Elf on the Shelf

Attention everyone with young children:  you MUST buy a copy of Elf on the Shelf, by Carol V. Aebersold and Chanda A. Bell, today.  Seriously.

The book comes in a kit, complete with your own tiny elf, whom you must name immediately (we now live with Joe).  Anyway, the story goes that Santa sends an elf to every house to scout out the Nice/Naughty list.  Every night, after the children are in bed, the elf flies home to the North Pole to give his daily report to Santa, hang out with his buddies for awhile, then flies back to his 'home' for another day of watching how kids behave.  He 'hides' in a new spot each day, so part of the fun is waking up each morning and finding out 'where is the elf now?'

I don't want to brag or jinx my luck, but Joe has been living with us for less than 24 hours and he appears to work miracles.  Zoey completely believes he is flying home each night to tattle on her, and tries her very best to act accordingly.  As she was ramping up for a bedtime-battle-tantrum last night, all I had to do was sigh and feign sadness as I reminded her that Joe was watching, and would surely be telling Santa all about this incident later on.  The tears didn't completely disappear, but we did manage to avoid the time-out chair. 

The biggest challenge is making sure your elf finds a new place to hide each night.  I have a sticky note on my cabinet that says 'JOE'.  The effort is completely worth the resulting decent behavior.

As the story goes, children may talk to their elves, but they can not touch them.  Zoey chose the top of the refrigerator as Joe's first home last night, and I heard her throughout the evening, having sweet conversations with him:

'Joe, will you tell Santa that I really want a Disney Princess keyboard for Christmas?'

'See, Joe, I'm putting away the napkins right now 'cause Mommy asked me to.'

I love anything that fosters Christmas magic for children.  An elf who reminds your children to behave seems like a win-win for everyone, right?