The 2024 holiday season is well behind us, but there’s an amusing Christmas-related topic still being talked about. Before 2025 ended, Will Ferrell was seen at an L.A. Kings hockey game dressed as Buddy the Elf… or rather, a Buddy who’d fallen on hard times, as evidenced by his drinking and the cigarette in his mouth. Ferrell has now shared the story behind his viral decision dress up as his character from 2003’s Elf, one of the best Christmas movies, and his reasoning doesn’t get any more Will Ferrell than this.
To be fair, Ferrell has a history of doing weird stuff like this, like when he dressed up as Little Debbie during a visit to The Tonight Show a decade ago or when he DJed a frat party with his son Magnus. But as far as his rationale for why he decided to go dress as the disheveled Buddy the Elf, the SNL alum first gave the following explanation when he appeared on New Heights for why the human raised at the North Pole looked so rough:
Buddy the Elf got laid off, I think, from the North Pole.
Buddy may not have been as skilled as the other elves with working in Santa’s workshop, but to straight up be let go from the North Pole? Was this because Kris Kringle decided Buddy just wasn’t fit to help with making toys anymore, or was this simply a result of budget cuts? Am I thinking too much about this? Probably, but if Buddy had been sent packing, and given how many years he’s lived among other humans, I could see him falling onto booze and tobacco to cope. Anyways, back to reality, here’s what Ferrell said about deciding to dress up for the Kings game:
I get these weird ideas every now and then…I told my wife – because we’re season ticket holders of the LA Kings, we have the seats right on the glass, which were amazing – I said, ‘Gosh, over the break it’d be funny if I got a Buddy the Elf costume and didn’t shave for like a week and I’m just sitting there with a candy cigarette. And I’m just gonna sit there for a period and see how people react.’ And that was it.
Oh yeah, people definitely reacted to the sight of Buddy engaging in behavior that’d surely put him on the Naughty List. Will Ferrell’s new Buddy look took the internet by storm, which is a testament to how popular Elf remains more than 20 years after its release. There are even some people who break out the movie during July 4th! However, don’t go thinking that Ferrell donning this costume means that he’s preparing to legitimately reprise Buddy in a sequel or some other project. As he also said during the interview:
But the reaction was insane. ‘What is he doing?’ ‘Is he promoting something?’ But occasionally I just like to do weird things like that just to stir it up.
Various reasons have been given for why Elf 2 never happened, from the late James Chan claiming that it was because Will Ferrell and director Jon Favreau didn’t get along, to Ferrell saying he wasn’t interested in the sequel’s “rehashed premise.” So that appearances at the Kings game could very well be the last time we ever see the actor “play” Buddy. Given how Elf ended, I’d like to think the real Buddy is still living a great life with Josie and their daughter Susie rather than hitting up hockey games looking like he’d just been hanging out with Ebenezer Scrooge.
Although Elf currently isn’t available to stream following the conclusion of the holiday season, Will Ferrell fans can view his recent documentary Will & Harper with a Netflix subscription and see him next in You’re Cordially Invited, which those with an Amazon Prime Video subscription will be able to view starting on January 30.