« bleeding blue | Main | like i said, i work through my sh** by writing »
maybe next year we’ll try cash bribes
By heather | November 29, 2011
Yet another reason I will be glad for Christmas Eve: the Elf on the Shelf. If you don’t know what this is, you are probably 1) not from the South 2) do not have kids or 3) don’t visit shops that sell Christmas ornaments in July. I’m thinking this year Santa has drastically improved his distribution network because it used to be just the annoying Christmas stores that are open year round, now the Elf on the Shelf is EVERYWHERE.
The EOTS is simple – scam your kids into behaving for the entire month of December by telling them Santa’s elf is watching them and reporting back. Every night he flies off to the North Pole, then returns and finds a different perch from which to spy. It seemed like a delightful concept. I read the kids the included book as a bedtime story, and the next morning Emmy burst out of her room yelling, “Mommy! Did the elf come? Let’s go find him!” Adorable…until Alex found the elf, took one look and skeptically proclaimed him “not real.”
The next morning I woke up in a blind panic at 4:30, having realized I forgot to move the elf. Fearful of ruining the Christmas magic and cementing Alex’s theory that the elf was a fake, I tiptoed downstairs, relocated the elf, then stumbled back to bed.
That evening I remembered and perched him on top of a picture frame hanging above our couch. Later the next morning, I heard thundering feet running, followed by panicked muttering coming from the playroom. Investigation revealed that Emmy had ignored the rule of “don’t touch the elf” (not my rule, it’s in the book!) and tried to climb up the end table to get to the elf. When he fell off and landed face first on the couch, she bolted, fearful that she’d killed him, or at the very least taken his magic. When they weren’t looking, I shoved him in a drawer and told them he must have left to go try and get his magic back.
The next morning he reappeared, again when I remembered to move him at 5am. (Sensing a pattern?) Seeing as how I’m running out of places to put him that are both out-of-reach and not hazardous to climbers, I’m thinking this little game should have started around December 15 versus the day after Thanksgiving.
In a spirited frenzy of goodwill and this-is-the-most-fun-tradition-ever, I purchased EOTS for both my sisters-in-law on Black Friday. I hope they still like me by the end of the month. I suspect otherwise.
Topics: holidays, parenting, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Tags: elf on the shelf
November 29th, 2011 at 12:43 am
I’ve seen lots of ideas on Pinterest! Good luck. You can sleep on 26 December.
December 1st, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Too funny! I’m so glad not to be participating in that tradition. It sounds like a lot of work! (But it does sound like fun for the kids.)