Elves on Shelves

It appears that some Christmas magic has reappeared in our home.  Many years ago, Santa was spoiled when my children were still young and they were told Santa was not "real."  I was so sad that this magical time was ruined; not just for them but for their future siblings, as well.  As it turns out, three of the four no longer believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the like.  I know that someday we all figure out that there is no man who shimmies down the chimney or fairy that slips under the pillow to leave treats and surprises.  So, it wasn't necessarily the loss of Santa that grieved me but the loss of the magic of Christmas.  A five-year old doesn't understand the "spirit" of Christmas.  Plus, they then spoil it for future little sisters long before it's time.

On the bright side, I no longer had to worry about hiding wrapped presents or explaining why the handwriting or wrapping paper Santa uses matches mine.  I didn't have to decide which presents came from Santa and which came from me.  I no longer felt "jealous" that they like Santa's gifts better than the ones I gave them.  I can wrap the presents and put them under the tree right away.  The downside is I cannot use Santa as a motivation to "be good" either.  It just doesn't work LOL!  We still talk about Santa, enjoy the shows on TV and visit Santa at the mall. 

Last year I read about an elf on the shelf that reports back to Santa if you've been naughty or nice.  I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the money on something that really wasn't going to be useful for a long period of time.  It wasn't on the radar much and the holiday season passed without much thought to the creepy little elf.  Fast forward a year.

It seems that the devilish little elf has returned in a big way.  We've seen him everywhere:  Facebook, the card stores, Target, friends have it and there's even one at my daughter's preschool.  He's making a huge comeback, but I have found many friends who don't even know what I'm talking about.  My SIL hates the thing and sent me a link to a blog about hating the elf.  I skipped that one.  I felt like I was being judged, especially when she told her kid that only BAD kids got the elf, when he asked for one. 

There was a cartoon on about the elf recently which my children watched and thus became enamoured with this little elf that reports whether you've been naughty or nice to Santa each night .  It was all they talked about for several days, and in the end I broke down and bought the darn thing.  It came with a wiry, plushy-type elf with no feet and a lovely hardcover book. I think it's severely overpriced but, hey, I bought it anyway.

The premise of the elf is you adopt him and set him somewhere in your home.  He stays in that spot all day recording his observations and then magically flies back to the North Pole each night to give a report to Santa.  Then he flies back and finds a new spot to sit in your home which the children will find the next day when they wake up.  I thought it was a cute way to talk about the magic of Christmas and have a little hide and seek fun during the holidays.

I came home and put the box under the tree so the kids could find it the next day, which they did.  We opened the box and discovered the elf had already left the box.  Since he's supposed to hide in the first place, this was rather creepy.  No one admitted to taking the elf out and hiding him somewhere.  Already we had elf issues.  I returned the box to the store, I mean elf adoption center, and we were given a new one.

After the kids got home from school, we took him out, read the story, chose a name and visited the elf website.  His name was Twinkle.  Then the next day we changed it to Jingles which seemed to suit him better.  I put Jingles on a candle on the TV stand.  The girls seemed a little skittish with the elf while their brother shook his head at all of it.  Did I mention he has no feet?

As bedtime got closer, the tension ramped up a great deal.  It turns out the girls thought that he would hide and jump out to scare them or do some other nefarious things to frighten them like sneak in their room while they were sleeping.  This was a big deal at bedtime.  I mean HUGE!  Oh, the drama of little girls.  They were quite frightened.  I'll admit that he looks a little odd what with his no feet, skinny legs and eyes that don't really look straight ahead but off to the side.  But they are big blue eyes and a little smile to look happy.  All I heard for days was how much they wanted an elf like their friends and now they were scared.  Make that petrified.

We ended up with two little bodies in our bed that night.  I figured we'd just move them after they fell asleep.  Eventually, they fell asleep but woke up frequently worried about the elf.  I promised he'd stay downstairs and not come upstairs.  The bed was very crowded and no one got any sleep that night.  For children who don't believe in Santa, they sure did attribute quite a lot of power to a stuffed elf.  At one point the littlest one woke up thinking she saw him on the dresser, actually pointing, looking and trembling in fear.  I finally got her back to sleep but vowed that darn elf was going back to the store.  It was a long sleepless night.

The elf did find a new spot to sit after that night.  The girls, seemingly excited, ran down the stairs to see if Jingles was still there.  And there he sat -- in the Christmas tree!  They were so excited, yelling and pointing.  They weren't sure what to make of it or if we should keep it.  I had promised them and my husband I would take it back to the store, but I did not have time to make a trip to the store that day. 

Last night we had some discussion about what to do about the elf.  Santa has given the elf rules he has to follow so I suggested we tell the elf to talk to Santa about staying on the main floor of the house.  They seemed more open to keeping Jingles so I decided to follow their lead.  This morning they got right up and ran down the stairs to find the elf on top of the Manger with baby Jesus.  The girls thought this was hysterical!  They were laughing and going around telling everyone where they found Jingles. 

Along with Jingles was a note from Santa explaining that Jingles was a really nice elf who didn't wish to scare anyone.  The rules include that no elf is allowed to leave the main floor, go in any bedrooms or bathrooms.  The only comment my oldest daughter had about the note was that she liked the font Santa used.  I find this quite funny. The girls seemed okay with that today, so I will continue to follow their lead. 

I'm excited that we are keeping the elf.  For now.  While it's probably only a couple-year tradition here, it's brought back some of the magic of the holiday.  Whether or not they believe the elf can really go visit Santa or move about the house, it looks like it's going to be a fun and magical game that we can enjoy together.   They grow up too fast and I want to hold onto that magical innocence that only children have for as long as possible.

Now, where will we find the elf tomorrow ...?