It started almost four years ago when Mini Michelangelo was gifted an Elf on the Shelf. It seemed innocent enough—every day the elf would hang out in your house, watching the going-ons… then every night he or she would fly back to the North Pole and report in to Santa. The next morning, we would awake to discover the elf in a new perch, ready to see what the new day brought.

Simple enough. (If you were accepting of the fact that Santa had essentially sent a spy to your house for the season. But that’s a conversation for another day, no?!)

But. Kids talk. And apparently, some of these elves were very, very “silly.” (I personally would call them naughty… but tomato/tomahto.) Mini wondered why his elf wasn’t silly! His elf just jumped from spot to spot. He wasn’t TPing the tree, or drawing mustaches on the family portraits, or eating all the cookies in the cookie jar. Heck, sometimes he even fell asleep watching Law & Order and found himself in the same spot the following day! (Oops.)

After a few days of sharing stories at snack time, Mini came home and declared that he needed a new elf. His elf was clearly not doing a satisfactory job, and therefore needed to be replaced. Instead of firing our elf, we chose to sit our elf down and tell him about some of the antics the other elves were up to and encourage him to mix it up a bit. We made it clear that we wouldn’t appreciate anything mean, or malicious… or anything that would get a little boy in trouble if he were to mimic it. (So, TPing the tree was out. As was anything involving a marker of any sort.)

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{I’d love it if the elf entertained himself by running the vacuum around the first floor every few days…}

The following weeks, our elf was discovered enjoying elf donuts after a particularly long night, zip-lining through the living room, and building an igloo from mini marshmallows. Innocent fun if you will. Mini thought it was amazing and magical and hysterical. (Mama thought that elf was slightly crazy and over-caffeinated. She also thought he was probably exhausted from all his antics and hoped he would get to sleep for a whole day after Christmas. Spoiler alert: he didn’t get to sleep in, never mind sleep the day away!)

Last year, we sent our elf a note reminding him that we enjoy innocent fun, and the visits from our elf started out calmly enough. Then we got our unexpected travel call and our elf decided he needed to stay up at the North Pole to help Santa since our travel plans required us to go to move Christmas up a couple of weeks. (Smart elf. I think that watching all the insanity of us packing and preparing to meet our son in the time frame of 11 days would have exhausted him to the point of falling asleep many, many nights.)

Believe it or not… it’s time yet again to contact our elf to remind him that while silly and fun is more than welcome here, naughty is not. Mini is already anxiously anticipating his antics. Will there be any elf-sized donuts to sample? Will he trying bungee-jumping this year? Or maybe we won’t be able to find him one day… the horror! There’s a lot of buzz building here bees, believe me! But—this year—I would also like our elf to mix in some “good” with his silly. Maybe he should start setting good examples in addition to reporting on who is naughty and nice?! Maybe model some behavior that we’d like to see in our little ones perhaps?!

I’ve created a list of suggestions for our elf that range the gamut from helping around the house to helping the community at large. Buddy the Elf (from Elf) claims that, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all to hear.” And while I don’t disagree … I also think that doing random acts of kindness is a surefire way to bring joy to someone’s day. I already see my children’s focus slipping from what the season should be about… and I’m hoping this is an effective way to remind them that it’s not all about the tree (or what’s under it) or the lights, the parties, the holiday cookies, the candy, the gifts, the … you get the point, right?!

Here’s a list of just some of the acts we’d like to catch our elf in this year:

  • Licking the envelopes to the holiday cards.
  • Filling a box to send to our troops.
  • Vacuuming
  • Cleaning up toys (Yes, those toys. The toys my children own, but that never seem to get put away…not that I’d ever be the mama who threatens “No new toys for christmas if you don’t shape up!” Ahem. Moving on…)
  • Holding a tag from the angel tree at the mall.
  • Sitting with a roll of quarters and a note to feed the meters on our next shopping trip.
  • Gathering candy canes and sitting on a set of instructions to “candy cane bomb” a parking lot (In case this is a new one to you, it involves placing a candy cane under the wiper of every car in the lot. There is usually an accompanying note telling the owner of the vehicle that they have been “RACKed” [Random Acts of Christmas Kindness]… schools, nursing homes, and doctors offices are some great targets. This year, we plan to hit the lots of the two vets in town.)
  • Perched on a box of sidewalk chalk to write holiday greetings on the neighbors’ driveways.
  • Sitting on a pile of clean, folded laundry. (this will never, ever happen… but one can dream)
  • Gathering supplies for cookie baking.
  • Making links for a paper chain to countdown the days left until SANTA!
  • Sitting on/near the book of the day from our advent calendar.
  • Hiding in the food collection bag from the local market, along with a shopping list of what to fill it with. (Our local market collects food for those less fortunate, and provides a bag to each family willing to donate goods.)

I’m almost halfway there! Probably more than halfway (if I’m honest) since you know our elf is just going to mail it in some nights and just hide somewhere silly upon his return… right?!

I want to raise my children to be good citizens, and if it requires a little elf magic to make it happen… so be it! If nothing else… I like the idea of putting elf magic to good, rather than it putting evil little ideas in their heads that I will most certainly pay for later! The Elf on the Shelf is either a brilliant idea to get your children to behave in this most hectic and chaotic time of year… or it’s completely devious. (I haven’t decided yet. Four years in and I’m still unsure. Go figure!) Either way… I do believe it’s what you make of it. Hopefully, I’ll make it fun and festive… while gently reminding my children that it’s not just about wish lists and carols. I’d love for them to bring a smile to many faces this season, and I’m hoping the elf can help me make it happen.

Do you have an elf who visits your house at the holidays? Is your elf naughty or nice?!