Forgoing the elf - is this realistic?

[Anonymous]

My kids LOVED the elf. We did it for years.

[Anonymous]

Our elf went back to the North Pole. It was causing one child to wake up super early in the mornings in effort to be the first to spot him. Then it was constant talk about the elf all day. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Elf on the Shelf is just some artificial thing created by some woman in Iowa who had to self-publish her book. It’s not a real tradition.

Agreed. And it's gotten more obnoxious as they've extended the product line and the "mischief" has gotten more elaborate. Some of the pranks are messy and gross...especially anything involving toilets and poop jokes.

My family actually had a few little holiday magic pranks when I was little but we invented them ourselves. And they were low intensity to pull off. One was an Easter chicken-shaped candy dish that would lay jelly beans when you sang a song and left it alone for a while. Dad handled that one. We remember it fondly although we only did it for two Easter seasons and only my 5 year old sister believed it was real.

[Anonymous]

NO ONE I KNOW HAS EVER DONE THE ELF. Some in my circle do Advent, others have stockings hung up on their mantel, everyone has their traditions and no one does it all.

Sorry to shout rudely, but you seem to be in this extraordinarily tight bubble of thought about this. There are absolutely no consequences to not tacking on extra stuff at Christmas!

I think the concept of the Elf is fun and not creepy... but I'm not doing it. We're fine with Advent. We don't have stockings. We have presents under the tree. Works for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are 6 and 4 and we’ve made it this far without them asking about the elf on the shelf but my oldest is in K and it finally happened this year. We do Santa but I try not to make it a huge focus. We’ve always done advent instead with a calendar and talked about the meaning of advent - we’re very involved with our traditional Presbyterian church and the main reason I haven’t started the elf is because we already do the advent calendar and I don’t want to add a second secular thing in since Santa already comes and we have other traditions like going to zoo lights, going to tea downtown, the nativity pageant at church, and lots of parties.

My question is, does every single kid at school have an elf? And if we decide to forego that tradition, how should I explain to them why we do?

I’m not totally opposed to doing the elf but it seems like a lot of work and my hope it to keep the religious piece the most important part of Christmas.

6 yr old can do the elf for the 4 year old

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neice took hers and threw it in the trash she's 7.

She said "christians are suckers"

Love that kid.

My BIL not happy. My sister to me "love that she did that, she is honest"

LOL

What a nasty coven of mean girls you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We never had an elf. With a full time job and three kids, that was an extra I had no intention of taking on. Kids now 8,10 and 12. Occasionally, the elf topic was mentioned, probably because of something another kid said at school, but my kids have never complained about not having one.

Same.

[Anonymous]

Elf on the Shelf is not required. We never did it.

[Anonymous]

We do it we are the best

[Anonymous]

My kid is 7, and she’s never asked about it, nor have we ever done it. Her cousins are similar ages and they also don’t do it in their households. Not sure about her friends, but we certainly don’t hear about it.

I don’t get what the big to-do about it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NO ONE I KNOW HAS EVER DONE THE ELF. Some in my circle do Advent, others have stockings hung up on their mantel, everyone has their traditions and no one does it all.

Sorry to shout rudely, but you seem to be in this extraordinarily tight bubble of thought about this. There are absolutely no consequences to not tacking on extra stuff at Christmas!

I think the concept of the Elf is fun and not creepy... but I'm not doing it. We're fine with Advent. We don't have stockings. We have presents under the tree. Works for us.

Same! I have heard of it, of course, but I’ve literally never known anyone who has done it— or who does it such that they tell everyone or their kids do or they’re posting it on social media. But then I see entire think pieces about it and am amazed that it’s such a thing. It seems cute but also like an extra thing and my kid has never shown any interest so…

[Anonymous]

My YA kids still want the elf to make an appearance when they come home! Never was too elaborate with it. There’s a small window for magic. One of the joys of parenthood is being able to foster this in kids. The magic will be gone soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Assuming your kids know non Christians - then they know people who don't celebrate Christmas and who don't do Santa or Elf on a Shelf.

We celebrate Christmas but never did Santa or the Elf. Not a big deal at all. Kids can understand that people celebrate holidays in lots of different ways.

[Anonymous]

It must be getting more and more popular, my 7 year old has asked about it and seems way more aware of the Elf than my older one. But we don’t do it. I explained that it is a new tradition and I didn’t like the way people do it when I first heard about it (reporting on behavior to Santa) so we never did it and we have lots of our own traditions. December is very busy so editing down our traditions to just our most favorite few is really important to me.

[Anonymous]

Lie to your kid.