Giving up the Elf on the Shelf

A couple of years ago, I decided to start a new family tradition with our then 3-year old.  I ordered an Elf on the Shelf , a popular holiday trend, to arrive in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.  I even blogged about that initial experience.  What’s an Elf on the Shelf, you ask?  In a nutshell, it’s a doll, dressed up like a boy elf or a girl elf whose main purpose is to provide an extra set of eyes for Santa.  Elf snitches on naughty kids, according to legend.  Oh, and you can buy the book explaining the story too.

Yes, I impulsively bought the whole set, the girl elf and the book.  I fell for it.  Hook, line, and sinker.  Granted, it’s a cleverly marketed toy.  I loved trolling Facebook for the brilliantly scripted Facebook daily photo updates.  I wanted to start a lasting family tradition.  So much for impulse shopping.

After the first holiday with Ballerina the Elf, I was so ready to box her up for good.  Here’s what I learned the first winter:

• Naming the Elf shouldn’t be done at the end of a hard day at work.  That’s a self-imposed punishment for parents who get into the trend and need caffeine to get the creative juices going.  You have to name your Elf.  Otherwise world hunger will continue, wars will rage on and oh no, Santa may never get your list because your Elf has no name.  Little Orphan Elf on the Shelf.  Anonymous Elf.  John Doe Elf.
  • You need to have all guns firing so you can help your child.  Otherwise, the Elf may end up being named after your child’s latest hobby.  (Yes, ours is called Ballerina.  Thank goodness she was too young for horseback riding then or else she would have been named something like Hanni, Nonni, Ruby, horses that she knows from the stables.)
• Relocating the Elf every night to someplace new, or doing something clever, is fun for about a week.  Then it becomes a chore.  Mama already has chores up the wazoo so this one tended to fall by the wayside.
  • When setting up a new Elf spot must also take your child’s imagination into consideration.  Otherwise, you may end up with a child who simply won’t sleep in her room alone for a while because she’s too freaked out.  It took MONTHS to get her to sleep alone in her room again after Ballerina was found on a bookshelf.  MONTHS.  
  • By mid December, I was out of ideas and started making repeats.
• Creating reasons to explain how the Elf moves from place to place is a challenge.  There are some really creative folks out there like blogger Stacey of From Grind to Whine.  If we were going to do it again, I’d definitely bookmark her post for ideas.
• Setting up new Elf observation spots requires a bit of planning.  If you’re totally anal, a micromanager, or uber-organized, you might consider setting up an Elf on the Shelf idea calendar for the period of time you’re going to play this game.  For bloggers, just add it to your editorial calendar.  A month seems to be the typical period that folks across the ‘net scape do this.  It takes a month for a habit to form.  In my case, I would have had to start the Elf tradition before Halloween in order to get in the swing of things. Not happening.
• Cleaning up after a messy Elf becomes a chore.  Some folks have some super creative Elves and really get into the seasonal adventures of their family’s Elf.  Elves have been spotted inside cereal boxes, making messy footprints on a freshly iced cake.   It’s even a major topic on sites like Pinterest and Facebook.  Personally, I loved the naughty Elf on the Shelf ideas but you have to be careful with those when you have little ones.  Best to save the “adults only” version for those without children at home.  Elf and Barbie.  Elf and Ken.  Elf poops.  Google it.  Don’t choke on your coffee.
  • Sugar makes a mess.  According to some sources, it’s used to heal or recharge an Elf who didn’t make it back to the North Pole because your child touched her during the day.  You sprinkle sugar around the stuck Elf and voila!  She’s able to get to Santa that night and say how good of a child you were.  Chores suck for the supposedly inanimate objects so parents have to help.  It’s one thing to clean up after your child but it’s a totally ri-donk-u-lous idea to clean up after a toy.  ELF = TOY.

If you decide to join in the trend and get yourself an Elf on the Shelf, there are tons of resources out there.  Just Bing #Elfontheshelf  or Google #naughtyelfontheshelfforkids (because this is a family site, you know!).

I love to check out Pinterest pinner Monica Caldwell‘s site.  She has a huge pin board that’s worth checking out when you run out of ideas.  There are others out there, but her’s is a good place to start.

Also Buzzfeed, Slate, HuffPost… they all tackle the topic around the holidays.  It makes for light reading on a night where you’re tired of baking those adorably cute, totally time consuming cookies for teachers and coworkers.  Junk baking, junk reading.

So, why are we ready to give up our Elf on the Shelf tradition, after only one season?

I mean, I have all the creative resources out there at the tips of my fingers.  What I don’t have, nor does Daddy, is the desire to do it.  We’ll do other traditions like an Advent calendar.  

We discovered by chance that last year was a good transition-out-of-Elf-on-Shelf year.  We did a bunch of traveling last winter.  In fact, we traveled to Paris twice in winter.  No, we didn’t bring it with us to Paris. We had family bonding time and it would have been too troublesome to worry about relocating an Elf in our hotel room.  We were so wiped out from the hectic travel schedule that it also wiped out my desire to do anything with Ballerina when we returned home.

This year, we’re taking it a little further.  I recently posted the following letter on my personal Facebook.  You have my permission to borrow it.  I’d love to hear what you decide to do too!

PS:  I’m not against traditions like Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, and so forth.  Just creepy eyed rag dolls dressed up in jolly red and white with eyes that follow you wherever you go.  Creepy.

Dear Elf Ballerina (AKA Our Family Elf on the Shelf):

I know that it’s only October, but I wanted to go ahead and tender our family resignation from the EOTS Program. It’s not that we don’t need a constant reminder to be creative every bloody night between bedtime and wakeup. Nor do we need to keep sugar handy when you (we) forget to move to a different spot for the day. Nor do we need to continually come up with a new observation spot. Every. single. night.

It’s simply that our normally obedient and occasionally grumpy child really doesn’t like your creepy eyes following her all over the place. The occasional visit might be okay this season, but please, not for the whole season. Take a vacation. Get some sun.

Warm regards,
Bella’s Family

The post Giving up the Elf on the Shelf appeared first on Global Family Treks.