My granddaughter will be three in a couple of months and she received her elf this holiday season. Naming our Elf was an adventure. Every name we suggested she said “No” to so we asked if she wanted to name is “No” and she said YES!! So our Elf’s name is Knowie. He travels home every night and finds a new place to perch the next morning. Each morning it’s a game to find out where he is sitting and she loves it. We have to tell him goodnight every night and make sure that she knows he’s watching and will report to Santa so she’d better be good. Twas the Night Before Christmas: Edited by Santa Claus for the Benefit of Children of the 21st Century" (2012) being Pamela McColl "smoke-free" edit of Clement Clarke Moore's poem Bender, Rachel (December 9, 2015). "5 Traits That Elf on the Shelf Promotes". Yahoo News . Retrieved October 25, 2023. Whether you’re hosting one of these friendly-faced visitors for the very first time or simply want to understand the meaning behind the elfcapades you see on social media, keep reading to learn more about how The Elf on the Shelf became a cherished Christmas tradition for young and old. The Elf on the Shelf story

An Elf's Story". The Elf on the Shelf. Archived from the original on November 7, 2013 . Retrieved December 4, 2013. Christmas Eve" ( Noch pered Rozhdestvom, 1832) by Nikolai Gogol (from Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka) I cannot support the idea of extrinsic motivations for moral development. If children are being decent, kind, generous citizens just because a tiny humanoid is watching their every move, then they're not thinking critically about their actions and their effects on others. Children don't internalize the value of altruistic behaviors from this book; they are left with no need to be good for the sake of being good. Instead, children are presented with an insincere meritocracy as tempering their otherwise irresponsible and sociopathic tendencies. This book is a disservice to children for insisting that they are incapable of compassion and responsibility, and a disservice to parents for assuming that they cannot imbue their children with any sense of personal accountability.a b c Hank Stuever (November 24, 2011). "CBS's 'Elf on the Shelf': Unwarranted Christmas surveillance techniques". The Washington Post . Retrieved August 25, 2013. [ dead link] And with millions of households sharing in that memory making, it seems that indeed The Elf on the Shelf tradition will carry on for many years to come. The Elf on the Shelf': How the brand evolved over 17 years". foxbusiness.com. November 9, 2021 . Retrieved October 30, 2023. The Elf on the Shelf: An Elf's Story". commonsensemedia.org. November 18, 2011. Archived from the original on April 15, 2014 . Retrieved April 14, 2014. Each night the elves travel home to the North Pole so they can report in to Santa. Will their child be on the naughty or nice list? With the help of their magic, they return each morning and find a new place to sit and watch. It’s important that the children don’t touch their Elf or he will lose his magic.

All of us have enjoyed [The Elf on the Shelf] tradition, no matter how old or young we are,” Malarkey tells TODAY.com. “When my kids wake up, I cannot wait to show them my elf masterpieces and all the creative trouble that will ensue.” I want my kids to behave ALL year, not just Dec 1 to 25 or whatever. I love Christmas, seeing family, visiting, having Christmas dinners, touching base with relatives I don't get to see often, and just having a good time and relaxing around this time. To me, this is the most enjoyable aspect about Christmas. This is what I want to reinforce in my children, not behaving merely to get more gifts because they think some elf/Santa is watching them. Good behavior should be its own reward, and if you need to use a toy (and the threat of constant surveillance) to improve your children's behavior, something is very wrong here. There are years where we don’t always feel the holiday spirit so strongly and even a couple years where we didn’t decorate, but Stitch and Claude are always making mischief,” Stew tells TODAY.com.

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I heard of this last year via a relative who was talking about how her co-worker had bought this for their household. She explained the basic gist of the elf on the shelf, and I found it creepy. Le Père Martin" (1888) by Ruben Saillens and unwittingly plagiarized as " Papa Panov's Special Christmas" by Leo Tolstoy Yost, Russell (September 22, 2021). "The History of Elf on the Shelf" . Retrieved October 30, 2023. Using the elf in public school classrooms has been criticized for making children feel excluded if their families do not celebrate Christmas or Santa Claus. [11] Sure, it may be all fun and games, but there are still some official rules that everyone should follow, including: