To elf on the shelf or not elf on the shelf?

[dancingsnowfairy]

We love Christmas in our house and dh and I think our 4 year old might quite like the fun behind the elf on a shelf idea, I've just seen loads of fun things it could get up to on Pinterest, though i'm slightly worried that we might lose momentum with it after a few days later in the month and we might be stuck with doing it every year and everyone in her class thinking she is a bit odd if she starts going on about it. I do love the idea and think I would have been thrilled with it when I was a child. It seems to be quite a marmite thing on mumsnet, so just wondered what people's experiences of doing it are or why you think it's completely awful!

Don't do it - this will be my 4th year - once you have started its hard to stop. Finding new things for him to bring or do for 24 days every year is hard work, wish I'd never started

I made that mistake with the tooth fairy. Went completely ott with glittery elaborate letters and little presents (I know).

But after three dc and years of it, not to mention Dh being a right superior smarty pants about how Id made a rod for myself over it, it wasn't without huge relief when the final tooth was lost.

I even had to go to extreme lengths in a blimmin tent when we were camping and dts lost a tooth each on the same day. It's not easy writing glittery letters when you're in the middle of a damp field camping.

I'm not sure about the elf. There's something creepy about him. He looks like a bit of a snitch to me.

I like the bit about visiting from time to time, so sets us up for not doing it every year / all of December if we don't want

Well exactly and it ties in - with keeping up to date on dc likes and dislikes!
There is NO WAY I would or could have done it every single year or - for the whole of December, even in the short time the elf did come....that was hard enough BUT still very very fun! But I would go to bed then jump up " The Elf!! Whats it going to do!!!" My DD was slightly scepitcal but she couldn't believe we would write and put black all over our own faces or put shaving foam all over the car!

It's not easy writing glittery letters when you're in the middle of a damp field camping.

^^

This will be the 3rd yr our elf will visit but he is a really laziest elf. He always moves, but doesn't always do anything other than swap from the curtain pole to a light fitting. Sometimes he brings things like books and treats, occasionally he will get up to mischief like draw glasses and big ears on family photos. He never spies and tells, I couldn't live with a snitch. This year I have ordered a little elf/fairy door that will arrive last week of November, earlier if I need to bribe DS to behave, he is 6 this year and loves our elf. I'm actually surprised he hasn't already started watching the elf on the shelf film.

This is actually my first post on the Christmas boards, love to see so many as excited about Christmas as I am :)