Oh I give in. I can't ignore it any longer. In one sentence; what the bleddy hell is "elf on the shelf"

[FredWorms]

TIA

A magic elf doll who keeps an eye on the kids throughout December, instilling fear in them that Father Christmas may not appear should they misbehave.

We have one this year, can't wait! Am trying to read blogs etc as to ideas for tricks he can pull :)

I don't know. I googled it the other day and got pictures of creepy 1960 esque scary elfin doll things. Can't be them, surely? Do people want to frighten their kids into not celebrating xmas?

Santa's snitch.

A little elf doll (all in red) that creeps around the house at night and watches all during that day. It then reports behaviour back to Santa.

All a bit creepy really.

here, this is worth a look

blossombunkhouse.com/2011/11/08/101-elf-on-the-shelf-ideas-2/

Ours drinks all gin and eats the purple sweets out of quality street tin. The little sod.

That's just creepy. ..and I had never heard of it either.
Way to FREAK the kids out!

My sister sent it from the states. I think it's an American thing.

You are so going to be bombarded with twee blogg links & pics etc now.

I'm doing a christmas fairy, shes so so cute and has this star that can hold letters in. I'm going to leave messages from father christmas to the dc every couple of days and clues to find christmas things Iv'e bought like colouring books and stories.

That sounds lovely, InNeed - will you adopt me, please?

Back when the dses were little, we didn't have Elf on the Shelf - but luckily I had Father Christmas's phone number, so if the boys went too far, I could have rung him and told him that they were being naughty. [evil]

Yes, change your name to SDTGisNowBrandysBaby [bgrin]

We've got 2 of these little fellas coming to stay with us tomorrow. Much cuter and less creepy than the official skinny elves [bgrin].

I thought the original elf was creepy but he has a certain charm about him, he grew on me and wormed his way into our house. Now I adore him, our little Norbie.

He will arrive tomorrow on the doorstep along with a letter from FC introducing him. Idea is that he watches the DC and returns to north pole every night to give FC an update on how kids have behaved. In the morning he's done something different every day from playing with toys through to throwing cereal on floor.

Anyway its basically a lot of fun and theory is DC will behave.

That is just wrong! I too had never heard of it 'till this year. We downplay Santa in this house - stockings only- rest of the presents the people that bought them get the credit for them. The whole elf thing just takes it all to a level that i am personally uncomfortable with - oh the lies!

On the link with the list of things the elf could do I misread one of the items as:

Dump in the toy box

Now that's a disgruntled worker if ever I saw one...

But what is it? How does it work? Is it a thing you buy?

I think I loathe it, but I need to understand before I decide

Do you make up all the stuff it does? I don't get it (probably 'cos I've put up mental barriers against reading all the stuff properly)

Can't you just imagine an elf. It's more stuff, innit.

It's fucking creepy that's what it is and a big waste of money paid out by gulible parents to keep their children in check until Christmas.

at wildstrawberryplace

We don't do any of the elf tricks mentioned in the blog above, but "dobby" is a visual reminder to the kids to behave, and we move him each night. Seems to work, you can do your own thing with an elf ornament or toy though rather than paying £25 or so for the "official" one (which is pretty poor quality). FC doesn't being big pressies here - he just does the stockings - but they still don't want to run the risk of being on the naughty list!

elf on shelf is nauseating and schmaltzy its much loved by twee types

elf on shelf is using a toy elf to moderate children behaviour in run up to xmas
basically if youre naughty parents tell elf,if nice they tell elf
parents impose rules that children must do for elf to return with xmas pressies

Just use the Robins for Christ sake!

They are everywhere at this time of year in the garden watching the children in the house and all over the place out and about. They swoop down watch the children and fly off to report back to Santa.

Free with no twatting about required and yet you get the same results!

Also no creepy elf staring at you from on the shelf that probably comes alive like chucky and tries to kill you!

Yes Robin's are good - my kids shout "Be good!" every time they see one - think they talked about it at school!