What did your elf on the shelf, get up to last night ?

Great idea as I'm always trying to think of things last minute! Our elves haven't come out yet I try to hold off until mid December.. I tell the DC that they don't come to a messy house, so until their rooms are tidy the elves won't come..

Thankfully, my children don't like it when they get up to bold things so our elf is very tame & literally just moves from room to room.

Ours was in a tub of ice in the freezer this morning 🤷🏻‍♂️

Toilet roll all over the Christmas Tree. Thankfully it was clean 😂

Our two got the 5 year olds underpants and decorated the tree with them. She was most amused.

Elf on the shelf is about the parents not the kids. One time the wonder of Christmas was all kids needed. Now parents feel the need to compete with each other to make Christmas “magical” for their little Johnnies and Mary’s. All the stuff that parents now feel they need to do actually decreases the magic of Christmas for the 7 to 10 year olds who are more aware. They see the elf’s for sale in the supermarket, they see their friends who don’t have an elf and they talk about why with each other, they know it’s an inanimate piece of plastic. In an effort to seem magical parents are actually pushing doubts into their children.

Some parents take this to the extreme. In one case parents in my sons class left tickets to one of the Santa experiences and a letter from Santa to their kids on the doorstep. This does two things, make these kids think they are somehow exceptional or above the other kids when Santa is supposed to be about bringing joy to all, and it makes the other kids in class question why Santa didn’t do the same for them or else figuring it’s yet another lie told by parents as many kids sold 7+ have figured that the Santas on these locations are not real.

This misplaced effort by parents is turning the Santa myth into a divisive rather than joyful experience. And it’s all to make the parents feel good about themselves and not about the kids who have been happy with an unseen Santa for generations

https://media.tenor.com/oNaCRbvHu3oAAAAM/johnny-english-rowan-atkinson.gif

The very same could be said about Santa

We are done with the elf on the shelf. We never did the naughty piece but just remembering to move them every night was a chore. Especially if you have had a couple of drinks :😀

Just reading a few posts above. I certainly don't do the elf thing to make me feel good. I do it because my 7 year old loves the idea of her elves (they are like soft toys for her) coming alive and getting up to mischief. We haven't gone big on a background story, only that they arrive on the night of the 1st to check on her and that she's OK, behaving etc. She massively looks forward to their arrival and is excited first thing in the morning to see what mischief they have gotten up to. If anything, it adds to the excitement and magic of Christmas.

Sad sack!

Jeez what's with all the grumpy shites in this thread! My 11 and a half year old jumps up every morning in December dying to find out what the elves have been up to! We don't post pictures or videos online so don't have any Jones's to keep up with. It's just a new extra magical part of Christmas. We don't have many years of Santy left now so we enjoy every minute of it

Come back to us when he and any siblings all have their own elves, you're tearing your hair out and blaming your other half when it's forgotten before bed, you've run out of all possible situations to use, and your son is about seven.

It's a lovely concept that quickly becomes a rod you made for your own back.

Protip: 1 elf per house.

Take is from one who made the mistakes..

My wife started it so when I'm not arsed I make her come up with something, she's not impressed when I wake her to do the elf. I'm getting lazy, my best this year is photo copying their backside on the scanner. Other years we, gift wrapped the remote, the Tv, (doubled down and gift wrapped the kitchen) we've blocked door with gift wrap paper too.

She's away so I've to do it tonight - dam

It definitely becomes a drag. We never got into the naughty element but we did exchange notes. Don't go.down that path. Bad enough having to think of new places each night...