Community Voices for Health

By: Heather O’Neill

It’s the most wonderful time of the year ….

I love the holiday season- I really do! I love hot chocolate, Christmas trees and decorating the house with festive lights. However there is one part of the holiday season that I really could do without. I do not love the “Elf on the Shelf.”

Honestly, the thing creeps me out. My mother-in-law (MIL) asked me via text one night if we had one for the boys. The conversation went went a little like this:

MIL: Do you have that Elf on the Shelf thing?

Me: No.

MIL: I was going to get one!

Me: Not for my house, I hope.

MIL: (silence) So you’re saying you wouldn’t want one?

Me: No, thank you.

I felt the need to call her and explain why I don’t like the disturbing little creature.

1. The doll is creepy
2. I just cannot take on moving it every day. Every single day. I have enough to worry about and thanks to Pinterest, it’s not like I can move it from one shelf to the next. It has to be an elaborate production. I just don’t have it in me to create something amazing for 25 days straight
3. It’s $30! Really!?!?!

I think she was OK with my explanation.

I went on to explain that in addition to the advent boxes we do each year (small boxes with notes of activities we can do for the month – watch a Christmas movie, get a Christmas tree, donate some toys, etc.) I was thinking of incorporating the “Kindness Elves.” Small elves I had seen online that leave notes with acts of kindness that you can do in and around the community. I don’t think we will get a visit from these elves everyday, but maybe on the weekends. She agreed that we didn’t need the additional craziness that the Elf brings. Phew…

One fun tradition we have started, before the Elf on the Shelf was a household name, was “Buddy the Elf” who brings magic Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve to the boys. He hides the PJs and the boys will find them before we leave the house for the night for our family gathering. The boys put the PJs on and Santa will know if they are asleep in their beds on Christmas Eve and will only come if he knows they are sleeping. We’ve done this for the last few years and the boys love the visit from Buddy. We’re a one Elf family …. I don’t think there’s room for another Elf in our home right now.

The boys each have an Elf in their classes at school. The questions about when he will be visiting our home have started. I’m hoping we can get by without it for at least one more year.