The other day I was strolling through Chapters, minding my business, when I saw a box that spoke to me (in hindsight I’m not really sure why it spoke to me but now that I’ve gotten to know the toy better, I’m sure it was the elf playing some pseudo mind tricks on me because I’m sure the toy makers who created this horrific toy built that in by design). So, I picked up said box, read the name aloud and thought to myself, “Aww, it’s a little Christmas tradition… this could be cute for Willow” until I spotted the actual toy sitting just a few inches away from the closed and sealed boxes. An endearing creepy-as-hell elf. Not just any elf people… ”The Elf on the Shelf.“
From the moment I saw the elf itself, I knew that I wouldn’t like it. This thing’s arms and legs are ridiculously long and it’s face is crazy creepy. It looks like it’s peeking up at you with a look that says, “Just go to sleep… I dare you…” The thing also doesn’t have feet. I’m opposed to anything, inanimate or animate, that does not have feet. All of my drawings, regardless of whether they are stick or full figured, have feet. Big, giant, prominent, swear-they-are-there feet. Things without feet are just weird.
Anywho, I digress.
So, back to the elf. For those of you not familiar, the basic concept is this: people buy the elf and they hide it in places throughout their house and the idea is to scare their children into good behaviour by telling them that the elf is all-knowing, all-seeing and hides… watching them… always. The children then make a game out of trying to find the elf’s hiding places each day. I’m not really sure what happens when they do find the elf but I don’t think they can touch it – they just nod to the elf and do a little kid-style hat tip. Regardless, the parent(s) make an effort to hide the elf each day as a scare tactic for good behaviour. The end.
Or is it…
Nope. People… it’s SO not the end.
There are people out there who buy these elves and instead of just sitting them on shelves, like the name so obviously intended, they make the elf do things. Like… cause mischief and get into trouble. I’m not really sure of the purpose of this because I know that if I showed Willow how to tear open pillows and throw feathers everywhere, you’d bet that she’d be doing that too and NOT understanding that it’s bad but whatevs. I don’t judge other parenting styles.
But it’s not just little things that the elf ends up doing each day… it’s BIG, change your whole house around things… get messy and have to clean up afterward things… Things that, going back to my earlier comment about the elf having the ability to play pseudo mind tricks on its owners, people would never do otherwise. And if you would do these things anyway, you be cray-cray. Just sayin’.
Think I’m exaggerating? Here are just a few (hundred) things that people do with their elf on a shelf:
I don’t know… I just don’t have enough time in the day to prep a “scenario” for the elf and then let Willow enjoy it for 0.045 seconds before having to clean up after the damn elf. If I owned an Elf on the Shelf, it would sit on the shelf. As the product’s name states. It wouldn’t be an Elf on the Shelf Who Makes Me Do Stuff Every Single Day for a Month.
So level with me… do you do the Elf on the Shelf in your home? Are you as over-the-top with your elf-ness as these links portray or do you simply sit him on a shelf? Would love to hear from you elf-loving mommas out there and I promise, no judgement (okay, maybe a LITTLE judgement… haha)!
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