts him plenty of slack for his curmudgeonliness, [defintion: a crusty, ill-tempered, and usually old man.] because what it all comes down to is that without Shinny, the magic that is Christmas just wouldn't be the same.
