Elf on the Shelf Q

ArcticFox

How did you introduce your Elf on the Shelf?  Does he just 'appear' one morning, or did you say you got him?

My DD says she wants one because other kids at preschool has them, so I don't know how to tell her we'd get one (if we do).

Also, any ideas where to get them, other than bookstores?

Bianca42

I saw them at Target over the weekend.

ETA - they were on an endcap in the book department.

TinyPinkBug

If you get her one, you can have her write a letter to Santa letting him know that your Elf never arrived.  You could mail it out and have it arrive that night while the kids are sleeping.  I have seen them featured online in many sales.

TinyPinkBug

I would probably just buy an Elf rather than the book set elf.  Any Elf from a craft shop or the Christmas Tree Shop.

FYI- I don't like the Elf on the Shelf, at least in my house, that poor elf would probably be the target of some horrible fate the first time it saw bad behavior.  And cause nightmares.  Tyler didn't want to go to sleep last Christmas and had serious anxiety over the idea of some fat man coming into his house while he slept.  I can't imagine what that creapy little elf running around moving things at night would do to him.  But then again, my kids are NOT normal.

JenJar

Our appeared as a wrapped gift under the tree from Santa.  This is our second year, and G loves looking for him in the morning.

sunnygirl05

My kids LOVE the elf on a shelf.   If I remember correctly I think we opened it with them.  My BIL and SIL got it for them.  And I would recommend it because the book is really nice.  My kids have us read it to them every night.

sunnygirl05

Oh, and I think they got it on Amazon.

mountainkimi

We did it the way that they did it in the tv show. DH ran outside and put it on the front step and ran the doorbell. He was back inside by the time we got to the front door. Our elf had arrived in the packaging with the book. We sat down and read the book and also watched the 30 minute tv show that was on right around Thanksgiving time. That helped DS understand what it was about.

Ours was a gift but it came from amazon. 

Mrs_Hark

i introduced M to the elf and the book after he woke up in the morning. the legend is that the elf is sent to the the child by santa around thanksgiving and every night he reports back to santa on the childs behavior and returns before morning and can be found in a different location in the hosue every day. to have the elf magically appear one morning to me seems in line with the story.

unfortunately at our hosue it's a big fat fail as M couldn't care less if his elf is reporting all his bad bahavior, and he certainly wasn't jumping out of bed every morning to go and find where the elf might be so i stopped moving it around the house. but he has taken the book off the bookshelf and read it several times with us

hopefully it'll work next year.

aSp6907

We got ours at Target. We sat down when we bought him and read the book with Belle. We talked about him a lot and then on Thanksgiving morning he appeared in a spot in our living room. She loves him. She looks for him every morning and every time we come home. Any time she starts to act up we tell her Henry is watching or that he's going to tell Santa. She stops right away, but only at home. If we're not home he has no effect on her.

jnk062602

I don't know anything about the elf except at the library last week 2 sisters were fighting and the one kept saying over and over again in a super whiney annoying voice "I'm telling the elf you are being bad" It made me never want to get it.