We bought our Elf on the Shelf in 2008. I was smitten by his vintage style. His felt elf suit seemed so very Etsy. His book had old-school illustrations, as if I'd pulled it from my childhood bookshelf.
It's inspiring that mother daughter duo Carol Aebersold and Chanda Bell self-published the book after being rejected by publisher after publisher.
Elf on the Shelf first appeared in stores in 2005. We bought ours in 2008, when my boys were four and they were instant believers.
Oh, bah humbug.
Oops, did that just come out of my mouth?
Fast forward three years. My son, who is now seven, crept into my room at 6am and whispered loudly, "The elf didn't move. That's because the parents move him and YOU forgot to move him."
Whether I fessed up in my grogginess or whether I wove another tale like, "The elf didn't move because he had nothing to report," I don't remember.
My kids are starting to gather data points about the non-existence of Elf on the Shelf. The doubting began two year's ago when they were 5, in fact. I think there are too many holes in the stories I've woven, too many inconsistencies told, too many times my kids have seen Elf on the Shelf FOR SALE at the store.
We raise our kids to be thinkers, to question what doesn't make sense. We tell them not to lie. We instill in them a sense of logic. And then like a religious theory, we hope they'll believe that the elf is real without any concrete proof. I invited Elf on the Shelf into our home because I wanted my children to have a memorable childhood. (My family celebrates Christmas purely as a securlar holiday so that is my mindset here.)
In hindsight, the Santa lie is easier to perpetuate. It's a more clear-cut lie that requires less maintenance. Kids who choose nice over naughty will be rewarded with a present from Santa on Christmas day.
With Elf on the Shelf, parents must invent little white lies almost daily. You move the elf nightly, and then you talk about him, inventing things as you go. Forget to move him, and you really have explaining to do.
The oldest Elf on the Shelf kids are probably between the ages of 7 and 10 now. Some of these older kids really, truly still believe. Others say they believe, but they know the truth; they're just not fessing up.
My boys are very much like the 9-year-old boy from the Elf on the Shelf: An Elf's Story CBS television special which aired this past week (we watched in online after it aired). That boy was on the non-believer side at first, sort of rolling his eyes and calling the Elf names like, "stinky ..." which made my kids laugh and then magic happened and the boy became a believer. I know there are 9-year-olds who believe in all this magic, but I also know that my boys could be laughed at by the many non-believers in their age group and beyond.
By now, nearly every family I know who celebrates Christmas has an Elf on the Shelf and they are all enamored with this new tradition. But it dawned on me that none of these families has yet had to deal with the big question of whether the elf is real. We know the "Is Santa real?" question is coming, but it seems that kids will come to question the existence of Elf on the Shelf far sooner that they would Santa.
Who will the Elf on the Shelf bring down with him? Santa, the Easter Bunny and - gasp - the Tooth Fairy?
So go out and get an Elf on the Shelf. If you already have one, enjoy the tradition. But just know it could all end in one big let down. I'm just sayin'.
Once the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, I plan to still bring out our Elf on the Shelf as a Christmas tradition. I'll hide him and let the kids find him. It will still be a fun tradition. My boys act out the world of Harry Potter in their make-believe life. They know it's a fictional story. So in a way, it's a bit absurd to continue convicing my boys that Elf on the Shelf is real.
How will you let your kids know the truth? Did your kids transfer doubts about Elf on the Shelf over to Santa? Or did you tell your kids the truth from the get-go? Did your family have an elf that predates Elf on the Shelf?
It'll be interesting to see how families will handle the day when Elf on the Shelf loses his magic. I'm sure the moment of truth will fill our Facebook streams in a couple of years.
Finding out that Santa is not real is for some a rite of passage. But I think I just wasn't prepared to have to maintain the myth of Elf on the Shelf as well.
Related posts:
Elf on the Shelf (from the Elf's perspective)
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