elf on the shelf

[SaRaHb1230]

I was wondering, how many of you do the elf on the shelf tradition. My children love it we have one elf who comes every year. They get so excited what other traditions dose everyone do..

[Haudyerwheesht]

Yes I do it, ds is over it now (9) but Dd (5) loved it

[SaRaHb1230]

We have our elf arrive on the 1st December. She brings a massive box of December goodies,and there advent calender's. They get so excited when she arrives they love it.

[Zombiemama]

Is 2 too young for this? I watched in envy at facebook posts last Christmas thinking i cant wait for this year but im wondering if just 2 a few days before the 1st will be too young

[Floggingmolly]

I think they're sinister little buggers...


Who'd want to see this smirking at them from a shelf every morning?

[Floggingmolly]

Here's ours:

[tanya1312]

These are our ones , also got a new one coming xx

[tanya1312]

zombiemamma my youngest was 21 mths when we started, did have a 10 year old that helped him catch on to the idea.
Just keep it simple, put elf in different place with a choc gold coin doing something, little one will soon catch on to find the elf in the morning xx

[SideOrderofChip]

I don't. Creepy little bastards

[teaandcake789]

We do it and the kids love it! But our elf only visits from the first day of the school holidays though He may arrive on the last day of school this year seeing as it's so close. No way could I do it from the 1st

[ASAS]

I attempted dinovember last year. DS just tidied things away when he saw them.

[SpringerS]

How old is your DS ASAS? I'd love to do Dinovember with DS who turns four in November. But as we have a magical Tomte for December (similar to Elf on Shelf) I don't want to do something else magical for the month before. Both for my own sanity and because I think two straight months of magic would actually lessen the experience. I was thinking of doing Augustosaurous instead, but cheating a bit as he doesn't pay attention to the months. So I'm going to just do it for about 10 days at the end of the month/start of December and time the end for when he starts preschool as I have some new dinosaur toys put away for him to celebrate ow brave he is (hopefully) going to be. The last morning he'll wake up to the old dinos having a welcome party for the new dinos.

[ASAS]

Springer he was 3 but tbh has such a wonderful imagination that I struggled to trump his own ideas.

[Lunar1]

I'm think the elf is creepy! My friend does it and it seems to consume December and cause her no end of stress and worry that she might ruin the magic.

[OSETmum]

DS (7) got one this year. I didn't think he'd be into it, but he saw one in the garden centre ( a cute one not a creepy one) and fell in love with it. So much so that he's been visiting every so often during the year! He came at Easter, ds's birthday and we're about to leave for the airport and guess who's coming with us?!

He'll go away until Christmas though when we get back so it's more exciting when he does come back.

[MrsDilligaf]

DD will be 10 months at Christmas so won't get the idea. I might do something similar with a less creepy elf than the "official" one when she's a bit older.

The caveat to that is that I will plan the pranks in advance as I remember one of my colleagues panicking about what to do with the elf. IIRC he ended up in various cupboards!

[augustwashout]

I got my own soft toy elf from ikea, much prettier and less scary! We called her Ellie, and she came with a special letter explaining why she was there " to get a feel for the presents the children may want" ( nothing about spying on good bheaviour) and also why she couldnt come every year.

She made an appearance two years ago and not been seen since...older DD LOVED it, utterly LOVED IT!!!! i think she will be making a return this year

[DrSeuss]

We have a penguin who arrives on 1/12 with a letter stating that he should be placed in different room every day to get a full picture of behaviour! He leaves with Santa.

[SpringerS]

My brother lives in Sweden with his Swedish girlfriend and a few years ago, pre-DC, they brought us a Tomte which is a Swedish house gnome. From Myth, the Tomten guard your house but can also get up to mischief and play pranks. And they were also the Swedish precursor to Santa who brought gifts at Christmas time. We used to put him at the top of our tree each year. So when DS was old enough I decided to use him in similar way to the Elf on the Shelf. So around this time last year I wrote a story about him and made photo illustrations that look painted and had it printed as a hardcover book.

The story gives a little background on the Tomten and then is about how this Tomte wanted an adventure and snuck in the suitcase of a traveller (my brother) and found his way to our house. When he met DS he decided to live on our Christmas tree. And each night of advent he climbs down, gets up to mischief and leaves a clue in a banner advent calendar for a special craft or adventure he has arranged for us to do that day. I called him the Advent-urous Tomte. He arrives on 30/11 with the book and a large banner advent calendar and starts and from the next night he starts his mischief. On Christmas Eve morning he leaves a special breakfast and cookie mix for Santa and after that I put him back up on the tree and he stops coming back down.
[IMG]i67.tinypic.com/29fz3pw.png[/IMG]

[SpringerS]

Proper pic.

[TelephoneTree]

yes yes we do. Ours brings a letter from the North Pole each day too. The kids love it. From the international elf service.
What's dinovember??

[Reindeerlily]

I do the godamn elf on the shelf. Some days are consumed with the hell Hes gonna do tonight!!

[SpringerS]

Dinovember is when all during November toy dinosaurs come to life at night when all the humans are asleep.

www.huffingtonpost.com/refe-tuma/dinovember_b_4270164.html

I love the idea but think November is too close to Christmas if you do an elf, or similar, magic creature all through December.

[Rifleponyandme]

Anybody who has the elf already what size is the elf?? For instance in comparrison to say a barbie doll??

[TelephoneTree]

About that size or slightly bigger but some people use much larger ones. You can choose whichever size you like!

[calli335]

I want to do elf on the shelf this year. The book seems quite expensive but the doll's reasonable. Is it better to have the book as well though?