You should forego any traditions that you don't truly want to do. I hated the idea of the shelf elf for many different reasons and didn't do it. Occasionally our 3 kids mentioned it and even asked for it, and we just said, "we don't do that in our house." No need to disparage others, just "we don't do that" but "we do do these other things." We also don't visit Santa; did it once, kids were scared and crowds and lines sucked. Never did the big Gaylord ice thing at National Harbor, or the National Christmas Tree, or many other things that are offered in this area over the holidays. You can't do it all, and you should focus on what's truly enjoyable for your family.

We go to a local garden center as a family to pick our tree each year. They have popcorn and other snacks and holiday music on. We decorate it together over tea and hot chocolate. We bake and decorate cookies on Christmas Eve and go to mass. We go to a specific holiday bazaar every year and then to some of our favorite local gift shops and bookstores to pick gifts for grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and wrap together. We host extended family on Christmas; some years I cook a lot, other years when things feel too much, we get some precooked items from Whole Foods, a local bakery, etc. Some years we go to a holiday party or a cookie exchange or to see the Nutcracker, but we say no to these things if our plates are already full.

Anonymous wrote:We don’t do it anymore, but I didn’t find it to be a burden. I never created those over-the- top scenes. I just moved it from one place to another. It took 6 seconds a day.

This. Single mom who often forgot to move it. I’d create a scene maybe once a week on the weekend.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Plenty of non Christians do Santa and the Elf.

As devout Christians we have a small stocking and candy from Santa, but gifts have always been from family.

The elf is not something I think is evil or anything, but it isn’t our tradition. We have others, like baking, Candleight service, and I always take a Christmas ride on my horse after al the festivities are done and everyone cleans up (because I’m the chef!)

Working mom here who wants a religious focused holiday and hates an endless to do list but also has fun with elf pranks - our elf comes like three days before Christmas and does a few fun things then goes back on Christmas Day. It doesn’t lose its novelty and creates less work for us!

Never did it. Moms don’t need more things to do. We have enough traditions and memory-making things to do. Tree, stockings, music, movies next to the fireplace, making homemade cookies and candies, gingerbread houses, going to the Nutcracker, ice skating, advent calendars, getting together with cousins, playing in snow (hometown is in snowy place). No need for Elf. My kids are more than fine.

No Elf. We do advent calendar, tree and stockings.

my kid is 9, he asked a couple times for one when he was 7, and we said no. He doesn't care now. To each their own, but its not for me.

We never did the Elf. 17yo recently asked why, and I told her it was too much for me and I didn't like the message of the Elf tattling on them. She agreed and was glad that we didn't do it. She said that when she was little she was curious why other families did have the Elf, but never really cared.

8 year old DC, never did the elf. DC maybe asked about it when they were much younger, I can't remember. Definitely has not come up the past few years.

Anonymous wrote: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.