Elf on the shelf

[Thomo0111]

Hi all, thinking about starting the elf this year for my 3 year old (I have a 1 year old too but obviously she won’t really understand).

For anyone that does this did you let the kids name the elves? Or did you pick names that they arrived with? If so, please can you spam me with name ideas. I’m thinking of doing a boy and girl so as my kids grow up they have one each.

Also, did you have the rule that they cannot be touched?

Lastly, any cool ideas are welcome please. I’d like to try get a rough plan together of each day in advance as I know I’ll come up blank under pressure haha!

Thanks so much from a mummy who is new to all of this 🤣

I can’t tell you the number of children I’ve had in my class over the years who were upset about an elf living in their house. Weeing in their milk or putting toilet paper on the Christmas tree and then the child is worried that their parents think it’s them. I’ve had a hollow eyed little girl who we actually thought was being abused because she looked so exhausted and jumpy. Eventually she told me she was frightened to go to sleep because that’s when the elf was naughty. I’ve had to phone a dad with a quite important job because his son was sobbing because the elf had drawn on his school photograph.

Doesn't the saying go "An Elf isn’t just for Christmas. It’s for every bloody Christmas for the next 10 years"

Definitely this, if you have a child who takes things to heart more.
A toy coming alive at night to watch you can cause a lot of anxiety for a young child.

Our elf wasn't naughty just funny

This is awful and absolutely on the parents, some parents just go overboard thinking drawing sharpies on their kids, bringing alcohol into it and don’t think about the impact on their children.

My DDs loved the idea of toys coming alive, we’ve always done silly things with their Toy Story toys. Had they ever shown signs of fear or anxiety I’d have knocked it on the head straight away, but they love it and get excited about it.

N.b I don’t use the creepy elf on a shelf, we use the soft toy ones, but unfortunately have “acquired” the creepy little shit and his mates over the last couple of years because my DD has bought them, they live in her room.

Thankfully this was not a thing when my children were little! Grandchildren have not been introduced to this either.Life is hard enough for 2 parents working full time without adding to the burden ! Grandchildren non the wiser because their friends parents ignore as well 🙏

Don’t do it. Every one I know who started it enjoyed it the first year it two, then moaned and moaned about it for the next three til the kids grew out of it.

We have a cute cuddly elf rather than the creepy thing. Ours also isn’t very ‘posable’ but we’ve still had lots of fun with him over the years. We gave him a Nordic name rather than an elf name so he is called Lars.

We don’t have the rule of no touching…that one passed us by when we first got it. He is cuddled and taken on all our Christmas outings and features in lots of our festive photos! The DC would take it in turns with the very important job of looking after him overnight and making sure he didn’t get up to mischief so it always caused lots of giggles when they realised they had failed in their task and he had done something silly!

We realised a bit too late that we don’t really do the elf in the ‘traditional’ way but it works for us. I only have one DC left that still enjoys the elf but my two teens get involved with his antics. Pinterest is good for ideas!

Don’t do it. No one needs those pervy little voyeurs spying on them. Awful idea and whoever came up with it should be hung, drawn and quartered.

I don't advocate the death penalty, but please don't do it.

I would at the very least have double VAT on items for this so-called tradition.

Over celebrating sets a tone for life which will cause you loads of grief as your children get older.

Another vote for don’t start it or if you do change the rules a bit.

we have an angel that sits at the bottom of the stairs. On Christmas Eve she moves closer and closer to our nativity scene. She ‘arrives’ on Xmas morning.

much easier to manage. School does an elf so they get that there.

What did it do?

We hid it. The person that found it got a prize. They then got to hide it ( but not take part in the hunt unless saying hot or cold) .
It was a bit like hunt the thimble.

My kids named there’s and yes they can’t be touched 🙈 I don’t go craaaazy with it though sometimes they just move randomly to different spot depending on if I can be arsed or have forgotten before I went to bed 😂
some things I have done:
on the first day they bring Christmas pjs/jumper,
toilet paper around the Christmas tree,
upside down in the cereal box with some cereal on the table,
lying in sleeping bags with A Christmas dvd,
snow angels on the table with flour,
a pack of “Santas bum hairs” which the elf put under their pillow,
novelty toilet roll in the bathroom which they were sitting on,
hanging off the light,
hiding in the Christmas tree,
doing an elf puzzle,
got some grinch elves who then tied up the elves,
put them in the car

Fuck - I hope our school doesn't have an Elf! We told our kids that Santa only sends an Elf to houses where there is a serious concern as to whether the child should go on the good list or naughty list.

Avoid doing it till they ask /at school

I almost didn’t do it because everyone told me not to! Then I realised that it was ridiculous to listen to others and it is very much the kind of thing I would love! So absolutely you do you!

I would say get a notebook or notes page on your phone set up. Put down the dates that you know somethings happening e.g 1st - arrival, 5th, going to cinema so have cinema tickets, 15th going to see Santa so new Christmas jumper.

As others have suggested if you buy things over December anyway like a new jumper, some hot chocolate or whatever may as well put it as part of the elf.

I then have a list of a couple of fun ideas (car wash in the dishwasher is a favourite of ours) and then also a list of oooops I forgot/ I CBA ideas like chuck him in the cereal box so I really don’t see it as any hardship.

Our Elf was named by our DD. We just move it round the downstairs of the house so it’s in a different place each morning (on the tree, in the Barbie house, hooked onto the curtains, in a mug etc…). She is a nice elf you see and doesn’t hold with any of the naughty elf/playing tricks nonsense…. 😉
If she’s feeling very energetic, she might write a little note occasionally and she does bring a chocolate treat each morning (instead of an advent calendar) which she kindly leaves in a little post box I got from Sostrene Greene.
I totally understand why people don’t do it (or regret starting it) but I think if you keep expectations low, it’s really not that painful.
DD is allowed to touch and play with her (because, like a PP, I hadn’t realised that was part of it!).

Not just Christmas, it's pretty much the entire month.
A tedious chore every day in an already chaotic, germy, expensive month.

If you feel the need, the kids father can do it all. I would bet if all elf stuff was left to fathers to do, the elves would all be in landfill within a week 😆

Our elf hides daily. I cba to do tricks

I agree with making a note of ideas ahead of time, I also take photos each day so I can look back the following year and remember what I did to get some inspiration

Ask your child if they want it . Both my daughters freaked out the elf’s where moving around during the night , the then 3 year old refused to sleep in her bedroom in fear they were watching her while she slept. Needless to say they were banned on day 3 never to return again .

We do a fairly low key elf on the shelf in our house.
we have the Jellycat elves who we called Twinkle and Sparkle (our DDs have 1 each) and they arrive on December 1st with their advent calendars, new PJs, some festive sweets or chocolate and a new Christmassy book or colouring book and when they leave the night before Christmas Eve, they leave the girls’ stockings and our copy of “the night before Christmas” and a note saying Santa said they’re on the nice list.

throughout the month our elves have a pamper day with the Barbie dolls, bring tickets to Christmas events we’re going to, throw a party with the toys for DD1’s birthday, they eat lots of chocolates and leave the wrappers on the sofa in the play room or they slide down the bannister.

I'm a big fan of the low key elves and the kids like seeing what they got up to during the night.
We also have a chalkboard and pens for the elves to leave notes for the girls too.

We let the kids touch them but they don’t leave the house and must be put back on their shelf each night before bed

Naughty Elves at B&M tonight!

Elf On The Shelf - Celebration Party Pack - £6.99 at B&M