are we the only ones who have a elf to stay in December?

[motherofmonster]

Does anyone else do this for the children in the house?
Every year ds is allocated his elf, he gets a letter from father Christmas telling him the name of his elf, what he likes to do and eat.
It also tells him that the elf's job is things like bringing the Christmas spirit, putting the sparkle into Christmas decorations. To give mum the magic glitter that goes into the reindeer food and to keep a eye on ds to report back good and bad behavior.
We usually end up with a naughty one who leaves part eaten mince pies during the night and hides in different places around the house.
The elf goes home to the north pole on Christmas eve as obviously it is very busy and ge goes home to help the others.
We also have a book where ds writes down and puts photos of his adventures with the elf.
I was talking about this at work and got looked at like i was completely mad... We cant be the only ones expecting a green jingly lodger soon can we??

by the way the elf is a small cuddly toy elf.. Not a scary dressed up person

No, you are not the only weird one.

Look in the Christmas topic.

You will find a whole thread about this on the Christmas section....beware you will not leave it without singing Christmas songs and spending money!

Every fucker does this on mn. Seriously, I had no idea of it before I came on mn. Just type elf on a shelf into search.

Elf on a shelf?

Sorry, that sounded harsher than intended! But yes, it's quite a common 'thing' now.

And check out the christmas lot - lots of good ideas there!

We have a penguin called Randolph come to stay for advent. He is quite lazy though and seldom moves from where he originally lands!

Our elf loves hiding up on the light shade so much that sometimes he is there several nights in a row because I am so bored of the bloody thing now

Elf on a shelf.

Not personally but well aware of what it is.

It's come from the states via the internet so unless people go on forums or Pinterest they probably won't have heard of it

Blimey, ive never heard of elf on a shelf.. Though i am strangely pleased that im not the only one who does this

That's really odd as my mum did it when i was small so ahem ..30 years ago ( fuck a duck that was a while ago)

We do this too. On his first ever visit he was hiding in a shoe in the Christmas tree wrapped in my bra. The DC thought it was brilliant!! Every night the naughty fucker would make a mess

That's brilliant ticktacktoegivemeago
in trying to think of naughty things ours can get up to this year

Our elf has done lots of naughty things, he has taped over the bedroom door, drawn moustaches and glasses on photos, had nerf fights with the dinosaurs, been apprehended by the toy soldiers, been caught googling naughty girl elfs on the iPad...
My ds loves the elf and I think this may be our last year of him believing.

Several threads about this in the Christmas topic

Our elf arrived last year and the children are really hoping she will com back this year.

Doingthebestican, I'm not sure dd truely believed in the elf last year (she was 7), but she had a really good time playing along with it all. We really bigged the whole thing up and sometimes elf would do naughty things in the day too, which dd would instigate, but it just added to the fun. The younger two were fully believing though.
We've moved house since elf arrived last year when she got stuck behind the fire guard and made a mess in the ash of the real fire. This year we have a gas fire that we never use, so no fire guard so I'm not sure what to do mark her arrival.

It was really good fun though and will be a favourite Christmas thing in our family for a few years yet.

The tradition did start many years ago. In fact the American family that created the 'Elf on a shelf' brand did this tradition using vintage elves with their children, then they decided to make a business out of it about ten years ago! It's really taken off over the past few years. America especially go wild for it, there's SOOO much EOTS memorabilia out there available to buy.

Most people I know irl have no idea what it is, including friends from the States! I've pretty much introduced them to it. This will be our third year doing it, excited.

I'm thinking this year we will do kindness dolls aswell as Mr Elf. Our eldest DC and 7 and 9 so I think this will be their last year of believing in all the magic :( I'd like to make it extra special and add some kindness into all the naughty fun.

We do this! I found out about it last year and admittedly I do use it to make DS behave (not that it has a huge effect either way!). But it is nice to make it part of the christmas excitement and countdown.

Ours leaves toys in odd places and moves things around when you are asleep!

My husband decided we were doing dinovember this year and I can't wait for Christmas, after a month of naughty dinosaurs I can't be doing with naughty elves, besides with being Icelandic we have the yule lads (trolls) to deal with.

That sounds nicer than what one of the mums at school does ; she told her kids that every time that light in the corner of the room goes on (burglar alarm sensor) Father Christmas is watching them! If they're naughty she points at the light being red and says "he's watching!"

I would love to, but my youngest is seven so probably past this now, plus I looked at the prices online and I can't justify spending £25 on a toy elf

We are doing it this year for the first time. DS is 3 and he knows that if he's good Santa might send an elf to stay. Can't wait!