Elf on the Shelf - slightly annoyed

[Poohforyou]

I'm often wistful this time of year that my only child is a teenager and beyond much of the magic of the season. However, reading both sides of the great elf debate I'm am nothing but joyful that this wasn't around when she was young.

It reminds me of parents wondering how to make a trip to wdw more magical for their child as if the trip alone wasn't magical enough.

I think I'm going to invent an Easter fairy, and Halloween ghost to get kids in the spirit. I should make a killing on that.

 

[WorldWacky]

For those that do the elf... how do you explain why he's even needed?

Everyone knows that Santa "knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good."

Did Santa somehow lose his magical knowledge power in the last decade? Why does he need all these spies reporting back to him? It seems the creepy little elf is robbing Santa of his magic. I'm fearing a mutiny in the North Pole in the next few years.

He's old and dementia's set in!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

My dd is 9 and claims everyone has this elf, and she really really wants one. Since she is at an age where I'm not always sure of her knowledge level, and I don't want to dash childlike wonder...I commented that I wasn't sure how you got one. She told me you buy them at the store!

Oh good! I'm just lazy, so it's not happening.

DD9 used her own money to buy her elf at toys r us.

I hate the elf. Our elf does nothing special and I'm running out of spots to put her.

Dd tells me how her friends elves do all kinds of elaborate scenes. I don't care. It's not happening.

I also don't know her knowledge level so I don't want to dash her dreams. But it's so annoying.

DS15 thinks it's so creepy. I think I'm putting it in his room tonight.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

 

[Disneybuckeye]

I think my kids are too old as we never had one. Why is he so ugly? Why doesn't he look like Hermie?

 

[jdb in AZ]

 

[SanderMC]

I refuse to get an elf, I think the elf is creepy. However, in theory I like the idea behind elf on the shelf so I branched out.
Last year when whose boxed Hide and Hug Olaf's came out I bought one of those and use Olaf instead.
I figure Olaf is part of winter so why couldn't he be working for Santa too??
Oh and Olaf only moves each night....that is when I remember to move him.

 

[learningtolive]

We bought the Elf 2 years ago, and apparently a female elf as I found her box among our decorations this year. The Elf has flown the coop as he is not in his box but we've never read our DD4 the book or utilized the elf at all, as in somehow he escaped, we have his little girlfriend but again, she's in her box. I'm too lazy to even think of things to do with this thing, so guess he shall remain missing and the gf staying in her box in my Christmas storage. I almost bought the Olaf one but didn't.

At my daughter's school, they use this guy to praise the kids when they do something good and send a note home to the parents about what the kid did good that week. Last week my daughter got a note from Buddy for sharing with a classmate. She loves it. So I don't want to take her magic away from school, so this creepy elf and gf, again, will be left wherever they are!

 

[minnie mum]

Did anyone see Fallon's Pros and Cons of EOAS last night? It was a hoot.

 

[Mikie]

I'm definitely a somewhat lazy, wishing a hex on the Pinterest elf competitions kind of gal. I know it has become a "craze" somewhat recently - my MIL bought us the book + elf gift set from Hallmark maybe 7 years ago? But when I was growing up (late 70s early 80s) we had an ornament that looked just like this EOAS only smaller. Most people I knew had a similar one on their tree. I had 2 friends whose elf ornaments behaved like today's EOAS (moving around to watch, not the hijinks stuff) When th elf and book started appearing all over stores, I just assumed this smallish tradition from the 70s had gotten commercialized and caught on.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

A coworker told me her elf came back with a cast on it's leg and can no longer move. She stays in the same spot now.

Brilliant.

 

[loves to dive]

Each and every day I'm thankful my son is a grown man now and I don't have to do these things. I was a single mom so he was lucky he got Santa and then he was only allowed to ask for 3 things and he had to pick 3 of his toys out to be taken to the homeless shelter (back then they actually took used things instead of having to have new in the box). He didn't get any other toys from me, his gifts from mom were practical things. His stocking had a few dollar store things in it and the rest was candy and fruit and nuts. He stopped believing in Santa when he was about 7, I'm sure someone at school said something but I was fine with that. I did decorate the whole house but we usually had a Charlie Brown type tree, one because I usually could only afford to buy one after most of the good ones were gone and two, we both thought it was kind of funny. I imagine if he were little now, the first time that elf appeared, GI Joe would have blasted him away. I never did the if you aren't nice Santa won't bring you anything either, if you aren't nice something else is going to happen. Not that either one of us is without whimsy, I wear something Disney every day and I even have a silver tinker bell sitting on my coffee table. Of course, that bell has been known to be wrung just because one of us in the house to is too lazy to get up and get something so tink summons whoever is up.

 

[bethwc101]

I just learned about this Elf on the Shelf thing a couple weeks ago. Before that had never heard of it, and my family has never done it before. Looks like we have the laziest elf of all.

 

[CPanther95]

I just learned about this Elf on the Shelf thing a couple weeks ago. Before that had never heard of it, and my family has never done it before. Looks like we have the laziest elf of all.

I hadn't heard of it until an alternative product for Jewish families "Mensch on a Bench" was pitched on Shark Tank and it was compared to the EOAS.

 

[Pookles]

Only elves coming into my house are Dobby and Santa. I turn 40 three days after Christmas. Yes, I buy the presents, but I will never stop believing in Santa.

 

[22Tink]

I regret ever buying that elf!! Lol! I forgot to move him last week and oh the trauma!! My daughter was so worried that his 'magic' was gone. Now I have a reminder in my phone so I don't forget again. I'm not too creative so my teenage son stages most of the elf scenarios.

 

[BudgieMama]

(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.)

Absolutely agree with this. I was brought up in a household where Father Christmas brought all the gifts, which was magic, and no big deal in the grand scheme of things: that's his job. What was a big deal was the year after my Dad bailed, my Mum still managed to give us the amazing Christmas we had always enjoyed, and instead of being able to thank her for the amazing Mum she is, we gave the credit to a made up character.

When she finally did tell me the truth, it actually seriously damaged our relationship and my level of trust in her for a long time.

If kids come along, Father Christmas will be just a story. I'm so uncomfortable with that level of deceit and then maintaining it for years and years. The Elf justs makes it worse, for me. Christmas is fun without either of them!

 

[nugov2]

Absolutely agree with this. I was brought up in a household where Father Christmas brought all the gifts, which was magic, and no big deal in the grand scheme of things: that's his job. What was a big deal was the year after my Dad bailed, my Mum still managed to give us the amazing Christmas we had always enjoyed, and instead of being able to thank her for the amazing Mum she is, we gave the credit to a made up character.

When she finally did tell me the truth, it actually seriously damaged our relationship and my level of trust in her for a long time.

If kids come along, Father Christmas will be just a story. I'm so uncomfortable with that level of deceit and then maintaining it for years and years. The Elf justs makes it worse, for me. Christmas is fun without either of them!

I find it hard to believe that just a simple story and belief in father christmas damaged your relationship with you mother. If it is truly the case that simple belief did do damage, it is very rare.

My parents still believe in Santa, and so do I. He isn't a lie we tell our kids for us. I read this letter once about explaining Santa and while they aren't the exact words my parents used, it is the same mesage. It is the same message I will pass on to my kids. It is what he means to us. " He is love, magic, hope and happiness "


http://www.popsugar.com/moms/Telling-Kids-Truth-About-Santa-27332439

 

[BudgieMama]

I find it hard to believe that just a simple story and belief in father christmas damaged your relationship with you mother. If it is truly the case that simple belief did do damage, it is very rare.

I'm not suggesting every child would experience that, but I did, and it hurt. My Mum and I have almost exclusively enjoyed a very close relationship and still do, but I remember very clearly feeling angry, hurt and betrayed, and I wouldn't personally be willing to risk that. To each there own, but pretending he's a real person who brings real physical gifts is not for me. I'm not suggesting that everyone else should do the same, but what @bumbershoot said about appreciating the effort their Mum had actually made to provise for her family at Christmas struck a chord with me and I wanted to share my own experience.

 

[design_mom]

What was a big deal was the year after my Dad bailed, my Mum still managed to give us the amazing Christmas we had always enjoyed, and instead of being able to thank her for the amazing Mum she is, we gave the credit to a made up character.

Your experience is your experience, of course. But in my mind, that's exactly what the "spirit of Santa" is. It's doing something nice for someone else and *not* taking credit for it. Your mom knows what she did, and she knows it made you happy. She is Santa.