Christmas Elf - thank fuck it's a recent thing

[Whattheheckcarer]

It sounds horrendous - does everyone do it now? What are the consequences if not doing it? I think it would have sent me over the edge in the final week when kids were in primary school.

God no. Kids are 6 and 9 and I opted out from the start. There really is nothing more irritating than listening to mums stressing out in zoom calls at work in the morning because they had to 'do the elf' at 5am after forgetting the night before. Why do it to yourself? That and Christmas Eve boxes.

I said this to a colleague who has young children and she corrected me saying that she loves seeing her daughters' faces so excited to find the elf every day and it's the one thing about Xmas that's free - obviously after the first year when youve bought the elf. So I stood corrected.

My five year old has been asking about it because some kids have it at his school and I’ve been telling him that the elf only goes to really naughty children’s houses. Sorry, I am not starting this nonsense.

Now that's the way I could get behind the whole elf on a shelf thing!

I’m so glad we did the elf, this is our 2nd year and it made Christmas for me. The kids love it so so much, and every morning is full of excitement as they wait to go downstairs. We don’t do any of the crazy things you see on social media, it normally just moves to a different location, but always puts a chocolate in their calendar (I have one we fill ourselves). I used to just say the chocolate appeared by magic so got the elf for that purpose. Occasionally we do something funny, like stick it in the snack cupboard, but nothing that takes more than 30 seconds. But the kids love it so much and spend a lot of time whispering to the elf, sitting it on the table then laughing as it ‘pretends it can’t sit up’ etc. You see so much negativity about these elfs, especially all the judgmental superior types on here. But DH and I were discussing the whole way through December how pleased we were we’d done it!

Thank god my dc are too old but I have never understood why parents would do this. Exception being the poster who has the elf give presents to her dd to give to her- that’s a great idea.

Yes exactly. It brings so much joy and is free! You really don’t have to do any crazy things, I think most of us literally just move it.
And no as pp have said, it isn’t for naughty children. I’ve made sure my dc know that as so many parents seem to think it’s ok to say this! Our elf is a good elf and doesn’t report back to Santa.

I was smug " not in this house" mum. Daughter is 8 so thought we'd managed it despite the begging. Lovely neighbours handed in a xmas present on the 16th and as we try and stagger the excitement here I let her open it...it was an elf and accessories! To be fair you'd have thought it was xmas day itself the level of excitement it induced. Daughter was very clear on how it all works and that it was a very naughty elf.
I tried to say because it came on the 16th it'll come next year on the 16th but that didn't really hold.
Thanks lovely neighbours!

We have never done it, but we are planning to do it next year. Kids are 21 and 19. We are going to take turns to do it, with prizes at the end for the funniest and most offensive efforts.
I could get on board with that.

My main issues with normal elf on the shelf is part the spying on children for Santa side, and part that it's yet another piece of mental load for parents (mainly women) to do in the name of making Christmas magical. Most people I know who've done it end up starting strong and then resort to just moving it around with an occasional staged idea, usually after complaining that they need to think of things for the elf to do .

We have an elf called Nora but she's not a naughty. She just sits on the shelf and reports everything back to Father Christmas in December and also brings the Christmas Eve box.

Oh and I didn't realise the elf was meant to spy on the kids to see if they've been good. For various reasons we've always been clear with daughter that santa comes go all children because all children are good and their behaviour is nothing to do with that. Our elf is just a santa helper hanging out here for a while.

It’s just completely naff.

I think the magic of Christmas is lighting up the darkness near the shortest day and bringing the greenery of a (fresh) tree into the home.

It is also, whether you believe it or not (I don’t), about the Christian Christmas story, which I think children should know as it is of immense cultural significance.

It isn’t about Santa Claus (we did him for about 3 years tops) and I don’t think the children really ever believed it or cared, or about a stupid elf used as a behaviour management tool. It definitely isn’t about showing off on social media!

I guess every family builds their own traditions and we evolve over time, but I can’t ever imagine myself embracing this infra dig importation.

Our elves move around the house each night, that’s all they have ever done. Our DC love searching for them each day, we’ve had them 8 years. It’s my DDs favourite part of Christmas!! I’d say it’s brilliant value for money!

There is always so much competitive anti-elfness on here. Advent is the easiest 24 days to get the kids out of bed as they are excited to see what the elf has been up to and eat their 2 grams of chocolate from the calendar. It doesn't have to be expensive, nasty, or difficult. My kids favourite one this year was the elf pretending to eat a Christmas pudding bauble.

We embrace the cheese here. Tinsel, multicoloured lights, no colour scheme, matching pj's etc. Love it all!