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.

My dd would be excited about new pyjamas. She's 3.

Really? Well I’m glad to be corrected. Neither of my boys have ever shown a glimmer of excitement over clothes that they wear to bed every night (or indeed any clothes).

Wow. Children like different things. Shocker.

Ok. You’re weirdly aggressive about pyjamas.

Ozgirl75 Our Christmas Eve box is loved by the kids. It's also ds's birthday on Christmas Eve, so the box coming out signifies the end of birthday fun and the start of some calming Christmas Eve activities to wind down for the night. It's a lovely way to ensure Christmas Eve is still marked and not forgotten in all the birthday celebrations. Though our situation isn't exactly the norm for most people with the boxes.

I always associated the introduction of EOAS with the tradition of the 13 Yule Lads from Iceland. Troll yobs that turn up one at a time on the 13 days before Christmas and create different forms of mischief from nasty tricks to serious criminal activity.

Aw I like to put two little piles of new pyjamas, hot chocolate, fluffy socks and bubble bath by the fire on Christmas Eve just before bed. It’s the only time of year that I buy the dds pyjamas so it’s hardly spoiling them!

The elf can do one though - thankfully there was no such thing when my two were tiny but I wouldn’t have wanted the creepy little fucker in my house anyway.

Ok. You’re weirdly aggressive about pyjamas

Ha this on a thread where people are being weirdly aggressive about elves.

My kids get excited about anything new! Pyjamas, toothbrushes, bedding! They’re easily pleased :)

Slight derailment but dd sent an email to Santa...got a prompt answer and asked me if he was a paedophile! She spent last Christmas terrified of him coming in the house.
She no longer believes but is desperate to.
A creepy elf would terrify her I reckon!

I love Christmas but elf is yet more plastic. These fancy advert calendars that cost ££££££££ and Xmas eve boxes are not a feature in my house. I do quite like the box idea of pjs and hot chocolate but I prefer to wait till Xmas day.

Our only tradition is putting out shoes for St Nikolas on the night of the 5th
Now I think that one is a bit creepy, especially combined with the threat of coal (or is it salt?), and being visited by the demons who dish out a birching. Also it hijacks one of our family birthdays on 6th. But we have our own creepiness - my DH wraps my presents in front of me while I'm blindfolded. I look forward to that every year, but lots of people tell us it's weird! So each to their own.

You're all miserable!! It adds to the magic and the look on my children's face over the years every morning has been magical!! This year the older two will help as they "know" and create magic for my DS (5) I can't wait for his little face each morning 

never mind the amount of times I've got into bed and said "oh ffs the fecking elf*

I love Christmas but elf is yet more plastic.

See this makes no sense to me. Most people's elves are cloth.

User148 & Marnalizes Thinking of you both and hope that Christmas can still be enjoyable for you (and your families).

I don’t do EOTS - but a few times I’ve wanted to! However I thought my eldest was too old for it to suddenly randomly appear one year when I first heard about it so I didn’t in case he questioned why it had never come before etc. I do cringe over all the FB posts about it- to me that’s just about showing off and saying “look at me, what a great mum I am doing this for my kids” and therefore shaming the mums that don’t do it. So if I were to do it, I wouldn’t go posting pictures of what the elf had been up to that’s for sure! The only way to know I was doing it would be to visit my house! My youngest is 6 and part of me is now thinking of doing it mainly because in a few years time all of my children will be too big to believe in all the magic of Christmas anymore & I’d like to hang on to that whilst I can!

Also - no Xmas eve boxes here! New pj’s are normally one of their Christmas presents though!

I always thought the Christmas Eve pjs and book/dvd was to encourage chilling rather than bouncing of the walls excitement

@LaurieMarlow what are those ‘cloth’ elves made of...? Fabric. Now, if you’ve spent circa £3 on a plush rip off of the original little fecker I’m gonna go on ahead and guess that the manufacturer’s fabric choice probably has quite a high plastic content. At the very least, they will not have chosen a more expensive sustainable material to make their tat out of.

I'm guessing most people buy their elves to keep.

I don't do it, I find the whole idea really creepy however each to their own.

BUT I do get so annoyed by 24 days of daily FB posts from the #makingmemories brigade. I've taken to blocking them every year now, as much as I love them.

I also had one friend who did the whole North pole breakfast thing, however I think this stems from a pfb thing.

I'm getting endless ads at the moment for horrible Family Matching PJs sets. The idea seems to be that you have your Xmas Eve Box, everybody looks like a prat in matching pyjamas, everybody pretends to be a United happy family, and then they go into landfill because tacky pyjamas.

Is "won't somebody think of the environment?" going to be the go-to argument to make people feel superior now?

Is a toy elf, which by it's very nature will be played with year after year, really the thing that's harming the planet right now?

And why would pyjamas end up in a landfill?
More than any other gift? Or should we be banning Christmas gifts now? I mean it's not a mad idea but I wanna know how far you elf haters want to go.

I'm as keen to reduce my throwaway plastic use as the next guy so if someone can explain this to me then please do.

Wow. The words bah humbug spring to mind!

My Facebook is always filled with bloody “funny” photos of peoples elves .. it’s so fucking lame I get serious eye ache from all the rolling they do.
I swear most on my feed just do it for “likes” and not for the actual kids.
I seriously have way to much to do than ponce around with an ugly toy

BTW , I LOVE Christmas but the elf thing is utter shite and super annoying

We started it when DS was 3 or 4. Big mistake! Really, really stupid thing to do. It's just one more thing to worry about, one more job to do before we can go to bed. We've never done it the 'traditional' way though- they're not even theoriser elves, we got them from IKEA. They don't do naughty things, just nice or funny things- usually quite simple like hiding in the tree or leaving a candy cane for the children to find. Also the children are allowed to touch/ play with them. DS is 9 now and DD is 6, they still adore their elves. I do regret starting it though!