A family member bought one for us a few years ago when our children were babies and we thought it was so adorable and what a great new way to create happy memories for our children during the holidays.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the Elf on the Shelf, it is a tradition that was created by Carol V. Aebersold with her own family. It came as the answer to the question; "how does Santa know who is naughty and who is nice?"
You get a box that comes with your elf and a book that is the story of the Elf on the Shelf. You give your elf a name which gives him or her the power to observe behaviour during the day and fly back to the North Pole at night and give Santa a full report. The big rule is that you must never touch your elf or he/she will lose their powers and therefore, can't make it back to Santa to tell him how good you've been.
This all sounded so lovely the first year we put "Buddy" out at our home during Christmas. Our boys were still very little and didn't quite get it but we liked it and did it anyways. As a parent I was having a blast watching on Facebook the creative placement of other family's elves and found myself trying to be creative enough in my hiding places so that I could post them as well. ( You have to move your elf every night so that your children will believe that he/she flew back to the North Pole).
It wasn't until last Christmas that "Buddy" really became a big part of our Christmas tradition. As soon as we put up our Christmas tree we made sure he was there for the kids to see the next morning. Soon after, we were made aware of the super cute Christmas special that was coming on tv: The Elf on the Shelf. It was based on the book that comes with your elf and has a great story of a family who has an elf, but one child isn't really convinced that the elf is who he says he is. He doesn't believe in his powers. One night he decides to test his theory and he touches the elf. Low and behold, the elf loses all his power and is brought back to the North Pole by some other elves where he is being nursed back to health after the trauma of being touched by the boy.
The boy is devastated and has to find a way to save his elf. He has to believe really hard in order to get him back again. It is a really cute story with a nice message and my kids loved it! They watched the movie over and over during the holidays and the first thing they did every morning when they woke up was go look for Buddy. We tried our best to be diligent with the moving around of Buddy, but there were a few mornings when we were running to get downstairs to move him before the kids saw.
And then it happened. We never thought it would but it did...Justin touched Buddy.
We tried to keep him in places where the kids couldn't reach but this particular day he was just within his reach. I was upstairs in the kitchen and the kids were playing downstairs when I first heard the screams. I thought someone was seriously hurt. I went running downstairs to see what happened and they were both screaming and crying and I couldn't understand what they were saying.
I was terrified and it took me at least five minutes to get them to calm down enough to tell me what happened. Ian finally said "Justin touched Buddy". I looked at Justin who was mortified. He had tears streaming down his face while he cried "I didn't mean to mommy, I don't want him to get sick". It was one of the saddest moments I had ever had with my kids.
The old mom in me would have said this would be a good time to tell them that Buddy isn't real and he didn't do anything wrong and that Buddy can't be sick because he is just pretend. For some reason I couldn't do that. I had to find a way for Justin to redeem himself. So, I picked Buddy up and cradled him in my arms and carefully placed him in a blanket on the couch. I said we needed to take really good care of him for the rest of the day and hopefully he would be better by bedtime and would be able to fly back to Santa.
That night at bedtime, we read a story and when I was saying goodnight they asked if Buddy would be better in the morning. I told them they did a really good job of taking care of him and if they wished really hard he would get better and he would go to the North Pole and be back when they woke in the morning. They both told me how much they loved Buddy and that they really were going to wish hard that he would be ok.
They both went tearing through the house in the morning looking for Buddy and were so thrilled when they found him.
My husband and I were in shock. What have we done? We lied and they believed it. But they were so happy and it turned into a lesson learned.
We probably only have a couple of "Santa" years left with our boys. I may not be the completely honest mom I set out to be but I know there is something very special about believing in something magical. They have the rest of their lives for the truth so for now I will enjoy the tradition and happily place Buddy on our tree again this year.
If you are looking to start this tradition with your family you can get your very own Elf on the Shelf at Book Outlet in St. Catharines
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