“Elf On The Shelf”

Start a new holiday tradition by playing “The Elf On The Shelf” game. The elf is one of Santa’s many helpers. and shows up at the beginning of the holiday season, keeping an eye on things until Christmas. On Christmas Eve, the elf returns to the North Pole with Santa Claus until the next year. These elves are special scout elves sent from the North Pole to help Santa Claus with his “naughty and nice lists”. When you adopt an elf and give it a name, the elf receives its Christmas magic and can fly to the North Pole each night to tell Santa Claus about your child’s daily activities. The elf returns to your house in the morning and can be found sitting in different places watching the children as they run around the house looking for him. “The Elf On The Shelf” game is wildly popular with parents and children. Carol Aebersold, Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts created the concept and have a web site that plays tribute to it.

There are only two simple rules when you have an elf.

1. An elf cannot be touched, as Christmas magic is very fragile and by touching, the magic may be lost, making the Elf unable to fly back to the North Pole.
2. An elf can not speak or move while anyone in the house is awake, as the elf’s job is to only watch, listen and report to Santa.

Each morning there will be different scenarios created, based on what the elf did the previous night. He always shows up in a different spot. In the bathroom, he may have on a bathrobe and be sitting in the shower or tub, close to the soap. He uses different things found around the house for props and themes. He may go to a concert, sing karaoke, go to a beach party or monster trucking. You can use marshmallows for snowball fights and building snowmen. Salt gives him the opportunity to make angel wings in the snow. He may be somewhat mischievous in his actions, doing things like, replacing Christmas stockings with socks and underwear, or using a marker to put a mustach on a printed copy of a picture of Mom and Dad. Or, maybe he will wrap the refrigerator with wrapping paper

The idea of “The Elf On The Shelf” game is cute and fun. And, every morning the children will find elfie is in a different place in the house, doing something funny and/or interesting. This tradition will help downplay the anxiety of waiting for Christmas to arrive, and help your child’s behavior, so that the report back to Santa will always be favorable.