Should I start this Elf thing

[Iwashappyonceuponatime]

Or not go there?

Dd is 4. The elf on the shelf thing looks quite fun…but…should I commit or will I forever have to do it? Is it annoying or fun and where do you even get the elf from 🙈🤷🏻‍♀️

Ahh no dont do it.

Honestly, don't do it. You will so regret it. Loads of people I know started it and now dread coming up with new things and it coming back every year.

My DS asked me a couple of years ago "why don't we have an elf?" " He only goes to naughty children's houses darling and you're a good boy aren't you?" 😝He was satisfied with that explanation 😁

No no no no no

No don’t

HNRTFT but I wouldn’t even go there! It’s too much effort and I think Santa is enough to entertain the children !

I have a jellycat elf for my toddler. Much cuter. He's going to hide sometimes but that's probably it.

Wow there are some really strong opinions about a bit of Christmas fun 😂
If you want to do it op, go for it - I absolutely love it and will be gutted when my kids are no longer interested.

You will have to think up new poses 24 times per year. Your child may insist that you keep up the tradition for tradition's sake until they leave home. That's 480 original ideas you may need.

Never start a Christmas tradition that you aren't prepared to keep up for the next twenty years.

ABUSIVE 😂😂😂😂
Fuck me I've seen some batshit stuff on here, but this is absolutely the top of the list.
The elf bringing the advent calendars will be on the NSPCC advert soon.

My cousin is starting the elf this year, My advice to her was set your bar low. Dont go overboard with it doing naughty things etc. Our elf only moves every night, thats it. So in the morning if we realise we have forgot swe can literally pick it up and chuck it accross the room 😂 Some nights it may move into a toy car or on a horse but none of the OTT trashing the house stuff.

Watch the film, that will explain everything. I got the official elf with the book on Amazon when my son was 3. I thought he wouldn't be interested and would forget about it by next Christmas but no, he's coming on Thursday with the advent calendars for his third Christmas in our house. I really enjoy doing the elf things, he's a good elf, just like in the book he moves to a new location daily, brings the advent calendars on day 1 and gets a lift back to the North Pole with Santa on Christmas Eve. He doesn't do naughty things, that's the naughty elf (completely different elf).

This! Wish I had never started it. 10 fucking years so far.

The parents I know doing it now have teenagers. The elf will haunt forever.

I never started, I have no brain power to remember.

No. It's too much magic. It's a very short step from wondering about how the elf moves to wondering how the stockings get filled. No need to pile on the opportunities to question. The stockings getting filled is all the more magical if not diluted by 24 equally magical elf movements every year.

It's fine if you just do fun, silly stuff with it. No spying, though - I think telling children they're being watched is plain creepy, and using it as a threat based on their behaviour is just wrong. Ours made a lot of mess but never judged!

If you do it, don't put it on social media, no matter how tempted or how funny you find it. We've seen it all, it's not funny and we think you're a dickhead.

Nb we've got a home made one so they never had the expectation ours would do what their friends' elves did,

No!!!!!
Worst parenting decision i ever made.

I say don’t!
elf on the shelf is a massive cynical ( imo) business that’s got out of hand with many spin offs, of clothes, sledges, pranks etc. here’s the founders of the company, and their website is amazingly full of stuff to buy. I may be biased, I run a very small Etsy shop and suggested my products might be fun for elf to leave behind and I got an infringement of copywrite warning. I wrote to explain that I was actually encouraging support of their product but unfortunately they didn’t reply but just got Etsy to deactivate my listings.
I was upset because for such a supposedly friendly company, they could close little old me that’s tiny and was naively encouraging elf activities thinking it was all hashtag fun. But also because they couldn’t be bothered to communicate directly. It was a horrible experience.
please spend your money on something more worthwhile!
htpps://lumistella.com/meet-our-founders/

I always wondered what all the fuss was about, I mean, what's the point of moving a seriously creepy elf doll around?
Fortunately when my ds first saw them he asked what it was about, I said I had no idea and life went on sans elf.
I went into a local bargain store the other day and they're selling sleeping bags for them now!

I did this. It's bloody hard work. I let mine bring the elf out as a buddy but elf doesn't get up to tricks anymore. God it was exhausting. Seriously though, read them a book instead everyday, definitely don't waste energy on the whole elf thing.

Go for it. It is about if craic and can be done simply. I have bought some props to make it easier, but things like googly eyes on fruit/ stuff in the fridge, stealing chocolate from the advent calendar or hiding in the Christmas decorations are popular every year. You do need an alarm to remind yourself, but I think it is worth it for the pleasure DC takes from it.

Do kids actually give a fuck? Or is it just the twatty adults that think they "need" to do it?!

YES!

Yes it is hard work, yes it's a lot of effort and time and thinking. But you only have seven or so years left of her believing, and it will go fast. I am 12 years in, with probably another five to go til the youngest stops believing, but it absolutely brings so much joy to them, they love love love it, and I figure it's only 24 days, once a year, for a few years of their childhoods.

Get a nice looking one though.

Didn't read by the title. NO NO NO NO