If you haven't met the "Elf on the Shelf" yet, here's a brief overview: He's an Elf doll that a family "adopts" for the Christmas season, and reports good and bad behavior back to Santa so the jolly old man can formalize his naughty and nice lists.
The Elf moves to a different location in the family's home each night while the kiddos are sound asleep, and it's supposed to be fun for young children to wake up and see where the Elf ended up overnight.
See, harmless!
The idea is the parents (duh) move the Elf from the mantle to the top of the fridge to the laundry room, etc, etc, etc.
But now, some of the adults in charge have taken the idea a few steps further, starting an entire movement where the Elf not only moves from location to location, but gets into creative, unique hijinks along the way.
In fact, this BuzzFeed post from 2013 was super pro-DIY Elf crafts.
Two Christmas seasons later, and we're still going strong. There's this picture, thanks to a parent who froze the Elf a la massively popular movie "Frozen."
Day 1: Your elf arrives. Put him on the nearest shelf. Read your kids the book. You’re done.
Day 2: Move your elf to the dining room light fixture.
Day 3: Move your elf to the kitchen windowsill.
Day 4: Forget to move your elf. Tell your kids that he only moves if they’ve been good the day before – so must be they were naughty. Tell them to try harder.
Day 5: Move your elf to a shelf in the family room.
Day 6: Move your elf to the back of the toilet.
Day 7: Put your elf in the minivan. I know – we’re getting a little creative here.
Day 8: Move your elf to a shelf in the entry way.
Day 9: You’ve been working hard for four days. Give yourself a break. Tell your kids that they must have been naughty again and to try harder.
"I am really onboard with sharing pictures and stories about my kids on Facebook," Blair explains, "but I try to make them realistic. Sometimes my daughter whines all day! I'd rather post something about that instead of just picking the moments where everything looks perfect."
... While bloated and angry and looking to settle the score in my third trimester, I sat in my rocking chair and barked orders at my husband about how far he needed to space the chevron stripes he was painting on the walls. My swollen fingers made fruitless attempts at crocheting little forest critter stuffed animals that were totally practical to hand over to a slobbering newborn ...
Or if you'd like, Google "I hate the Elf on the Shelf" and see what comes up.
One of the things that worries Blair is how invested her kids are in the Elf, meaning the tradition will return holiday season after holiday season. And though she finds comfort in the fact that she knows so many other moms and dads agree with her, she jokingly wonders how close a DIY-loving parent is from lurking into her life.
"What if one day my daughter comes home and asks why so-and-so's Elf is so much better than ours? But," Blair reminds herself, "that's still a ways off."
The mommy wars must come to a close when Christmas is over, right? Wrong.
"The tooth fairy is a really big deal," Blair says. "I always see posts on Facebook about how much money the 'Tooth Fairy' left."
