Elf on a Shelf
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Who’s heard of this Christmas spyfest phenomenon?
This is a picture of our “Elf on a Shelf.” You may notice that he is not, in fact, on a shelf. This is because after my 1st grader explained what an elf on a shelf was (having heard about it in the cafeteria over chicken nuggets at school), she told me he ‘moves around’ to different places in your house, because he goes back to the North Pole at night to ‘tattletale on you to Santa if you’re bad.’ So the other day our official “Elf on a Shelf” landed next to Jesus inside the manger, which I just thought was funny.
I am aware there is like an “Elf on a Shelf” elf with a book at the Hallmark store, but I am too cheap for that so I got this one for free at the church Christmas Bazaar where I’m an insider in the White Elephant Room. I am all for the concept of Santa watching my kids via a cute vintagey elf. I actually heard my daughter tell my son that they had to be nice to each other in front of the elf.
When we were kids, we actually had an elf who lived in the closet (hopefully he’s out by now, cuz any dude who wears tights and glitter may as well just come on out of that closet, nay?). The elf, who had handwriting suspiciously similar to my mother’s, used to leave us little glitter-sparkly notes from Santa. In younger years, I do remember thinking this was quite magical, so I am happy we have this elf-spy now.
Even if he is just a tiny bit creepy.
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We used to have a couple of those things hanging from our tree. Oddly, until this Christmas season, I’d never head that this was the Elf Spy. I’m SO glad I tossed the remaining Elf Spy in the bin for the garage sale last summer.
I’ve only recently heard of it – it wasn’t something we do. We pretty much believe Santa is all knowing. And since the kids don’t yet understand the fact that Santa is a man, and therefore only THINKS he’s all knowing, rather than actually BEING all knowing, they fall for it.
The very first time I heard of “elf on a shelf” was this year, thanks to the power of blogging! I love that the elf is snuggling up with the baby Jesus though. So cute!
That is the creepiest elf I have ever seen! But I think that is part of the brilliance behind the idea, huh? I wonder if I put that in my kids’ rooms, would they be too scared to get out of their beds in the middle of the night? Worth a try.
The cheeks on that thing are terrifying!
Our Elf is Houdini. He works miracles. My 2 tweens buy into the whole going to the North Pole at night (or at least they ACT LIKE they believe) and returning to hide. I have a 10 1/2 year old and a nearly 12 year old looking for our hiding Houdini every morning and believing they cannot touch him without causing him to lose his Elfin magic. I find him to be cute, not creepy at all. But then again, I still believe in Santa and Elfin magic.
I’m going to be the bah humbug
No, we won’t do an elf on the shelf for a few reasons. Mainly, because I’m personally against telling kids that their presents hinges on their behavior. Kids already have so many consequences; in my opinion adding one more stressor isn’t fair (esp. for kids under 6 or 7 who are not developmentally able to separate fantasy from reality – they won’t get that this is a game). Second (and here’s where most people will find me the real grinch), we’re just not doing Santa. I posted on this last week if anyone is interested in our reasons, but I’m sure they’re the same as most people’s who choose not to do Santa. So in our case, the elf just doesn’t make sense.
All that being said, that elf is CRAZY looking!
Elf on the Shelf seems a little frightening to me but I am also liking the idea of having some kind of enforcer since my kids seem to be immune to threats. What to do, what to do…
We have had them for years but they werent part of a book, just two elves that my sister bought us. We had one for each kid and they moved every night somehow.
On Christmas eve they were on the tree and Santa took them back to the NP when he dropped off the presents..
We never did the elf on the shelf thing, though lots of people I know do.
I prefer a hidden video camera so I can catch my teenagers doing what they shouldn’t. They don’t care about Santa, only about having their car privileges taken away.
Oh my that Elf is creepy! So funny that he is by Jesus today! We don’t do elf on the shelf because well, I can barely handle the holidays as it is with Haannukah and Christmas but last night we went to dinner at a friend’s house and Miles found the elf by the tree and he hid it. Hopefully they foound him!
I’ve never heard of this before. That didn’t stop me from turning around and telling my 3 very young children about the elvin spy. Now I just need to go buy an elf or 10 big enough to rig with small camera’s for future use.
Such a good idea. My kids need to know that they’d better behave or Santa is going to go cheap this year…
OMG he looks like one of those possessed leprechauns my Irish grandma used to tell us, would bite our feet if we didn’t wear clean socks! Yeah um I have childhood “issues”. Have to say though that I’m glad kiddo was partaking of the Nuggets! he he.. I didn’t get a song parody done for ya. You can pull my card if you have to but try a little tenderness first eh? I DID however put a song up on my blog today that is rather befitting this post. MARY Christmas (no that is NOT one of my world famous typos! )
I have an official elf on a shelf gife set. Has the book and the elf. It’s pretty effing cool.
love it!
Your elf is almost as creepy as my Baby Santa. He’s been on adventures all month.
And the White Elephant Room is hysterical!
I’m loving your elf spy, and the way he’s hugging those glitter knees.
Great post!