Our Elf came! With her reindeer. The kids were so excited to see Heart and Toots sitting in our tree this morning.
Our Elf is a welcome visitor. She is not spying on us, sending intel back to Santa about our kids being naughty or nice. She is basically an advent calendar, giving the kids a little something in their stockings every day. Usually the little something is from an actual advent calendar, with the 24 little cardboard doors. But our kids (our soon really) can’t handle seeing all the little doors there like that, so Heart makes it easier by giving them a little something each day, without the visual access to what is waiting in the wings.
For our kids (again, at this point our son), who get very worked up about Christmas, it helps take the edge off of waiting for the big day to finally arrive. It’s also fun to look for Heart and Toots every morning. It’s just something to look forward to during the final month of the year.
I was struggling to explain our Elf to a friend the other day (who thought they were all supposed to be surveillance agents), and I wish I’d had this tweet:
Oh my god yes! This is exactly what our Elf does – she gives us a little hit of surprise and delight every day, to take an edge off the expectation. I’m sure some would argue it’s not a productive exercise, but it’s one month out of the year and I’m going to revel in it.
Do you have an Elf on the Shelf? Do you enjoy an advent calendar to microdose Christmas?
We do have an Elf on the Shelf and my kids adore her and cry when she leaves. She does crazy antics and really just keeps everyone in a jolly mood for the month of December with all the extra things and hectic schedules, everyone wakes up happy so I’d call her a win here too.
Love advent calendars.
The elf thing is multiple decades after my active parenting days …. I totally do not get it, seems like it would be an additional issue added to parental load … and a spy on behavior???? YUCK. Know many families like it but not my thing.
Reducing the emotional load of Christmas anticipation does make sense, especially for children who get highly wound up about holidays.
THANK YOU for writing today!
I love this idea. My kids are done with the elf but I bet they wouldn’t mind if he brought treats every day. They both get pretty wound up and anxious about the holiday.