Elf on the Shelf

[Maddie2802]

My DD will be 3 this Christmas and starting to understand all things Christmas!
I'd love to do elf on the shelf for her and was wondering what other people do and for any ideas please! 😊

Buyer beware. An elf on the shelf is not just for one Christmas. I've been stuck with the hateful gobshite for 4 Christmases now. 🙊 So many last minute panic attacks at 5am because I'd forgotten to move the sodding thing. Eventually brought in a new rule that if the elf had been touched by a child then the magic wore off and he couldn't move for a night. My best one yet was when the little fucker got manflu and stayed in bed for three whole blissful nights.

Things I've found are elf brings the advent calender. Elf door appears on night one. Elf writes a stern letter if the little darlings have been horrors. Elf makes a mess in the kitchen. Elf does snow angels. Elf gets stuck in a bottle. Elf can't get out of bottle so comes on day out. Elf puts loo roll all over the tree. Elf announces a day out/ activity. Elf goes back to the north pole for a night off. Elf hides... Elf gets frozen in freezer because he misses home. Elf wears doll clothes. Elf builds a Lego house. Elf builds a snowman. Elf drives off in Barbie car (sadly not Thelma and Louise style). Elf lost an arm in a terrible overnight accident which fairly traumatised the children for a while.

Don't do it to yourself. The elf will make your life a misery. December is LONG. Or maybe limit it to the last week!

Buy yourself the elf on the shelf movie, it’s my four year olds favourite, he’s had it since he was two and it’s played weekly! It explains elf on the shelf it’s only about 20mins long. You can get it second hand very cheaply.

Found this one for just 99p.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255186440027?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338365712&toolid=20006&customid=EB24538461&

@Teaandcakeordeath83 you are an icon!

[quote Liverbird77]@Teaandcakeordeath83 you are an icon![/quote]
just going to screenshot that as my epitaph.

You can get Santa cams now, (or a bauble with a Pound Shop phone lens glued to it if you get desperate). If you think your DD will be missing out by not having an elf, it could deliver the cam, set it up overnight and then bugger off back to the North Pole to carry on assembling dolls houses.

I started elf on the shelf a few years back and whilst it's great fun, I agree with @Teaandcakeordeath83 that it's a bit of a nightmare when you realise at stupid o clock that you haven't moved it! I'll have to come up with some new adventures for him this year, think I've exhausted all the old tricks!

I am sooooooo glad elf on a shelf never appeared until ds was too old for it. It sounds like a nightmare, I can see the first week year might be fun but cant imagine doing it for 5-6 years.

Last year I had elf ate too many liqueur chocolates and passed out for 2 days.

Elf played hide and seek for 3 days.

Elf removed baubles from the tree (actually that was the cat but it was a quick fix for when I'd forgotten to move him)

Elf on the ceiling fan with Wham's Last Christmas playing was by far the DCs favourite 😂

If you really want to do it, great and more power to you. I haven't done it because....well mainly just because I cannot be arsed.

If DDs ask I plan to tell them that the elves only go to the houses of naughty children

Chucky on a Chair is an alternative to Elf

@GoingOutOutNEVER

Chucky on a Chair is an alternative to Elf

🤣🤣🤣

Tempted, but don't think ds(17) would ever forgive me if he woke up to chucky!!!

www.housebeautiful.com/uk/lifestyle/g30064086/elf-on-the-shelf-ideas/

Just google elf on shelf loads of ideas/inspiration

I say do it OP, but be prepared for the long haul and about half way through December cursing yourself. Our Elf is my DD (7) favourite thing about Christmas. It's brought so much magic to our house and really captured her imagination so I'm so glad I started it. Pintrest will be your friend. I also agree about getting the movie. We have all of them now and they all get watched over and over, especially the first one. It's become part of my Christmas now and I'm really looking forward to watching it again. I'm planning on being organised and making a list of elf activities so I can be prepared and not trying to think of something at midnight!

Never have I regretted anything more than doing Elf on the Shelf.

There is no way I'm doing elf of the shelf. I've got enough to do on December without adding this too my plate.

Our elf only comes for the 12 days before christmas. So less stress and less ideas needed to move him about.

The girls are older now and well aware its us (the eldest is at least, youngest not so sure...) but its a bit of fun and silliness in December. They talk fondly about the antics he's got up to in the past and wonder if he will do the same again 🤣

I've screenshot a few ideas already for this year. Poundland, the works usually have lots of accessories.

My girls favourites have been elf taped to the wall and held hostage by dinosaurs, elf drinking/eating something of ours, covering the tree in pants/toilet roll, sticking googly eyes on things, writing and drawing moustaches on the picture frames (use dry wipe, in my tired state I used sharpie.. stink lines and a beard on our wedding picture was interesting to explain to people who visited!)

Do it! I think I love it more than my DDs

I don’t like the creepy elf on a shelf though, I use plush elfs. I originally bought online from a company that made and delivered the elfs from Santa but they stopped making them. We still have the original 2 a boy and girl elf. We also have a baby elf from home bargains and a new little girl one that arrived last year for my now 4yo dd, also home bargains. AND we now have a blue plush one one of my DDs saw in a charity shop. I snuck back and bought him, he turned up mid December last year to keep and eye on the others.

They get into lots of mischief, nothing too naughty. They watch movies while eating pop corn, try and escape by climbing on the nutcrackers we have next the front door, make giant conga lines with the other Christmas toys and decorations. We caught the big 2 changing baby elfs nappy. They even set up their own nativity with the other toys and baby elf in the dolls crib.

If we forgot they can usually be found hiding in the snack draw as it’s n easy play for me to grow them without the DDs seeing, or hiding in their coat sleeves or school bags. You really don’t need to spend too much thought on it.

Ours went into s'elf' isolation for two weeks as those were the rules last year for coming to the UK from the North Pole. 14 days of it sitting in a shoe box with a little window to look out.

I'm on the shelf about doing this for my kids 2.5 and 3.5!
Watching with interest

On the shelf 😂

My oldest son has just turned 3 so I'm also watching this thread with interest. What age do people think it's best to start from?? Not sure I like the idea of the elf spying though, plus they look mega creepy. I've heard of 'kindness elves' which look nicer...

Please don’t do the elf cam/Father Christmas is watching through the smoke detector. It’s really fucked up and having watched kids look during innocent natural okay and look wary I’d never subject my kids to it and tell visiting ones we’ve checked and there are no cameras and you can see them relax.

@surreygirl1987 my friend does the kindness elves/family thing and it really does look wonderful

@DILevil, oh good, I'm glad somebody else has heard of them. I found out about them last Christmas - the spying elf on the shelf doesn't sit right with me. I need to look into it more. Still unsure whether I should start this year or wait until my son's 4.

I went to use the bathroom in a house share full of performing artists/actors all in their early twenties a few years ago and the elf was on a shelf wrapped around an empty bottle of vodka with a packet of smokes and lighter beside him. Did make me giggle

@Surreygirl1987 our elf is purely a visitor coming to make mischief and see what the children like playing with for research purposes. He's not a spy for Santa.

I don't understand the logic of having a naughty elf visit who does things children would get told off for, being used to tell Santa about naughty behaviour....