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Elf on the Shelf

FarrahJobling

FarrahJobling

FarrahJobling
Joined
Dec 17, 2012
Messages
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Let's talk about the elf...I'm probably over-analyzing things. LOL

I love to look for ideas on pinterest.

How does your elf arrive? I saw this on pinterest:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/181481059958223140/

But...doesn't the elf fly up to the North Pole every night to report to Santa and then fly back down and sit in a different spot? So...why would he need to be mailed if he can fly? (a question my kids would ask - LOL)

Also...isn't the point that he's supposed to be watching the kids to make sure they are good? So, why would he be naughty and encourage the kids to be? Some of the ideas are SOOOO funny though....maybe when the kids are teens.
 
FarrahJobling said:
Also...isn't the point that he's supposed to be watching the kids to make sure they are good? So, why would he be naughty and encourage the kids to be? Some of the ideas are SOOOO funny though....maybe when the kids are teens.
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This gets me too, I feel like it sends total mixed signals. I think it's totally fun to have a mischievous elf that gets into things...but then why would he go tell on your kids...then it just seems like he's getting away with it and being a tattle tell. I think if I would have known about this when DD was younger I would have totally done it for fun and had our little elf get into things without using him as a threat to keep her good. I thought it was just me that felt this way...lol.
 
My kids are older 11 and 15 so we just do the Elf for fun. I totally understand what you are saying though. Somehow, with people getting creative, they kind of took the point out of having the Elf there to watch for Santa. However, if you want to take that approach you could easily do some of the more fun things and have them be rewards from the Elf for being good instead. Like leaving Tic Tacs as seeds to plant and then cookie pops grow, or candy canes. Coloring the milk green for a fun treat. Leaving snow man poop (powder doughnuts). Finding him watching a new movie, etc. When they have been bad I've seen where the elf will bring a note reminding the kids to get along, help their mom, do their homework, etc.

For my kids we do the funny things because they don't believe in Santa any more and the 15 yo has decided she's not really in to the Elf. But my 11 yo loves it and so do my husband and I. Some of the ideas are a bit extreme, but fun.
 
i totally feel the same way about Elf (ours name is Sally-ha)…

Sally gets into things at our house but not naughty things…more, she's just having fun and finds herself in predicaments that we catch her in…like making snow angels in the flour or riding around in Mia's barbie sports car….

I have to say it can be quite a lot of work so we just keep it simple….AND….I wasn't prepared for the goodbye after Christmas….Mia cried and was so sad to get Sally's letter that she needed to go back to the NP and would be back next year….it kinda broke my heart!
 
We keep our fairly simple too. I love making the holidays enjoyable for the kids, BUT we try to focus on other things more. Also because the holidays are a busy time I like to keep it simple so it doesn't add "one more thing" to my list and not make it enjoyable for me. Our elf typically doesn't do naughty things either. Although last year she (ours is a girl) did crash the Barbie car into the Christmas Tree. She did apologize (through a itty bitty letter) and was a good elf the rest of the season. When our elf plays in the sugar or builds a snowman out of marshmallows I explain to my kids that he is doing something fun for them. Not that he is being naughty.

Our elf came with a letter from Santa. Our girls found her sitting in our Christmas tree. The letter explained who she was and that she had a book for them to read with her. Every year our elf appears in the same spot, with either a letter from Santa or a letter from her to our girls.

My girls love Cookie and have already been talking about her. My oldest who is eight has "almost" figured out that it isn't real. It makes me a little sad to think this could be her last year believing. Good grow old way to fast!
 
Ours does funny little stuff on occasion - mostly just sits in a new spot though. My kids are far too clever for my own good and this might be the last year that Nicholas thinks he's real...which then makes me sad and wonder if I should do it at all...I don't want him to think "well, if the elf isn't real...what else isn't either"

Ours always leaves a parting gift, so they don't get sad when he's gone. =) Val- that would break my heart too!
 
My kids were creeped out by the elf, so Santa sent elf pups (plushy dogs wearing santa hats). There are two, one for each of my children, and they are partners in crime. :giggle
For some reason my kids just get it. They think it is funny that their elves (pups) are here to make sure they are not misbehaving but they are the ones being naughty and doing things they shouldn't be doing. It is all in fun here and brings lots of silly and smiles to our holidays.
 
As much as I love all the fun/clever elf ideas, our elf just moves to a new spot each night. I just don't want to start something I can't keep up with and have it become a chore, plus my kids love it so much just the way it is! However, he does arrive the same day each year (Nov 29 - because that is the day we found him the first year) and he arrives on the front porch, in a basket with some treats in the evening, usually around bedtime.
 
Lynnette said:
As much as I love all the fun/clever elf ideas, our elf just moves to a new spot each night. I just don't want to start something I can't keep up with and have it become a chore, plus my kids love it so much just the way it is!
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This is us. And honestly, sometimes he even forgets to move, LOL. Silly Elf. We never really know when he's coming. 1st year it was the day after we saw Santa at the Mall (mid-December). Last year it was about the 2nd week of December (b/c he sort of got lost, hehe). My kids are speculating as to when he might show up this year. You just never know!

P.S. The Tooth Fairy sometimes forgets to come for several nights in a row as well, so my kids are sort of used to slacker mythical characters around here :). In the fairy's defense... there are a LOT of missing teeth in our house!
 
LOL Jen, I just explain that sometimes the tooth fairy is on the other side of the world in Asia somewhere - kids lose their teeth all over the world - and she just can't make it over to us in the same night... and yeah, sometimes it takes two or three nights before she gets here ;)
 
jenevang said:
P.S. The Tooth Fairy sometimes forgets to come for several nights in a row as well, so my kids are sort of used to slacker mythical characters around here :). In the fairy's defense... there are a LOT of missing teeth in our house!
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ROFL! I...can't..stop..laughing!!!!
 
jenevang said:
This is us. And honestly, sometimes he even forgets to move, LOL. Silly Elf. We never really know when he's coming. 1st year it was the day after we saw Santa at the Mall (mid-December). Last year it was about the 2nd week of December (b/c he sort of got lost, hehe). My kids are speculating as to when he might show up this year. You just never know!

P.S. The Tooth Fairy sometimes forgets to come for several nights in a row as well, so my kids are sort of used to slacker mythical characters around here :). In the fairy's defense... there are a LOT of missing teeth in our house!
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oh god that is us too - fortunately last time the fairy was a no-show coincided with local extensive bushfires so she showed up the next night with a little note explaining the smoke hindered her ability to get to everyone the night before


our elf visited for the first time last year (DD did get a small decorated tin bucket of coal one year after 2 warning letters from santa, and only gifts from mum and dad, not santa so the elf or santa makes sure to remind her of this now) and mostly wrote messages with blocks or scrabble tiles etc to encourage good behaviour. He also used the leftover gift wrap and scissors left lying around after DD wrapped some stuff to further decorate the tree and was obviously drawing attention to the fact that the kids hadn't been putting away their clean socks and undies from the clean washing piles by draping them around the tree too. That's the kind of stuff our elf does (and he'll probably do the undie tree again this year...) - i scrapped those elf events here http://www.pinterest.com/pin/75364993736197795/
 
I had a lot of fun with this last year. I hadn't wanted to start it, but Katelyn came home from school upset because we didn't have an elf and all of her friends did, so ours showed up late with a letter saying she didn't pass her training the first time, LOL!

Last year she showed up in the tree with the book explaining the tradition. This year, she'll be bringing the girls Christmas t-shirts and she'll probably be in the tree again.
 
We have so much fun coming up with stuff for our elf. My husband has finally gotten on board with it, which makes it much easier for me. We don't do elaborate things with him because, hello…. I don't have time for that. ;) Ours isn't a trouble maker, but he does find himself caught where he shouldn't be sometimes. I don't want to have to clean up a huge mess, so I don't do a lot of the ones that make a big mess, but we do other things. Our photocopied himself last year on our printer, and he did leave a message in flour, but that's the extent of our messiness. Ours can usually be found playing with the boys' toys.

The boys' favorite things have been finding that Harry (our elf) has made them a fort or made it "snow" in the living room (I strung cotton balls on some thread and hung them from the ceiling).
 
I am so inspired by the elf on the shelf photos! We never did Santa which was a compromise in our marriage. My hubby's family didn't really celebrate the holidays. So I get Xmas & the tree but no Santa. I worried every year my kids would be tattle tellers but they never did, thankfully.
 
bellbird said:
i just saw this on pinterest - the kids leave shoes everywhere except in their so the 'shoe mountain' adding that to the elf's to-do list http://www.pinterest.com/pin/75364993738203890/
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I love that shoe idea! Might have to try that one out..lol! Every day my daughter comes home from school and just tosses her shoes wherever.

Last year was our first time doing Elf on the Shelf and it was actually pretty fun to come up with ideas. I told my daughter that Santa sent him from the North Pole to see if she is being good the days before Christmas. The first time she saw him...she did not like him, but after we read the book she got excited. I had our elf do little silly things (nothing too messy)...wrapped the fridge in gift paper, marshmallow bath... printed tons of elf pics that he "signed" and put on the tree... etc ... and she thought it was too funny. Every day he left her a letter to spell out a word that she would figure out to get a surprise gift. Along with the letter clues, some days I would leave a small gift (cute pencils...note pad...coloring book...).
 
I'm sorry but the elf on the shelf is just too super creepy for words :backing ... I don't think I could sleep with it in the house LOL

PLus my kids are older now and don't need to be watch because I KNOW they are naughty :giggle
 
My daughter finds a way to make it work in her head. Oh and did I mention she starts blaming everything on the poor elf too.
 
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