But when my (then) 7-year-old came home practically in tears and said "My friends say all you have to do is wish for one... and I've been wishing and wishing, but he still won't come."
Man, and people are so afraid of the kids who might mention that Santa, etc, isn't real. Seems it's the kids like the ones your child ran across are the REAL ogres!
At age 11 why don't you put her in charge of the elf? I'm serious - it could work out really great!
I thought the same thing, but looking at the poster's signature, the 11 year old is the youngest. So who would she be doing it for?
Why make it that dramatic and nasty.
Did you feel it was dramatic and nasty? Wow, I didn't. I thought it was good, especially under pressure.
The 'don't like it don't get it' isn't so easy when kids hear their friends elves have shown up and they are left wondering why he hasn't shown up at their house.
Exactly. A few of the people in this thread ONLY have them because other children at school said really strong stuff to their kids. If DS went to school and a teacher started this nonsense, I would be seriously miffed at the teacher! It's one thing to keep at school, but it seems some teachers are making it happen at home, too.
I personally think there are nicer ways to explain why you don't have one besides making it out like all the kids who have them are "bad" and need it.
See, I read "YOU are so GOOD that you don't need the elf". That doesn't actually have to translate to "other children are so bad that they do". It was something to make that child feel OK and safe that the elf was not there anymore.
Now if that child goes back to school and starts telling the other kids about it, then she's spreading unkindness. Hopefully, since she is such a good kid, she's going to keep that to herself.
Like all the other kids should be! Man, some of these other kids at school are unbelievable!
t's bad enough that my parents brought my son a huge wooden advent calendar in the shape of a Christmas tree (the thing is about 4 foot tall, it was $150! For an advent calendar!) and it has these huge boxes to put treats in each morning. Not just a little chocolate or something small, these boxes would fit a small melon.
Oh dear.
My stepmom needlepointed a stocking for DS for his first Yuletime. A HUGE, gigantic, stocking. The kid has never seen that stocking. There was absolutely NO chance it was ever going to be even a quarter of the way filled, so it's just packed away. OK so he's seen it now that he's older and understands that it is NOT going to be used, and I laugh about my stepmom thinking I was going to utilize it.
I mean, she KNOWS that my brother and I weren't raised with the Santa myth (other than him being a fun story that some families do, but we don't, but don't spoil it for the other children), so why she thought I was going to go all out for xmas, I'm not quite sure! (and since part of the reason we weren't raised with the idea of a strange man coming into the house in the middle of the night was because of fear of my father, as in, the person that later became her husband, it's even more mystifying that she would think I'd get into it)
I don't have the elf on a shelf. Too much to do at this season without throwing that in the mix. I do have an elf that was given to me the year DD was adopted. A much less creepier looking elf. This one just sits on an end table during the Christmas season
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That's a *less* creepy looking elf???? Whimper.
My oldest is 10 and I fear this will be the last year she will believe. Makes me sad because Christmas is so magical and special to them. They love decorations and everything that comes with it.
Believe it or not, it is entirely possible to love the decorations and everything about the season without EVER believing in Santa etc. You can believe me because I'm one. I'm not Christian, I'm not religious at all, I was not raised with Santa as anything but something fun, and I've raised my son the same exact way, and we call it Yuletime, but all the trappings are the same (apart from the Nativity), and it's all awesome and fun.
People fear the loss of belief and think it means the loss of fun and joy and it's just mystifying. Because it doesn't have to be.
(And by the way it was FAR more mystifying to wonder how my mom, a single mom with no child support coming in, EVER managed to create our Christmases, than it was to wonder how a magical mystery man did it.... Also, my room was right off the living room in our 800 square foot house, and yet she managed to hide, then wrap, everything and put it all out while I, an absolutely horrible sleeper, was *right there*. Magical. My mom was amazing.)
Elf on the Shelf is just copying what I came up with in '04, when I got a little wool doll we call the Yule Fairy. I'd bought a Polar Express Santa before that, and the two of them have been really inappropriate in the past (when DS was little and didn't have a clue). Now they just sit and end up with empty shot glasses of wine, and powdered sugar all over, for Yule morning or the 25th, whenever we choose to do presents. Copycatters.
