To not do 'Elf on the shelf'

[Alottodoaboutssomething]

I understand it as a magical annoying elf turning up 1st December, to watch your children, and report their behaviour back to the North Pole. However, it back fires when it is the "naughty" elf who infact is the one who needs watching. This is demonstrated by his antics each night (set up by the lucky parent who has to think of various mischievous predicaments for 24 days)! Please correct me if I am wrong on this.

I promise I am not a grinch! We do crafts, baking, advent calendars, small Christmas box with night before Christmas book, Santa key, leaving mince pie, carrot on Christmas eve etc in the lead up. I just find the elf idea creepy, especially the whole watching/monitoring idea. Surely it could lead to a "mummy is this you doing this?" and create further risk of them questioning Santa as well. I don't know if this has happened to anybody!

Dc1 has asked about his elf, and I don't want to do it, and feel mean, because the other kids get it visiting them. I don't want a festive squatter in my home!

I can't mentally deal with the effort of a naughty elf. DC (9) really wants an elf and has offered to buy one with own money, but I've had to say only the special ones ordered by parents do the naughty stuff and I am NOT ordering one. I'm happy to indulge in a lot of C-mas stuff, but have held firm on not doing the elf - she might be the only one in the class without one, but it's a good lesson I learning not everyone has everything sometimes...

This year for various reasons we can’t do any of the ‘expected’ stuff; children have last years IKEA village advent calendar, a Christmas market trip planned and a trip to Stourhead with family. That’s it. possibly can’t even decorate until mid December. I can’t wait!

Oh god no! We are super Christmassy that’s a step too far…

Haha, decided that evil little elf isn't welcome in our house, we aren't doing it! Told dcs it isn't allowed in, because is naughty and will raise havoc. Dc1 doesn't want it making a mess, and potentially scaring his cuddly toys with it's creepy face. He has said we could maybe have it as a Halloween decoration. Wish I had bought one to keep an eye on the outdoor sweets bowl! 🤣

Stand your ground, OP! We always refused to get one and are so glad we stuck to our guns. We just told our kids, “Sorry, some families just don’t have elves, guess we’re one of the families that doesn’t need one!” Now that our kids are getting older, a lot of their friends’ parents who started the elves are sick to death of having to keep it up every year.

There are loads of ways to make Christmas magical without having to move an elf around every night.

I really hope my child never asks because I don't like it either.

And Christmas eve boxes which I think are a silly idea too!