Elf on a Shelf: Ideas, What It’s All About & If You Should Bother
As it gets close to the festive season each year, you may see more and more photos/memes popping up on social media which feature a certain little elf dressed in red complete with a red hat. Elf on a Shelf is a tradition which has slowly grown in popularity in the UK in recent years, after it began in the United States. So, what is Elf on a Shelf all about? How did it start? Should you bother getting involved – and just what are you supposed to do with that elf for 24 days before the blissful arrival of Christmas Day?
How It All Started
Back in 2005, Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell published their picture book for children, The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition. This popular Christmas-themed story is written in rhyme, and it explains how Father Christmas (Santa Claus) knows who is naughty and who is nice. Santa’s elves visit children from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, after which they return to the North Pole until next Christmas.
The Elf on the Shelf book came in a keepsake box which included a hardbound picture book and a small ‘scout’ elf. The authors say the story is from a family tradition started by Carol Aebersold for her twin daughters, Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts, in Georgia USA.
What Is The Annual Elf on a Shelf Tradition?
Since the publication and popularity of the original Elf on a Shelf book & elf toy, Americans (and in more recent years, Brits) have acquired their own little scout elf for the festive season. Although Americans tend to start their Elf on a Shelf antics straight after Thanksgiving, we don’t have that here in the UK so Brits tend to begin the elf adventures from 1 December through to Christmas Eve, alongside our advent calendar period.
The story is that each home with children has a scout elf which returns each year, before Christmas, to ‘keep an eye’ on the child/children to report back to Santa whether they are ‘naughty’ or ‘nice’. The elves are mischievous however, and get up to all sorts of escapades and tricks. The child will be delighted when they see what new adventure the scout elf has been up to and what situation they have been left in each morning when they come downstairs.
As the child rushes excitedly to discover what their elf has been up to/what mayhem they’ve caused, the onus is on the adult(s) of the house to come up with a new scout elf antic each night from 1 December through to Christmas Eve. That’s 24 different Elf on a Shelf ideas!
Preparation & Avoiding Pressure
If you’re planning on doing Elf on a Shelf, it’s obviously much more involved than simply buying an elf toy and hoping for the best. It may sound a bit overly ‘involved’ but it’s worth considering making a list (& keeping it well hidden of course!) of all the planned ‘elfy escapades’ through days 1-24 of December.
If you put the work in beforehand, and have 24 different ideas of what to do with your Elf on a Shelf, you can then sit back relieved that the hard work is done -all you have to do is refer to that list each day after the kids’ bedtime, and put your elf into the relevant place/position.
Some ideas you may have seen floating around the internet require a little more planning/props/clean-up afterwards -but to be honest, children will be just as excited with simply moving the elf around your home. A lot of the ‘big’ Elf on a Shelf ideas are created and photographed just for the social media clout/’gram, so don’t feel pressured into doing any elf-y ideas which are too complex/time-consuming/messy for your home.
A fun idea for when your elf first arrives is for the children to decide what their scout elf is called. It’s probably a good idea to note the elf’s name down somewhere amongst your Christmas planning notes, so you don’t forget the year after!
Handy Elf on a Shelf Ideas & Inspiration
So you’ve bought the scout elf… Now what exactly are you supposed to do with them? Below you’ll find some Elf on a Shelf ideas & inspiration:
- The elf arrives in your home -and has brought the advent calendars!
- Naughty elf got into the flour and made snow angels
- Elf decided to make a mini snowman/have a snowball fight in your freezer during the night
- Oh dear! Elf got tangled in the tinsel/lights on your Christmas tree!
- Elf has had a lovely time playing with the Lego and building something fun
- Seems the elf got hungry in the night… they’ve prized the lid from the Christmas chocolates tub and several wrappers are lying around!
- The elf loves to have clean teeth -but isn’t so good at getting the toothpaste on the brush!
- (Christmas Eve idea) Elf has packed up their belongings and is heading back to the North Pole, so they’re sat in a toy car ready for the journey home.
It should go without saying, but don’t feel you have to do any of these. They’re just a few ideas, for elf-y inspo. Get creative and invent your own elf mischief! Dig deep and imagine what sort of ‘elfscapades’ your inner child would delight at finding in the morning.
The Big Question: Should You Bother?
If Elf on a Shelf sounds like a bit of a faff… well, it is. No beating round the bush. You need to be committed to providing your children with this extra little bit of festive fun, on a daily basis, through December until Christmas Day. Preparing properly and having a list of ideas will be a big help. But if you feel like Elf on a Shelf isn’t right for you, will add far too much stress, or your children won’t really care -then don’t bother!
I’d strongly recommend making one decision for your household and sticking to it… If the elf arrives one year, your children will likely expect them to arrive every year after that. It may be more upsetting for them if you decide to one year ‘opt out’ of Elf on a Shelf having done it in the past, rather than just not getting involved with this tradition at all in the first place.
Each year I see parents on social media getting stressed about the arrival of Elf on a Shelf, worrying about what to do with it each day, clearly feeling peer pressure to do Elf on a Shelf for their children, forgetting to move the elf some days and getting guilt over it. Everything Christmas-related should be fun, so if it’s not feeling like fun then it isn’t worth doing. At the end of the day your children would prefer calm parents/guardians and a stress-free Christmas over a toy elf who is in a social-media-worthy position each morning.
So it’s over to you: comment below! Do you do Elf on a Shelf? What are your tips and best elf mischief ideas?
Sources:
Elf on a Shelf – Wikipedia
