Austin Mogger : To Elf or Not to Elf - The Elf on the Shelf plus 60 ideas for your elf

The elf on the shelf is based on a book that came out in 2004. You get to adopt a scout elf from the North Pole and they fly back each night to see Santa and report back to him if you have been naughty or nice. When they fly back each morning they fly back to a new spot in your house. This allows your children to wake up each morning and go on an elf hunt until they find it.

You can adopt/ buy an elf at an elf adoption center like Target or Amazon. Bring them home and read your kids the book then you get to choose the name for the elf. Our is named Princess Jingle Belle or PJB for short. They arrive some time after the Thanksgiving and show up every night until Christmas and then they fly back to the north pole until next year. Kids can talk to the elf but he/she can't talk back. This was a tricky one when several days before Christmas my 5 year old asked for the Elsa Frozen Castle (which was selling out everywhere) she told me she told the elf and he was going to pass it along to Santa. Good news is Santa did bring that castle and Christmas is saved but from now on I tell my kids we see Santa and tell him our presents and no one else.

One more thing no one can touch the elf or they COULD lose their magic. We had a nanny and a maid who both touched our elf the kids saw. Neither knew what the elf was. We only said that if is touched by accident then they probably won't loose the magic. I have heard of parents sprinkling the elf with cinnamon or nutmeg to get it's magic powers back if a kid touched the elf.

By now most people know about the elf on the shelf. There is even a 30 minute Elf on the Shelf movie that was on CBS. There are so many elf accessories that you can buy that you can have you elf dressed in a new outfit every day until Christmas. While some people think it is creepy to have a toy spy on your kids I think it is a sweet tradition that I never had as a child and I love doing it. Now don't get me wrong I would wait until your kids are a little older. I think my older daughter was 4 when we first adopted our elf. When they are that young the no touching thing was hard. So each day our elf traveled from light fixture to light fixture through out our house occasionally landing on the tree, mantel or anywhere else high up and untouchable. But as my kids grew older and the elf has become more fun and I have gotten more into it. My kids love it. Yes, I have forgotten to move the elf. I have gotten out of bed in the middle of the night or early in the morning to go do it. But now that I have done it for so long it has become a habit. I have a list of ideas and know what I am going to do each night. It only takes a few minutes and I never forget. Well at least not the last 2 years.

When my older daughter is too old I hope to recruit her to help stage the elf for her little sister. Who knows when my kids are much older maybe the elf will show up with beer once in a while just to keep the tradition alive.

For those needing ideas I will show you what our PJB has been up to the last few years.

1) Sledding Elf