To not do 'Elf on the shelf'

I really hope my child never asks because I don't like it either.

And Christmas eve boxes which I think are a silly idea too!

Stand your ground, OP! We always refused to get one and are so glad we stuck to our guns. We just told our kids, “Sorry, some families just don’t have elves, guess we’re one of the families that doesn’t need one!” Now that our kids are getting older, a lot of their friends’ parents who started the elves are sick to death of having to keep it up every year.

There are loads of ways to make Christmas magical without having to move an elf around every night.

Oh god no! We are super Christmassy that’s a step too far…

This year for various reasons we can’t do any of the ‘expected’ stuff; children have last years IKEA village advent calendar, a Christmas market trip planned and a trip to Stourhead with family. That’s it. possibly can’t even decorate until mid December. I can’t wait!

I can't mentally deal with the effort of a naughty elf. DC (9) really wants an elf and has offered to buy one with own money, but I've had to say only the special ones ordered by parents do the naughty stuff and I am NOT ordering one. I'm happy to indulge in a lot of C-mas stuff, but have held firm on not doing the elf - she might be the only one in the class without one, but it's a good lesson I learning not everyone has everything sometimes...

No elf here.

DD (now 9) did ask a couple of years ago why we don't have an elf and i told her i don't one in the house. We have the happy pink sparkly elf who she takes out of the decoration box when we do the tree and sits nicely on the mantle piece and that will do us.

DD was thoughtful - then seemed pleased.

Last year DD went to a sleep over around xmas time and the 4 girls (same class in school) scared themselves silly about the bloody elf turning it's head to see them in the dark and DD had be to be picked up at 2am 🙄

SIL is slightly mental about it IMO. She does OTT hilarious antics with the thing and posts pics on face book. Apparently. I'm not on there.

I'm a single parent so would make a big fuss of wanting a particular something (new book / cd / perfume etc) and then have the Elf deliver said thing to DD with gift wrapping materials - gift bag and shredded paper when little then wrapping paper (same wrapping paper as Santa's gift to her ofcourse) etc when she was a bit older. And she would keep it secret and proudly hand me my present on Christmas morning.

This is lovely. I'm just imagining how your DD must have felt being able to hand that over 🥰

I loved doing the Elf for mine and was gutted when they got too old. I then did it for my class at school, who really loved it, and the ones who didn't get an elf at home got to participate too.

He didn't do anything naughty though. Just cute things I could then use as a learning activity for whatever we were doing that day.

This post is lovely - full of fabulous ideas and I especially like the one where you buy yourself a present but your daughter wraps it - magical 💫✨

So much pressure to do this, see that!

Christmas boxes, special.pajamas, pantomime, the dratted Elf, baking, mugs of cocoa, Nativity plays, Christmas jumpers...

Why do we pile it on so much? It just wears everyone out, including the children.

Shame on the first day visiting he tried watching TV

Now the idea may have been designed for one day - but what if 'your' elf just can't get out?

I love our elf. It doesn’t watch behaviour or fly back to Santa to tell tales though. It’s just mischievous.

Every morning my DC run around trying to find where the elf is!! It’s funny listening to them. When they find him, they run back upstairs to tell me what he’s done… and then I act exasperated 😂 Usually it’s toothpaste writing on a mirror, toilet paper around the Christmas tree, string hung all around the kitchen ceiling, flour snow angels on the hallway floor.

Sometimes he leaves little gifts or a treasure hunt 🤩

I’ll be doing the elf for the rest of eternity haha. Even when it’s just DH and me!!

We’ve never done them - nor have any of DC’s friends families. We’ve survived and still happy!

Nope. Elf is not invited to our house thank you! (Mainly because I can’t be bothered to something every day)

but DSs school actually have a school elf and they take great delight in seeing what he’s been up to. They have a cheeky elf and the
children teach him manners by demonstrating it themselves and actually it seems to work

I’m all for Christmas bedding though, it’s not like we get new stuff every year - we look forward to bringing out the Christmas bedsheets again!

Never done it and never will. We celebrate Christmas and have a lovely time, elf on the shelf is not obligatory.

The elf comes to our house. We didn't do it until DC started school and everyone else had one.

It's just a bit of fun and doesn't take much time.

He doesn't check up on DC or report back to Santa though; I don't see the point of something that's meant to be fun but also makes kids worry all month that they may not get presents.

This is what worries me. If I did the Elf I'd probably get too subversive with the scenes I'd want to set up.

Not a thing in our house either, I hate the bloody things. DDs are 7 and 5 and I think it was DD1 that asked last year whether we would have an elf like her friends at school. I just told her that we didn't need anyone to come and spy on her and DD2 because I already know they're good girls and Father Christmas will bring them a stocking.

I hate Christmas being used by parents as a behaviour tool. I am the biggest fan of Christmas. We bake, I sometimes decorate in November (!), we cover the house in lights, I start buying presents in summer, we visit Father Christmas, do Christmas light safaris etc etc but Elf on the Shelf can fuck off.

I did the elf for years .. as DC grew up it became a fun game of how inventive mum could be (they Always knew it was me). Now DC is away at uni and I’ve already decided I’ll send them daily photos during December of the elf’s antics. The difference now of course is that I can do lots of scenarios at my leisure and don’t have the ‘shit, it’s midnight, what on earth do I do’ .

Or: Set up a death scene where the elf has its hands and legs cable-tied and a plastic bag over its head. Explain that Santa Claus had the elf murdered for 'going easy' on the children by not reporting all their misdemeanours.

You could even cut its eyes out and leave a note from Santa: "He turned a blind eye -- now he turns a blind eye to everything."

I am watching too much Better Call Saul and picturing Santa as Gustavo Fring. After all, they are both head distribution networks and have masses of spies.

I’ve never done the bloody thing. My girls have made it to 19 and 12 with no ill effect from not having the horrid little things in our house.

Tell your kids that the elf was so naughty that he got drunk, fell into the bin and couldn't get out again.