Elf on a Shelf – Not in This House!

My kids are grown and moved out, but back when they were growing up I had never heard of "Elf On The Shelf." So it was never an option in my home. I am not sure if I would have participated, but I do think if I had, I would have been very creative and had a lot of fun with it!

On Facebook, I've seen plenty of fun, extraordinary situations some elves have found themselves in, and the excitement of the children when they discover their shenanigans in the morning. However, not every household takes part in the Elf On A Shelf tradition!

A concerned parent recently took to Facebook to ask a very serious elf question, and because this was never something available to me, I thought it would be helpful to new parents, or parents facing this dilemma. Here is the question asked and some helpful tips parents have used to defuse the situation or buy themselves time. I hope this helps!

Shelby writes:

For those that don’t do THE elf - what do you tell your kids when they get to the age where they realize other kids have it and what it “means”? I refuse to participate in the parental torture of the elf, but I also don’t want to ruin any Christmas magic for my kiddo or others.

Erin-

I told my son that I wrote a letter to Santa asking him not to send an elf to our house because our dog would scare him. She’s loud and barks at the wind so it was easily believable for him and it made sense

Alissa-

We also refuse… seems so silly to me, but we also just said sometimes Santa has to check on other boys and girls directly w an Elf. He touches base with us as parents to ask and we didn’t think Santa needed to send one down to keep an eye out for good behavior, etc etc. we’ll see how it goes!

Nikki-

You have to ask Santa for them to come

Kimberly-

We tried to avoid it until our son was in Kindergarten and asked how come Santa doesn't love him..."All the kids in my class have elves that visit them. Not me. Santa must not love me." Begrudgingly, an elf appeared and we actually had a good 5 years of fun and funny antics that created some pretty great memories for our little family

Kathy-

I tell my kids (we do the elf) that it's by parents' request. That's why we just got ours 2 years ago and that's why not everyone has one

For those parents just starting their Elf adventures, I have included a video of favorite, most funny Elf ideas to help get you started!