To not do 'Elf on the shelf'

You just reminded me I have to find the bloody elf. I blame school, the kindy and year 1 teachers have classroom elves. The first couple days it's fun working out a new hiding space is fun, but it qucikly loses that. I wouldn't start it if I could chose again.

I really regret ever starting it. It was nice when they were young and I wasn't working or was working part time and I had the time and energy to be bothered.

Fast forward a couple of years when I'm working full time and really don't have the time or energy.

The kids are hearing about friends elves antics and you end up feeling shit that you haven't gone to the same effort as these parents.

At some point our elves just went back to the north pole, seemingly because they weren't needed anymore, because they're only actually there for naughty kids 😂

Seriously we've enough to be doing. We are not living in a hallmark movie.

Love this idea! Just need a cat

I've never done it and don't ever intend to. I have 2 dc 7 and 3. 7 year old has never asked why we don't. I have neither the energy or time to be moving round a freaky looking thing every night. I also don't like the whole elf watching you thing, seems really creepy.

I’m not doing it either. I go over the top at Christmas admittedly because I love it but im drawing the line at the elf mainly because I cba 🤣

You definitely don't have to do it. It's a craze which wasn't around even a decade ago. My early 20s dc never did it-nobody did. Fads come and go.

I'd suggest some sort of alternative like Cat Who Doesn't Give a Fuck -- where the family pet observes the child's behaviour but doesn't bother to report it to Father Christmas because he doesn't give a fuck.

You can just say Elf on the Shelf is a toy that some people have and like to play a game with where they pretend he reports to Father Christmas, but we don't do that. End of story.

When you get down to it, some people aren't going to do Father Christmas full stop, some he brings stocking presents, some he brings everything, some families will still do the threat of "a lump of coal and an onion if you're naughty" - part of kids going out into the world is encountering people with different beliefs and traditions and thoughts on the world to them. They have to learn to navigate that.

YANBU. I think the 'elf on the shelf' trend of recent years won't last the test of time. Although some parents love it, for many it is a chore and they do it because they worry about their children missing out.

Most of our genuine Christmas traditions in this country have their roots in folklore or religion. 'Elf on the shelf' does not have that cultural grounding behind it. It was only "invented" in 2004 and has been successful because of marketing and social media.

I could be wrong, but I don't think it will be with us in a hundred years time.

Elf on the Shelf was just starting to be a thing when my children were around 7-10, so we never did it thank god. These sorts of thing are just about bearable when they are an expression of each family's individual discovery of quirky ways to add fun to Christmas. But as soon as they become a copied phenomenon they just add more pressure on mothers to be semi-professional event organisers so their children don't feel left out of other kids' Christmas conversations at school.

It is almost comparable to drug addiction -- you start off doing it for some sort of additional pleasure and quickly end up committed to it just in order to stay at baseline happiness.

I have only ever heard about EOTS via Mumsnet and it always sounded disgustingly twee to me.

Never done it. School have. Friends have.

I said bluntly that elves are banned from my house because they cause too much chaos and I wasn't willing to host them. And that Santa was fine with this because he knows how much trouble they are.

We still do plenty enough during the whole of December without needing a sodding elf.

Thank god this American piece of imported trash wasn't a thing when my son was young. It's just more commercialised pressure on parents, fuelled by social media. It sucks. However, if your child is going to be made to look silly or perceived as not part of the "pack", then I understand parents' concerns.

Nope, always made it clear to the dc that this was yet another thing that mum's were expected to keep on top of and I did enough already. I had no idea that there are mum's who pretend this is a real thing. Bah humbug.
I do do advent calendars and stockings, Easter egg hunt, costumes for Halloween and by some trickery of my dc, we seem to have made boo boxes which I never knew were a thing untill about a week ago.

Magical my arse. It's just clever marketing.

If you're not American why would you even think of it anyway?

I agree with this.
I'd never even heard about it until I joined MN last year.
It's so sad that Christmas, along with Easter, Halloween, Valentines day etc have just been turned into retail- fests.
So much pressure on families just to spend money to prop up the retail industry.
So much pressure to just to do things because the perception created is everyone else is doing it and it's the norm.

We did elf on the shelf for one Xmas and then lost interest because my kid was a touch too old. The elf just ended up with her other toys. Then a friend of hers came over and was a bit surprised and upset to see the elf just lying on the floor with lol dolls and plushies. So be warned, elf on the shelf is a responsibility 😬

It was around when DS was small but we never bothered with it. It should be something you do if you want to, not because others do it or not. 😁

That's one thing I'm not going to start.

We are Christian and the commercialised build up completely takes away from the real meaning of Christmas. It's sad.

Of course you don't need to do it, it's a silly very recent moneymaking venture not a cherished old tradition.

Didn't even exist when my dd was a kid!

We've never done the creepy elf on a shelf thing. We were given one once and it went straight to the charity shop. I can't bear the idea of watching and reporting on children to Santa, nevermind the hideous Santa-Cam that I've seen in the shops!

Despite having an elf, this is my favourite answer!