--- title: Man Dressed as Elf Engages in Pillow Fights with Shoppers description: Firefighter Brendan Sullivan dressed as Buddy the Elf, initiating a series of pillow fights with various shoppers at a Boston mall. canonical: https://time.com/5474104/pillow-fight-elf/ author: Wilder Davies article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-07T19:12:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:20.612Z og:title: Man Dressed as Elf Engages in Pillow Fights with Shoppers og:description: In an effort to make holiday shopping more fun and festive og:url: https://time.com/5474104/pillow-fight-elf/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Dressed as Elf Engages in Pillow Fights with Shoppers twitter:description: In an effort to make holiday shopping more fun and festive twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Man Dressed As Buddy the Elf Engages in Friendly Pillow Fights with Mall Shoppers  by [Wilder Davies](https://time.com/author/wilder-davies/)  ## Wilder Davies Dec 7, 2018 7:12 PM UTC  by [Wilder Davies](https://time.com/author/wilder-davies/)  ## Wilder Davies Dec 7, 2018 7:12 PM UTC For some, fighting and arguing are an [inevitable part of the holiday season](http://time.com/4616841/holidays-family-advice/), and a lighthearted way to do it is with pillows. A video shared to Facebook on Tuesday shows firefighter Brendan Sullivan dressed as Buddy the Elf, from the popular Christmas flick _Elf_ initiating a series of pillow fights with various shoppers at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston. Sullivan, who regularly posts comedic videos on Facebook, [told WHDH](https://whdh.com/news/firefighter-dresses-up-as-buddy-the-elf-challenges-people-to-pillow-fights-in-boston/) that he was inspired by the 2003 movie and its starring actor. “I love Will Ferrell anything,” Sullivan said. “For Will Ferrell to come out with Buddy the Elf, it’s just like an iconic character now for Christmas.” “We just wanted to spread holiday cheer, make people laugh, smile,” he said. “That’s what we’re out there for.” In the video, Sullivan is shown approaching passersby, yelling “pillow fight!” before tossing them a pillow to play along. The string of clips shows people young and old fighting Sullivan, wielding a diverse range of technique. “How do you win?” One girl asks, amid a tufted tussle with Sullivan “You don’t, I do.” he responds. Some people were more reserved, cautious of the costumed stranger attempting to engage them in combat. Others took to the challenge quickly, and were decidedly more lethal. The boy at the 1:15 mark went in for an immediate assault of shots to Sullivan’s head, knocking his hat off in the process. Later a young man in a Patriots jersey scampered around, taunting Sullivan whilst swinging the sack of polyfill. What can be said about all of these people however, was that they were having a good time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5474104/pillow-fight-elf/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5474104/pillow-fight-elf/"},"headline":"Man Dressed As Buddy the Elf Engages in Friendly Pillow Fights with Mall Shoppers","datePublished":"2018-12-07T19:12:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:20.612Z","description":"Firefighter Brendan Sullivan dressed as Buddy the Elf, initiating a series of pillow fights with various shoppers at a Boston mall.","url":"https://time.com/5474104/pillow-fight-elf/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Holidays 2018"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Wilder Davies","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/wilder-davies/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5474104/pillow-fight-elf/","name":"Man Dressed As Buddy the Elf Engages in Friendly Pillow Fights with Mall Shoppers"}}]}] ```