If you’ve seen both films, then it’s really not that surprising at all that Mary Steenburgen would want her Happiest Season character to be different than the one she played in Elf.
In the former film, she plays Buddy the Elf’s stepmother, Emily.
While she takes it upon herself to take him in, she also refuses to see him as anything other than troubled and that his belief that he is one of Santa’s elves is something he needs to recover from.