telling child Elf on the Shelf isn’t really

But silly to think you can speak for all kids experience here. Mine have definitely found it magical.

My son is 15, and we never did the 'Elf on the Shelf' either. I couldn't be arsed in all honesty. It's just something else I would need to think about, at an already busy time of the year. I wouldn't bring the subject up unless your child does. I'm sure by the time your child reaches school age, and is aware of the trend, you can think of a reason why you don't have one.

I agree with this post, the ire around the elf is really weird

My kids love the elf and it's a great part of our Christmas. We don't do surveillance or anything very high effort. It's just a soft toy that gets moved around the house.

But if you don't want to do it, don't do it. It really is that simple.

I told my kids the whole Elf on a Shelf thing was a game some families like to play. But some of them like to imagine it's real so don't make a big deal of it being 'fake' and spoil it for them.

It's not like Father Christmas or the Tooth Fairy though. No sensible child older than a toddler can believe they're really real. There's no mystery or magic. You can pick them up and see they're just cheap toys. They're on sale in shops children go to, for goodness' sake!

Don’t do it but don’t mention it unless they do. If they ever bring it up, say some families believe in it but we choose not to- like God I guess. You don’t need to completely say it doesn’t exist because there is a solid chance he’ll go to school and ruin another child’s Christmas magic.

We have had an elf in our house for 12 years now, I got it when my DD was a baby. I don’t do the surveillance creepy thing. He’s just like a little friend who joins us for December and he does silly things to make younger DC laugh. He’s really grubby from the various antics over the years and worn now but even DD who is 13 loves it (though she wouldn’t admit this!) I got it because of the MN Christmas forum actually, just thought it sounded like a cute idea. It wasn’t a big deal in the UK back then at all so I’m a bit of an EOTS hipster.

It will take more than 5 mins for me to find it in the loft, let alone looking on Pinterest for ideas and planning a month's worth of poses. I'm not doing it. I can't be arsed! And fed up of feeling guilty for not doing these things. If you enjoy it... Fair enough crack on. Just don't like how things become expected/the norm. Too tired to be panicking at midnight that I haven't rearranged the bloody elf!

Sorry I know this wasn't the point of this post!

I really don't understand the anger and aggravation about the elf, or anything else. Someone had an idea, some people thought it was funny and took to it, others have no interest in it. It's not that deep.

I love Christmas experience, it's a great way to spend a day with the children without to have to plan a full itinerary. There were a lot MORE Christmas activities when I was a kid than today, just different ones.

Do the elf, don't, it's not important. It's funny when people spends more time boasting that they don't do it (no one cares, and why do they waste time explaining they don't?)

the only thing I don't understand is why and how people think it's WORK. It really isn't, unless you go crazy and decide to gift wrap the content of the entire house - but that's not mandatory? 😂

Between Pinterest and chatGPT, it takes 5mn to plan an entire month with easy pranks, takes 30 seconds to do an easy bit in the evening. I don't care if people don't do it, but let's not pretend it takes any time or headspace. Takes longer and more energy to be on MN!

We've never done it. 7 year old DD has asked and I have told her it's not real and it's the parents doing it, but she's shouldn't say that to any of her friends who like it. She's been fine about it and doesn't mention it anymore.

We do father Christmas, tooth fairy, Easter bunny etc. The elf is just fucking stupid and I refuse to buy in to it

I work in early years so have had kids ask why they don't have an elf. My answer is some mummies and daddies ask for elves to visit to check for the nice list and some mummies and daddies just tell santa if their little one has been good or naughty.... keeps the magic alive for everyone.

I didn’t plan to do it, but seeing the fun my son gets from similar things has changed my mind. There have been a lot of “I won’t do this with my child” that I’ve adapted, so I’d keep an open mind.

We won’t be doing the elaborate naughty elf set ups, though. Ours will be a well behaved elf who just likes to hide somewhere different each day. If son asks why he isn’t naughty, I’ll just say ours is a nice elf. Just like if I decide not to do it, I’d just say Santa allocates them randomly and it’s not our turn this time.

I suppose when your DC get ro university you'll only have to cover the days after they get home in December...

Never done it.
Tbh I think it's silly.

I was just thinking about this because we have done it previous years but this year I just can't be bothered...

Not sure if everyone is similar in age/generation as me but I simply can't imagine my parents ever doing anything like this.

What have we become?

I know it comes from a place of love...but an advert came up on my social media recently for a "Brr Box"

Have we just gone too far? Are our kids just literally ruling our lives now? And at a point where it's normal for both parents to have to work too .. so we (on the whole) probably have LESS time and mental capacity than generations gone by to faff around positioning elves and buying bits of tat to make them happy.

Anyway I'm boycotting the elf this year.

Unfortunately the Xmas eve "elf box" is already sorted.

Not sure how ive made it to a functional adult without ever receiving an elf box, visiting North pole (and the countless other Xmas "experiences" everyone seems to have!), having an elf on a shelf... But I did. (Just to reassure anyone who simply cannot be arsed with it this year!!!)

No you don’t.

Newsflash. Many many many people don’t have an elf on the shelf and cope. It’s not compulsory. See also Christmas Eve boxes and matching pyjamas.

It literally didn’t appear until some woman self published a book of a story they made up in their family in 2005 and it gathered pace. Hardly an age old tradition.

Are there really developmentally normal children over the age of 3 who genuinely believe that what is obviously a toy is actually a real elf??

They are incredibly clever. That’s why, if you tell them parents move the elf, they figure everything else out too.

We have an elf (but he's a cute one not the creepy looking one) but we don't tell our children he's here to spy or reporting to Santa, he's just for fun and he leaves little treats or makes jokes. I wouldn't tell children that the other parents are behind it, id just say something vague like "Oh, Emma has a elf at home? That's interesting" and not comment too much, if you choose not to do it

Yes, I also strongly dislike the elf for this reason and wouldn’t consider doing the elf at all. But if other people tell the child it’s true and you, rather than saying something like ‘we don’t have/need/want one’ say that it’s a lie and the parents move it around, you’re accelerating this tendency rather than neutralising it. I’m not particularly fussed about that either, but it is a pain to manage a child that doesn’t believe at an age when most do through Christmas activities in the community.
Don’t lie, don’t tell is a much simpler approach.

This is what I don’t understand, will people just keep accepting new traditions imposed by retailers?

Surely you just say no? If you don’t want to, this is a massive amount of work, why would you do it because they’ve heard about it at nursery. My eldest hears about loads of stuff at nursery/school that we won’t be doing.

No elf on the shelf here but we do have a refillable advent calendar that the elves fill each night in December.

You know Christmas is getting close when Elf on the Shelf threads arrive!

It’s a commercial idea, not a long-held tradition. We’ve never done it. We have our own Christmas traditions.