Elves, Tall or Short?

Chances are, you have watched the Lord of the Rings movies. If so, think back, and try to remember how you felt when the 'elves' were represented as tall, and not little tiny people like in the Grimm fairy tales.
Did that moment challenge you to investigate the source behind Tolkien's elves?
I'm fairly certain from my own research, that the origin of these creatures may have its roots in the Proto-Germanic, and possibly even Indo-European mythologies. However evidence for or against these origins, what little scholars know of it for sure, lends little to the understanding, or to my argument.
Jacob Grimm suggests that there are three main delineations among the races of Elves, or Alfr.  The Light Elves, the Dark Elves, and the Black Elves.
He, and Snorri Strulossun assert that the Black Elves, may in fact be no different than the Dwarves.
But before I go getting too deep into the caverns of mythology on this subject, let's keep in mind that Tolkien was rather fond of Norse Mythology, and had studied at length (it was his job, after all) the languages at the root of the mythologies.
That seems to be enough for me to trust to his interpretation. However, there is the famous critical argument, which suggests that if Tolkien created Middle Earth out of his own mind, then it follows that he could have made certain basic changes to the races within his stories. That is his right, we assume, if he is the creator.
Middle Earth, after all, is not set up like the cosmology of Norse Mythology, or any other, for that matter. All he seems to have borrowed, are the races themselves, and that doesn't help my argument much. The same argument is also often cited for his particular elve's ears.
We assume, that elves, tall or short, have pointy ears.
Subsequent authors, who have borrowed the races that Tolkien used, have always shown their elves with pointy ears, but those elves were also always shown to be tall, and fair.
Regardless, of that particular interpretation which seems to be an artist's and not an author's vision in Tolkien's case, other than describing them at length in his books, Tolkien never really describes their ears.
He does, however mention how tall they were. He goes on, in certain parts of the Silmarillion to show that the race of Half-Elven, of whom Aragorn is the offspring, and who originally come from the island of Numenor, had elf blood flowing in their veins. This is used to explain how tall they were in comparison to the rest of the race of Man in Middle Earth.
The real issue that I have, then, with the representation of Elves as tiny folk, is that the correct word is not being used.
Piskies, Pixies, Sprites, even gods forefend, The Wee Folk, would do for the representation of these tiny interlopers, who both help the cobbler, and who lead some unfortunates far astray.
In any case, the Elves, of which Strulossun writes, were a race which inhabited the realm or world of Alfheim, and who were not really any different than the races of Men in Midgard, with the exceptions that they had retained some use of magic, and men could, if found worthy, become elves after their death.
Tolkien says himself, that the Elves were a race who abided in the world to keep it from changing, and who had not suffered a fall from grace, as the race of Men had, though some of their group had fallen, or turned away.
I like this last version the best.
I think the more reasonable assumption to make, when we refer to Elves, and their kind, is that they are indeed not tiny little people, but a regular sized race of beings, which exist outside the realm of men, dwarves, or Jotuns, the giants.
This may affect how we think of or call Santa's elves, but even he is called a Jolly Old Elf, and we assume, that that's okay. Regardless of their portrayal, the miniature creatures that so plague us by taking one of a pair of socks, or who tempt us to our early fates in the woods, are not really elves as we have called them, but some other race entirely. In the meantime, try to think of elves the way they are presented by Tolkien when you read about the Norse Cosmology. I think you will find that they fit much better.