Is it too early for an Elf On The Shelf rant...?

[NotTakenUsername]

Because he’s already bloody everywhere.
Everywhere!
Why do mums do this to themselves? In the busiest mum month of the year... why add in a creepy little tell tale elf who models bad behaviour and encourages excessive consumption.
I know, I know, if I don’t like it just don’t do it... but I’ve been just not doing it for many, many years now. So I thought I’d throw in a wee MN rant for good measure.

Wish you could add polls to threads.
I want to know which is worse - Elf on the Shelf, or “Free Range Parenting”?!

creepy wee fuckers

Mine are desperate for one of those evil fuckers, so far I’m resisting!

Can't stand them

I have a FB friend who did an Elf on the Shelf in October, for fun.....

I DON'T get it!

We've had elves come visit for years. Pp who said it's not a tradition- it is when you've done it all your life! Ours do not watch or report to santa they just come for some fun. And I'd never post it to fb. Ours do not do anything naughty as my dds would hate that. They just do fun silly stuff, and not every night!

i want to hear more about free range parenting...

I googled it. It’s a type of parenting that’s just normal parenting, but practised by people who are either attention seeking or insecure, and therefore need to label everything they do.

It's when people upload what their elf has been up to every single day on fb
So glad mine are too old for it.

Glad I got to miss this.
It's the Robins with their little red breasts that watch for naughty and nice children.My dd used to make sure the ones around us were very well fed in the run up to Christmas.

Dismembered-by-cat elf on a shelf. That'll teach him to sneak around someone's house.

I never wanted to do it, for all the reasons posted, couldn’t be arsed too much work etc.

Last year bloody PIL left an elf on the doorstep with a luggage tag tied round it’s neck for the kids to find when they came back from school.

I put it on the mantelpiece and left it the first night and the kids cried when they came downstairs next morning as PIL had told them the “elf does things”

So I had to hang it off the curtains, tree, walls for the next month......

They have already starting asking when it’s coming back 🤦‍♀️

I love Christmas but don't do for on the shelf with my son (4 years). I've just never really thought to tbh - I'd probably forget to move it every night

When he was at nursery they did a version of it but he wasn't overly bothered about it.

I don't do Christmas eve boxes either.

We do leave out a carrot for the reindeer and a drink/cake for father Christmas - DS really loved doing it last year and was so excited to see it eaten in the morning!

We make Christmas eve nice with Christmas film, a nice tea and some treats and DS is happy with that.

@Canyoudomegreaterharm
Dear god! Maybe you can borrow the elf-dismembering cat

A good few years back before it got popular DD2 was telling me about the elf at her friends house, begging that one would come to ours too. I think I must have somehow misunderstood the whole concept as all that happened at ours was a unicorn we already owned climbed onto a curtain pole. He couldn't get down (it was too high obvs ) so stayed there until Christmas.

She never asked again.

I had never heard of Elf on a Shelf or Christmas Boxes until this thread. Now I am just glad that my DC are teenagers, as these things didn't exist when they were small. I had been a bit sad that they just want money for Christmas, but now I am grateful.

People who whine on about how shit the elf is are at least as tedious as the elves themselves. We had one for a couple of years - wasn’t much effort and my DC enjoyed it - it’s not that controversial!

Because all of my DD's friends have one of the freeky fuckers!I blame they're parents.

This will be the 2nd year for us with a sodding elf on the shelf,last year was a sodding nightmare remembering to do something so the elf looked like he'd moved everynight!

It’s hardly a hardship to pick it up and dump it somewhere different before you go to bed.

Rulerruler that is too funny!

@RayRayBidet yes please!

I am in no way creative and there is a limited number of places it can be found each morning that is funny. Too many nights I would be happily settling down to sleep then having to run downstairs to fling the “fucking elf” somewhere.

As it was PIL it was always DH I directed my irritation towards!

I've always done Christmas eve stuff letter off Santa "special sleepy pjs" sprinkled with magic sleepy dust mince pie for the fat one then bed

I've heard of these, but I have no idea what they are about/ what you do with them! Haha could someone explain what they are and what people do with them please?

I am regretting having introduced it a few years ago. It was OK the first year, enough ideas to work on, kids young enough to be excited. Now they are older, I'm busier and it's all a big faff, trouble is there is an expectation and they have already said they are looking forward to seeing he elf. I'm out of ideas, so no clue what to do this time.