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 🙈🤷🏻‍♀️

We do it, but we only move it around, we don’t set up scenes for it each night - who has the energy for that?

The elf arrives with a story book which explains it, and then you give your elf a name.

We have two (because I couldn’t find him one year, bought a new one and then the old one turned up in one of the kids’ stockings), and they arrive on 1 Dec with a present of a Christmas tree ornament for each child.

They move to a different place each night, and they have to find them before they can have their advent chocolate.

I set a reminder on my phone for Xpm to remind me to move them before I get into bed.

I DO NOT post about it on social media.

Easy, and the kids love it, even though they don’t believe in Santa any more.

No. I didn't do it because it's just a load of extra work and I find the idea of a naughty elf watching you and reporting on your behaviour (even though it's naughty itself) really weird.

Then my kid ended up being the only kid in his class without one. I tried the usual crap about him being so well behaved that we didn't need one. He ended up writing a very heartfelt letter to Santa begging for a magic elf to visit our house, so I finally relented and it's exactly the absolute ball ache that I imagined it would be. Thinking of something funny but also not too messy whilst also being out of reach of the dog every single night is just one job too many. Don't do it.

That's terrible. They don't own it. I have my own elf, not the mainstream (ugly!) one, and I'd love to see what stuff you offer. My elf is a fraction of the size though, so I can't buy their branded crap anyway.

No, it's something extra to do or an extra thing to remember, even if it isn't much of an action elf.

There are ways out but be careful! A colleague got out of it by telling her Dd that the elf didn't need to visit as she and her Db were well behaved. The Dd then repeated this to a little friend who had a spying elf and my colleague got shitty looks off little friends mum for ages!

If you do go for it, as Pp said, don't set the bar too high or make him a spy for Santa. If you don't want to keep him after a couple of years, I'd do a note from the elf explaining that he has been promoted and reassigned to North Pole duties. Might make a small random present appear to be from the elf for Christmas Day as a goodbye, too.

In my experience of having to spend the first twenty minutes of every workday in December listening to kids tell me what their elf has been up to this morning, yes sadly kids do like it.

We did it because the kids were going on about it. But I didn’t know the proper story of it (is it from a book? Either way didn’t have a clue what we were supposed to do so just moved it around the house at night and the kids would look for it every morning, basically elf hide and seek. It wasn’t treated like Santa’s totalitarian spy or anything.

It’s not fun. By day 4 the kids get bored (but of course still expect a top not h Elf scene) and you lose the will to live

See your User name OP. Go the Elf route and you'll need a new one.

I hate the little fucker 😡🤣 but I've done it the last few years & will do it again this year because my child absolutely loves it. It's annoying having to think of different things to do each night but seeing my child's reaction is worth it 😁

My sil does it. Enjoyed it v much for the first few years. Some very funny stuff as well, she's got an excellent brain for this kind of thing.

But like a pp mentioned, she didn't factor in age gaps. She's got a 5 year one so just as she was thinking of starting to ease off, number 2 got right into it.

She gets number one to do it now.

Well said!

We do it, its fun! Sometimes Elf just hides somewhere and sometimes we put more effort in. I don't trash the house, more like set up little scenes with her toys; so she's riding on a wooden train or having a tea party with barbies.

My daughters 4 now and learning to read so I think we'll do some stuff with that this year.

Our little girl still talks about what elf did last year!

God no avoid if you can it's bloody awful 😂😂

I’m going to go against everyone here 😆

YES!

I have never liked Elf on the Shelf BUT seeing the look on my (nearly) four year olds face last year was worth it !

For your own sanity do not start this.

I say that as someone who does the fucking elf. It's impossible to stop. Kids start talking about the elf return in October.

STEP AWAY FROM THE ELF

I still hate my husband every Christmas for buying our DDs those bloody elves a few years ago. They're now 9 and 11 and they still expect them every year.
Can't wait to see the back of the little bastards (the elves that is!)

I relented a couple of years because my eldest was upset his best friend had one. Ours is seriously low key. He doesn't wreck the house, he just moves to a different spot. If I forget to move him one night, then the spot he was in is obviously a good one for keeping an eye on them. The only extra things he does is to change the children's duvets into Christmas ones when they go to sleep on the 30th Nov, bring the advent calendars on the 1st, leave them a North Pole breakfast and organise a Christmas Eve box.

We love the elf. This is the one being discovered this morning - we don’t find it creepy as ours is are nice and fun. Tell the kids the love them etc

How old are your children?
Because, as the parent of teens, the only piece of parenting advice I ever give is "don't start a tradition you aren't willing to do forever"

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

You sound nice. My kids think it's fun, I'm not a twat. Go figure

We have one and she is a kind elf! Sometimes cheeky, but mostly helps me with jobs like loading the dishwasher, folding laundry etc!

it doesn’t have to be a massive thing with elaborate set ups each night.

ignore the kill joys and go for it!

Go for it OP. I started it last year because I want to squeeze every last bit of magic out of the festive season while my children are still young and believe in it all. My DDs little excited face every day last advent when we went to find the elf was priceless and worth every bit of "oh f--k I've forgotten to move it" stress. We only forgot once last year and I just said he was tired. DD didn't care a jot. My DS should be more interested this year now he's 2 and I can't wait.

Enjoy it xx

Do it! We started during the crappy covid Christmas to bring a bit of fun to proceedings (no talk of the elf watching them/reporting bad behaviour). DH and I have as much fun with it as the kids. You don't need to do anything elaborate- it's not exactly onerous to move a toy each evening.

I always swore I wouldn't do it but caved and started doing it during Dec 2020. Mainly because we couldn't do all our build up to Christmas things due fun being cancelled by covid restrictions. It bought some Christmas fun and joy to my kids so I've carried on. Ours came with a book the first time and they move around or sometimes do pranks. They go back home the night before Christmas Eve but leave us a tasty breakfast to thank us for our hospitality.