The Elf On a Shelf: Bringing Holiday Trauma to a Home Near You

My sister has had this elf for a couple years now. I laughed at it and thought it was silly. My nephew isn't really afraid of it though.

My sister said something to my nephew about being bad and telling the elf and how he'd get coal. My nephews response was to give it to his dad so he could use it on the grill. lol I don't think he fears the elf all that much.

I've seen friends post this elf on their FB's. I just laugh cause it kind of looks creepy like a clown watching you!

reply to post by relocator


This made my day!!!!!!!

Oh the creepy elf... My daughter has that at her dad's house. Doesn't seem to freak her out but she asked why we didn't have one at our house. I looked into how much they were and that was the end of getting one of those. Now I'm glad I didn't.

In our house we had "The Disappointed Fairy" for a time. She was this little ceramic fairy that had the oddest expression on her face - one of profound disappointment. My husband and I christened her "The Disappointed Fairy" and she would make the rounds on doorways and furniture. We explained to the kids that the fairy is always watching, and when you're not acting your best....boy she is just SO disappointed in you. No connection to santa, just a general big brother vibe that my husband and I were also beholden too. And man was that fairy chronically disappointed.

Sadly The Disappointed Fairy took a tumble one day and is no more. Now we have "Vegas Tinkerbell" keeping watch over the bathroom door. I won't get into THAT story.

That is kinda funny.

My wife and I are at that age where all the people we know are starting to have kids. She's showed me the elf on the shelf thing that "everyone" is posting on facebook.

Their kids seem to love the little games or pranks that the elf plays.

That being said, we had never heard of this before; either of us. It's weird that it's all over the place all of a sudden and everyone seems to know about it. It's like my wife and I fell into another universe where this thing exists (I joked about that with my wife because of the stuff I see here). This is the second time we joked about the whole universe thing. The first was a few years back where we saw a commercial for "america's number one selling brand of iced tea: Turkey Hill (or some similar claim). The wife was like, "what the hell is Turkey Hill and how is it the number one brand of Iced Tea when we've never heard of it"?

I guess you can just market something well enough and your product is everywhere and say whatever you want in commercials without backing it up.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Nice story, but a hardcore-psycho-elf. I would just burn him (and all his elvish friends) to death. Or hug them so they might lose their creepyness. What I ask myself: You can design even a puppet in a hundreds of ways: Why do you make him look creepy? (Or is it kind of a double bind strategy?)

Holiday trauma.

Elf on a Shelf in its new incarnation in the era of viral marketing has been around for a few years now, and in its older incarnations at least since I was a kid, waaaaaay back in the 60s. We also had Santa in a shelf.

Some kids are naturally going to have overactive imaginations about things like this elf, both the object itself and what they're being told about it or how it's being used. So what? I've been scared of clowns since I was a kid. My girlfriend was scared of dolls. But we had a good mommies too, who noted this and then kept them away from us and us from them until we were old enough to do it ourselves or laugh about it. Trauma minimized.

Your kid will get over it.

reply to post by smyleegrl


That's pretty funny!

Apparently Bernard has moved on to creep out another family. Show your son this video of Bernard tormenting another kid and assure him the elf won't be back.



Christmas can be very traumatizing to kids:


Merry Christmas!

This quote from the site freaked me out:
Before the family awakes each morning, their special scout elf will fly back to their home from the North Pole. However, since these elves like to play games, don’t expect to find them in the same spot! While some like to hide in the freezer (probably because it reminds them of the North Pole) and others prefer to sit on the fireplace mantle or hang from the chandelier, these elves love to play hide-and-seek with their families. www.elfontheshelf.com...

Really, so this creepy lil # not only has the opportunity of growing teeth, chasing the cat, making messes, and hiding in any place in the house, but reports to the North Pole

No thanks

Have you tried explaining what it was and the intent behind it? Try to tell him it was all in fun and it wasn't real. I know it may kind of mess up the whole Santa thing, but it's better than a traumatized kid.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Poor little guy, my daughter is twenty-five and still terrified of Chuckie,
good luck

Originally posted by Spiramirabilis

I know a little girl with an elf on a shelf

creepy...

The girl or the doll?

Originally posted by smyleegrl

ATS, I know it's kinda funny, but I feel like I've traumatized my child and he's probably going to need therapy or something to get past this. Any ideas? And if you're one of the families who use the Elf and find it works great, bah humbug to you.

P.S. I wouldn't put it past the CIA to have cameras installed in those elves.....

I help your child out I would put a nice big clown in his room instead....ya that will do the trick...

Double Post

You know that elves are real magical creatures right?

So now you have a manufacturer's magical poppet with freakishly long skinny arms and legs, wearing red, like a devil, and with a synthetic plastic head with big round eyes, and probably synthetic fabric and stuffing, giving your kid nightmares. A haunted doll. Burn it! Dismember it! Feed it to the dog to rip to shreds.

It looks like a little grey alien in an ugly suit. How many triangular points are on the white thing surrounding its neck? For it to be evil it's going to be a strange number like 9. Those are like rays of a magic circle.

The book as a magic spell that summons the spirit into the elf where you put an enchanted poppet around your house. The story shows up like an evil spirit apparititon. The mind makes it real. He must have some big present dreams that he's not getting this year to make an elf so evil to him. Or a sibling that's making him feel bad.

You do know the old fairy tales about little goblin or devil types coming into houses to abduct children, that's like alien abduction experiences? See, his bad dreams could be overlay for otherworldly weird stuff. He doesn't have the words to explain it yet.

Maybe some Saint Nicholas and some Christmas angels would be better next year, and some elf-repellant spray which is watered down febreeze in a spray bottle. Tell him to spray away the evil crap the elf left behind. Then tell him cleaning the house attracts good invisible creatures.

This is awesome because Elf on the Shelf is exactly the type of thing that would cause an ATS member's mind to go crazy with Big Brother paranoia or demon possession or something to that effect.

I think it's a cute idea, however my kid is kind of weird. She loves Halloween stuff and will willingly go up to a scary zombie or ghost but will not go near a Santa to save her life. She's three. I just imagined this scenario that you posted with your son to go on at my house if I brought it into our home. She would be terrified too.

My boyfriend is Swedish and I just learned of this elf this holiday from his mother. It's currently sitting under the tree and has a miniature garden tool in his hand. I was told it was to keep the boys from opening or bothering their presents until Christmas. It apparently worked well, only the younger one was creeped out by it but I asked him about it now that he's older and he is not bothered by it. However, everyone is different and it could be possible for him to be scared of it for a while or life ...garden gnomes or elves seem to freak some people out way more than others. I tried to post a picture for you but I'm not sure how?

That thing looks creepy.

When I was little kid i was also creeped out a lot by all kinds of dolls (parents had a toy-store, by the way).

And you tell them they come to life at night and eat candy canes and cats? No wonder that kid freaks out.
By the way my parents told us, when we were kids, an "angel" comes to the balcony on occasion (in the weeks before Christmas) and the angel left candy and other stuff once in a while. We didn't need a doll. The candy we found was proof enough that an angel comes...

HOWEVER, one day my parents pulled a BIG STUNT by hiring our then maid to dress up like an angel and place her outside on the balcony. You can not even imagine that day when we actually SAW that "angel" when he was about to depart from the balcony One of the big childhood memories So...I say..screw those creepy dolls.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Greetings, ATS!

So, I want to share with you something that has been bothering me for a while. To whit: the Elf on a Shelf franchise.

For those of you unfamiliar with this little Christmas delight, allow me to explain. Parents purchase a genuine Elf (a little doll that makes Chucky look positively sane) and place said Elf in a conspicuous place to monitor the activity of the children. During the night, Elf visits the North Pole and tattles. You can tell the Elf went somewhere because every morning the little mannequin is in a new place, just waiting for the kids to notice.

Sheer genius, some will undoubtedly say. And for some families, this might even be a fun part of Christmas. My own brother uses the Elf (named Lizzie) and my two nieces love looking for her every morning and reading the letters she occasionally leaves.

So I decided to try this with my son. Apparently, he's too much like his mother, because this did not go over well AT ALL.

We introduced the Elf (Bernard) and explained his purpose (to tell Santa all the good things my son does). We then set Bernard on my son's bookcase and said goodnight.

Five minutes later there's a freaked out kid in my bed, saying the elf moved. And grew fangs. And was I SURE Bernard was a good elf, and not the kind that eats little kids?

So Bernard made a journey downstairs and my son went back to his bed, only to return thirty minutes later to tell me Bernard was chasing the cats. Cause everyone knows elves eat candy canes and cats.

I'll spare you all the ways he woke us up that night, but the end result was that Bernard got mailed back to the North Pole. Along with a note from my son for Santa to use his magic ball and fire the creepy elves.

That was about a week ago. My son is STILL worked up over this elf business. He now follows his dad when we lock up at night to make sure there's no way the elf can get in. Then we have to check under the bed, in all the drawers, and in the closet before he will consider going to sleep.

ATS, I know it's kinda funny, but I feel like I've traumatized my child and he's probably going to need therapy or something to get past this. Any ideas? And if you're one of the families who use the Elf and find it works great, bah humbug to you.

P.S. I wouldn't put it past the CIA to have cameras installed in those elves.....

Sounds like your kid need a nice warm cup of harden the hell up. It was just one night. Sounds like your kid is easily scared