Elf on the shelf - practical questions

[Blankiefan]

I may be overthinking this but our elf is sitting in a Box addressed to DC with a letter explaining what it's all about. I have my big Pinterest board of ideas about what to do. But:

• what happens when DC find it each morning? Do they leave it where it is til bedtime? Or do they/I put it back in it's box?
• do kids generally accept that they can't touch it?

( I believe a good sprinkle of cinnamon gets the magic back if required )

How do you usually manage this?

Following - elf arriving at our house for the first time this year too!!!

We don’t follow the no touching rule in our house and never had. My children love their elves and i personally fee it would be sad if they couldn’t interact with them and dress them etc. Most people I know do the same

My screen instigated the no touching rule by himself.
Ours only moves at night.

We usually put it somewhere they cannot reach. She stays there until moved that night.

It’s awkward, I didn’t know about the no touching rule so ours gets taken around and out of house but friends have a no touching rule, awkward.

We don't do the official "elf on a shelf" with the book etc. I don't like the idea of the elf reporting to Santa etc, and we don't have a no touching rule. Ours doesn't cause that much "mischief" as I am too lazy to do anything elaborate, and the kids are still little, so ours moves each night to do something different (often things like hiding in a shoe playing trains or reading teddies a story), and the kids play with him a bit when they find him in the morning

I'm just hoping they don't clock the huge displays of them in the shops and I have to explain why there are a million Elfreds for sale when ours comes from Santa to stay with us

I just have a cute cuddly one and the kids play with it as much as they like

We don't do the no touching rule. The kids find him in the morning then they are aloud to play with him in the day but they have to put him back before bed so his magic works as he's only magic and can only get back to Santa once everyone is asleep so Santa's knows what time they went to sleep so they usually go to sleep as quick as they can as they don't want there elf to be the last one back

We have 2 elf on the shelfs, they arent ever touched except in a grave emergency when they will be moved with tongs 😂.
They do a mixture of mischevious things and good deeds.
It seems the better behaved the children are with funnier/ more mischevious the elves are.
It's always easier to have elves come to stay if they have pre-planned their antics 😂 have fun !

We move him around after my son finds him in the morning, usually to sit with other teddies/toys but he's on the shelf in the bathroom today because he ate an entire tin of biscuits this morning and must feel very sick
We don't do the creepy 'Santa is watching/Melvin is watching' either so we might be a minority with the daftness.

We do the no touching rule.
When she is found in the morning - I move her to the fireplace and she sits there all day until I move her when dd is asleep :-)

My dc spotted the ones in Tesco but he said there not magic, to be fair they do look different to our elf on a shelf

Mine have to tidy up the mess the elves make, and then they can play with them. I didn’t know about the no touching rule. Mine even take an elf each to bed, which then slips out in the night to create more mess. This helps them more with thinking they are magical. Getting a bit more tricky now my eldest doesn’t go to sleep very early!

We don’t follow the ‘rules’ or have the regular elf on the shelf doll, ours are soft toys that appear from the elf door we put out every year. Every day they do something silly and leave a small treat if my children were well behaved that day. They play with them and watch tv with them etc so wouldn’t consider a no touch rule. Christmas Eve they go back to the North Pole and update Santa. You can tell I put too much planning into this... 😂