How piskies help Father Christmas: an information sheet
Everyone knows about the elves. Fewer people know that in the West Country the small jobs of Christmas Eve fall to the piskies. This sheet sets out what they do, for children who need the facts and grown-ups who need a straight answer at bedtime.
A note on sources. The piskie is real folklore: the small, quick, mischievous folk of Cornwall and Devon, who lead travellers in circles for fun (turn your coat inside out to break the spell) and who, in the old stories, thresh a farmer's corn by night and vanish if anyone thanks them with new clothes. Their work for Father Christmas is our own telling, passed on by Pirran, the piskie on the Emporium's sign.
Why Father Christmas needs them
The West Country is awkward for a sleigh. The lanes are narrow, the hedges are high, the fog comes in off the sea and half the cottages have chimneys no wider than a teapot. Reindeer are no use in a lane. Piskies are small enough for the chimneys, they know every path because they have been leading people down the wrong ones for centuries, and they work at night anyway.
What they are paid in
Never money, and never new clothes: the old stories are firm that a piskie given a new coat leaves and does not come back. They work for a saucer of cream, a crumb of saffron bun and the fun of it. Pirran adds that a thimble of tea is welcome.
More in The Tea Room.
The rest of the year
From January to November a piskie has time on its hands. Pirran spends his at the Emporium, leaving parcels on the shelves: a piskie present takes a little off the price of whatever he has chosen that week, at the counter, with nothing to type. He says it keeps his hand in.
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More in The good host, The Curiosity Shop, The Great Hall of Play, The Bazaar.
How piskies help Father Christmas
An information sheet from the Piskie Emporium of Joy & Wonder. The piskie comes from the folklore of Cornwall and Devon; the Christmas duties are as told to us by Pirran.
Their Christmas Eve jobs
- Lane pilots. One piskie with a lantern goes ahead of the sleigh through fog and high hedges.
- Chimney scouts. They go down first to check the fire is out and the dog is asleep.
- Stocking fillers. The small things at the toe of a stocking are piskie work: the satsuma, the coin, the walnut.
- Lost-list finders. A letter that blew off the windowsill in November is found and delivered by hand.
- Crumb clearers. They tidy the mince pie plate so it looks eaten by one person in a hurry.
- Knot checkers. Every bow is tugged once. If it comes undone it was not a proper bow.
Things piskies will not do
- Carry anything bigger than themselves. Bicycles are a reindeer matter.
- Work for a house that has not said goodnight to its dog or cat.
- Accept new clothes. Offer cream.
- Be seen. If you think you saw one, you saw a moth.
How to stay on their good side
- Leave a saucer of cream by the back door, not the front.
- Leave the hearth swept and one light on low.
- Hang stockings where a small person could reach the toe.
- If you get lost on the way home, turn your coat inside out. They will take the hint.
- Say thank you out loud to an empty room on Christmas morning.
How to tell a piskie has been
- The cream is gone and the saucer is clean.
- One bauble is on a different branch.
- The cat looks as if it knows something.
- There is a very small parcel nobody remembers wrapping.
How piskies help Father Christmas: an information sheet · kernowtradingco.com/guide/how-piskies-help-father-christmas.html
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