Community Chat

[SunValley]

The children in my family love their elf. He gets into the craziest places and is always ready for fun. It’s all in how it’s presented. He is not a snitch— he lets Santa know how excited the kids are for his visit. No perfect behavior required. Finding him each morning is something they look forward to.

eta: if the elf can get into mischief with impunity, so can the kids. 

[Zaimee]

Did “The Elf on the Shelf” with my classes for many years. My partner and I moved it to different places each day and wrote poems to go with “Snowflakes” action. Everyday there was a little treat that Snowflake left. Sometimes she was very mischievous and messed up the bookshelf or bathroom. Even got on top of thePromethean board. How did she do that? We had a lot of fun watching them enter the room searching for the elf. At the end they wrote about “Snowflake’s Adentures”. 

Loved doing it (retired day this year).

Oh, and we have a Mensch on a Bench for the grand girls. It’s not cute, rather have elves but we are Jewish!

[SahmIam]

That thing creeped me out the first time I saw it; no way was it entering my house. When I had my first child in 1997; someone gave it to him as a pre-Christmas gift (he was a whopping 3 months old) while visiting us over Thanksgiving. I prompted dumped it at Goodwill.

A few years later, a buddy of mine emailed me asking if I'd seen the Elf on the Shelf naughty pictures? I said I didn't know what she was talking about and her next email contained many a picture with the Elf doing VERY naughty things with Barbie, her friends and well, you get the idea.

Now when I see it, the sly smile on it's face has a whole DIFFERENT meaning/look, lol. Still not allowed in my house, however.

[SandySparkles]

My grandson loves Elf on the Shelf, and I love reading it to him. He gets so excited looking for him. The DVD is one of his favorite Christmas animations. It is short, but has catchy songs and good graphics. I was surprised to find out how many people had never heard of Elf on the Shelf presents An Elf's Story DVD. 

~~~All we need is LOVE

[Cakers3]

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@SunValley wrote:

The children in my family love their elf. He gets into the craziest places and is always ready for fun. It’s all in how it’s presented. He is not a snitch— he lets Santa know how excited the kids are for his visit. No perfect behavior required. Finding him each morning is something they look forward to.

eta: if the elf can get into mischief with impunity, so can the kids. 

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@SunValley   The original story has the elf "flying" back to Santa each night to report on the activities of the children GOOD OR BAD.  The elf is a scout sent to tell Santa who is naughty and who is nice.  This was the whole premise of this elf.

The Elf is a snitch. 

LOL

[novamc1]

It's a shame that some people assign such a negative view to the Elf.  

My granddaughter gets very excited when the Elf shows up at her house right after Thanksgiving. 

I don't know how long she will continue to believe in Santa, but last year I asked her where the Elf goes after Santa visits on Christmas Eve.  I said I didn't know because no Elf ever visited our house at Christmas when her Daddy was a boy.

Very matter-of-factly, she authoritatively told me that "he goes back to the North Pole".

Just the way she said it indicated she thought I must be an idiot.  LOL!!

[SunValley]

@Cakers3 yes, the story is creepy to me too and I don't dispute the snitching part. I was trying to relate how we adapted the story to suit our family and wasn't very successful. Lol. The kids enjoy the playfulness--so we took the good parts and ditched the snitch part. For us the elf just informs Santa on the excitement and enjoys playing hide and seek. 

It came about because i have an elf that I have had for over 40 years that looks exactly like the one created for the story except mine has a green collar and kinder eyes! Lol. When the kids saw him a few years ago, they were excited that I had an elf too and asked if he liked to hide like the one in their classroom does. I played along and said sure, so Snowball is the elf in my home and moves around playing tricks but remains kind. My daughter bought an elf for her home to continue the fun. He's no snitch either.

[Cakers3]

@SunValley   Got it. 

(But just in case-don't be naughty.)  LOL

[lovesrecess]

One of my DDs used this when two of her kids were constantly battling. One of the girls was always tormenting her sister with taking her toys, hair-pulling, etc....typical 4 yr-old stuff...the bully really bought into the Elf...SIL got up every morning at 3am to move him around....our “bully” became angelic and her sister got a month of peace....too bad they outgrew it!

[lovesrecess]

I would never allow my grandkids to eat that stuff at IHOP. Looks disgusting and unhealthy just like the black stuff the pushed for Halloween. Is it any wonder they are barely hanging on to their company?