What is up with all the Elf hate?
As you can tell from my creepy smile: I am a fan of the Elf.
I saw my therapist last week, who doesn't have young children, and when I apologetically mentioned that I liked the Elf. She was like "who doesn't like the Elf?" I told her how everyone complains about it all month and she was literally blown away. And rightly so! It got me thinking about the Elf. I had posted the above photo on my Instagram and promised not to blow up people's feeds with the Elf. And while I'm still not planning to do that; I am going to defend the Elf here. Just this once. Only once. I promise.
What is so bad about being creative with your kids' Elf for a few weeks a year?
Or not even being creative, just moving it from place to place?
I don't know about anyone else, but even on the least creative of mornings, my kids still get so excited to find our Elfie and their eyes light up with Christmas joy when they see her.
Is the average mom just too drunk or hungover from all of her "mommy juice" that she can't be bothered? I feel like the Elf falls into this herd mom mentality: must guzzle wine, must love coffee, must hate Elf. I think the Elf is adorable and I bet some of the people nervously laughing at memes about their hate for the Elf, secretly agree.
I bought our Elf when we were trying to get pregnant with Judah because I saw it and thought it was the cutest thing ever. What can I say: I'm easily impressed and ours has a muppet-like quality to it and I'm a sucker for Jim Henson. We didn't start using it until last year but I love it. It's fun to put her in silly poses and sometimes have her bring little trinkets. It's amazing to see their faces in the morning. It's not too hard to remember to move her. And if I forget to move her? Guess you were naughty yesterday, mister! Try again today!
And seriously, who doesn't love a little bribe? You have Santa and the Elf to inspire good behavior for an entire month! Which is a huge benefit considering all of the cookies and treats that are shoved into their adorable little mouths all month long by overzealous grandparents!
Here are a few Elfing tips:
🎅 There is so much inspiration on Pinterest. You can get all kind of credit from your kids without even having to be creative. They'll never know!
🎅 Put a reminder in your phone for every evening to remind you to move it.
🎅 Last year, our Elf left a citation and took off back to the North Pole after a stint of naughty behavior. Judah had to fill up a jar of snowballs that symbolized good behavior before she would come back. You can read more about the Snowball /Rainbow Berry Jar: here.
🎅 If Judah's behavior doesn't improve soon, I'm thinking our Elf might bring a treat for just Maple and a reminder that presents aren't guaranteed. Or maybe that's too extreme? I don't know, Our Elf brought a note telling him to stop all the fart talk and he immediately said "fart fart fart."
🎅 Our Elf took a tumble the other day and I wish I had seen this little Elf prescription in time. Lisa's website and instagram are filled to the brim with holiday inspiration if you need some!
🎅 I like to pick up little holiday themed items like socks, coloring books etc in the Target dollar aisle or the Dollar Tree for our Elf to bring to the kids. I do this maybe once a week, gotta make those Santa presents worth the wait.
🎅 Just have fun. The husby and I have so much fun making notes from our Elf particularly that Elf Citation last year!
🎅 And if this post now has you wanting an Elf of your own, click here for all your Elfing needs.
Since when did the holidays become about collectively bitching about a silly Elf instead of being about spreading cheer? Our children are growing up faster than ever and being exposed to so many things so much sooner, why not hold on to their sense of wonder and innocence while we still can?
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