I pinch myself when I think tradition has become such

It has been the biggest Christmas craze of the past few years. Here CHANDA BELL reveals her heartwarming family story behind Elf On The Shelf

WHEN I say we didn’t have two pennies to rub together, that would be generous. We were broke. The family business, a small steel fabrication company, wasn’t doing well, and it was having a knock-on effect on us all.

A couple of days a week, I’d leave my husband at home and drive the two-hour trip to my parents’ house in Atlanta, Georgia, to help my dad with the business.

That way, I could take my three-year-old son Taylor to work with me, and stay the night with them to spend some time with my mum.

She was living in a perfect storm of problems: worried about money and the family business, and also

recovering from health problems.

One night as I cast about for an idea to cheer Mum up, I caught sight of our family elf sitting high on a shelf. Christmas had always been a big deal in our house, and Mum went the extra mile to make sure it was special for us.

Fisbee the elf sat on the shelf, keeping watch over me and my siblings, and each night Mum told us he’d fly back to the North Pole and tell Santa whether we’d been naughty or nice. In the morning, he’d return but he’d always land in a different spot in the house.

Running around the house trying to find Fisbee was honestly the most exciting part of the holidays.

“Mum, we should write a children’s book about Fisbee together,” I told her, and she loved the idea. Neither of us had ever done anything like it before – she worked in advertising

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