It’s the Christmas craze currently sweeping Northern Ireland, but is Elf on the Shelf harmless festive fun... or an added pressure for stressed-out parents?
Introduced from the US, the new tradition sees mums and dads tasked at bedtime with dreaming up a new prank for the Elf to delight their children the next morning. Two mums tell Stephanie Bell why they love playing along, while another is having none of it
Asmall army of elves has descended on homes all over Northern Ireland this week as the cheeky little chap takes his place at the centre of the Christmas countdown. Elf on the Shelf has taken the world by storm with 11 million families “adopting” an elf from the North Pole during the month of December.
For many families of small children, the elf who arrives on December 1 and stays until Christmas Eve is now nearly as big a part of the festive fun as Santa himself.
The naughty Elf is sent as a “scout” by Santa to check if children are being naughty or nice.
He can’t be touched by anyone in the house and — just to add to the fun — gets up to mischief when everyone is asleep at night.
It’s been a remarkable and swift trajectory to global domination for the Elf. He began as a character in a children’s book in the US in 2005 and moved across to the UK in recent years.
The Elf on the Shelf was written in 2004 by stay at home mum Carol Aebersold and her grown twin daughters Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts.
It was a childhood family tradition for Aebersold growing up in Georgia in the Seventies that the family had an elf called Fisbee who reported to Santa.
When she was raising her own girls she told them the elf would magically fly around at night and mustn’t be touched or it would lose its magic.
When they decided to turn it into a book in 2004 their manuscript was rejected a number of times and they finally self-published it. It went on to win a number of awards and the magic of elf gripped the US and soon moved across the pond to the UK.
Replicas of the original Elf, which comes with the story book, have popped up everywhere from leading department stores to your local corner shop.
And as the idea catches on, savvy retailers are cashing in this year with accessories, including a range of Elf clothing. Indeed, you can even buy a bed for your Elf.
Naturally, many parents see it as a way of introducing some extra magic to the festivities for the little ones, but there are others who view it as simply one more pressure — and an extra cost — during what is already a stressful period.
With 24 nights to host the Elf (who returns to the North Pole on Christmas Eve), the pressure to create new antics for little ones to see each morning can take its toll.
Social media is currently awash with pictures of elves and the mischief they are getting up to in homes across Northern Ireland.
Celebrities, too, are getting in on the craze with David and Victoria Beckham posting pictures of their Elf for six-yearold daughter Harper, and Ayda Field and Robbie Williams — who have a female elf called Dotty for five-year-old Teddy and two-year-old Charlton — sharing the fun on Instagram.
We talked to local parents to see how the Elf is settling in this year — as well as to one mum who has declared her home an Elf-free zone.
‘It’s harmless and brings that bit of extra magic’
Alison Snowdon adopted her first Elf last Christmas and says her little ones Oscar (4) and Luke (2) couldn’t wait for his arrival again this year. The 28-year-old hairdresser from Magheralin, Co Down, who is married to Justin (28), a civil servant, had hoped the Elf would bring a bit of extra magic into December for her elder son.
She says: “Everyone was putting up pictures every day of their elves and what they had been up to and I just thought it would be a bit of fun for Oscar.
“Also, he was only three last year and still not really sure about Santa and Christmas so it brought it more alive for him and got him talking about Christmas more.
“Our Elf arrived on December 1 and rang the doorbell and when we answered he was sitting on the step with a selection box for Oscar. We did tell him that he had to be good for Santa and that the wee Elf would be watching him.
“Oscar looked forward to coming down every morning to see what the Elf had got up to. Thankfully, there is a girl who comes into our salon who has really good ideas and I kept an eye on her Facebook posts to give me ideas of what to do with him.” Consequently, the Elf got up to numerous pranks during the night — Oscar woke to find him making snow angels with talcum powder, zip lining down the living room curtains on a candy cane and squirting toothpaste over the sink.
Alison confesses: “You start on a roll with lots of ideas but it does get a wee bit hard towards the end of the month.
“It definitely does create a wee bit of excitement in the mornings when Oscar wakens and can’t wait to get down and see what the Elf has gotten up to.
“For us it did bring that little bit of extra magic and it made Christmas feel a bit more real to Oscar.
“It is a bit of harmless fun for the kids.
“At the end of the day the magic lasts for such a short time and if we can make it more special then why not?”