Smurfette was originally created by Gargamel

For Christmas, my son got the complete box set of original Smurfs cartoons that I used to watch when I was a child. Anyone who has ever watched the Smurfs will have wondered at the role played by the only female in the village of 100 boy Smurfs.

Sitting down to watch the first episode, I was surprised to learn that Smurfette was actually created by Gargamel, the wicked wizard who is perpetually trying to locate the Smurf village (with their massive mushroom houses, you'd think it'd be easier to find). So like the story of Eve, their first female was created by a big, vengeful (think Old Testament) man whose name begins with G.

She had short, black, unstyled hair then but of course when Papa Smurf discovered who she really was he made a magic potion to turn her into the perfect token female for the village: blonde (they have more fun) and sweet tempered.

From information that came with the box set I have also learnt that all the Smurfs are 100 years old (although they continue to celebrate birthdays without getting older) except for Papa Smurf who is 542. 

If they have birthdays, they must have been born, right? How the Smurfs come into existence is unclear. All the fella Smurfs existed without a female (or mother) before Smurfette turned up so impressed that rules out the need for a male/female coupling or any kind of fertilisation. Even if they hatched from eggs they'd need a mother to lay them. Is there a chance there were women once but they've all cleared out?

More mind boggling, in the new (and in my view, corrupted) episodes there suddenly appears a couple of kids (including a little girl) and a baby. 

A quick Google search reveals other people before me have asked the same questions, and spent much more time researching and arguing the answer. The answer that seems most acceptable is the good old stork.