Customer Reviews

The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition with Blue Eyed North Pole Pixie-Elf

5 star:		(269)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

This is a tradition that will carry on for generations!

HOW IT WORKS:
The kit comes with an elf doll and a book. The book explains that Santa has sent an elf to watch over the children and the elf reports back to Santa each night. The kids get to decide the name for the elf together - this is a touch decision! You read through the book with your child, it explains all the rules, then each night you move the elf to a new spot. One of the rules is that the children cannot touch him - this is a great rule because although he's a sturdy doll, I think he might get loved out much too quickly if they were allowed! The author was so thoughtful to think of all these helpful rules.

Rules:
* The children cannot touch the elf or he will lose his magic
* The elf can listen to what the children tell him, but cannot talk back, that's Santa's law.
* The elf flies back to the North Pole each night and tells Santa what he has seen - when he comes back he goes to a new spot in the house.

The kids start searching for the elf immediately when they wake up! Knowing Santa is watching has definitely motivated them to be a behave a bit better! This cute little tradition makes the Christmas season more fun. It's a very special tradition in our house. I love that the book has an old fashioned feel to it, the illustrations are wonderful.

CONS:
* Your children will ask you every night from Halloween to Thankgiving when the elf is coming back!
* You have to remember to move the elf every night! Sometimes this is a bit of a challenge for us. :) However, our elf does sometimes just get comfy in the spot he's in, so he must have decided to come back to the same spot.

My kids just received this Thanksgiving day as a gift and I am now ordering them for every child I know. It is such a cute idea. Santa sends the elf to watch the children and then the elf reports to Santa every night and comes back to a different spot in the house. My kids wake up with a running start to see who can find the elf first. The kids must name the elf and they really enjoyed that as well. It is such a nice tradition to help make the Christmas Season even more fun and special. I know it will be with our family for a very long time.

After hearing from friends and reading reviews how great this was, we bit the bullet and got it. I cannot say enough about how cute this was for our two boys (age 6 and 3). They bolted downstairs every morning to find the elf, and the oldest cried when he touched it accidentally because he thought it would lose its magic. The story and elf was the sweetest thing. Note, however, that parents have to remember to move the elf around every night, or come up with creative excuses for why the elf decided to come back from the North Pole into the same spot! :-).

Let me begin by admitting that I was a bit reluctant to let one of Santa's helpers into our home with the task of surveilling my five year old daughter. Would his fear-driven monitoring technologies and reports (he uploads data to the Fat Man every night) serve as a carrot or a stick to our kindergartener? Are these the kind of values we want to impart? We pulled the trigger and Larry began his stint as the eyes and ears of Santa two weeks ago.

Everything was going well... or so it seemed. Our daughter said goodnight to Larry each evening and then my wife and I moved him according to the supplied instructions. His new vantage point in the house allowed him to "get the goods" on our daughter every day until she worked out his new location and could adjust her behavior accordingly, so as to improve her chances of scoring big on Christmas.

And then it happened. Larry was out "shopping" one night (he generally stays out late) and I came across his laptop and Excel spreadsheet detailing my daughter's behavior. The workbook was open to the "naughty" tab and his notes covered everything from "not washing after wiping" to "picking one's nose" to "breaking wind in mixed company." Seriously? Who needs this kind of oversight? I knew it was time to bring the elf down a peg. I bided my time.

The opportunity presented itself last weekend at poker night. Four of my buddies and I gathered around our humble table to trade chips over a few hands of Texas Hold 'Em. Larry watched intently for a while before announcing that he wanted to "sit in for a few hands." Suffice it to say that Larry has no poker face whatsoever. Elves may also be color blind (not sure he can count either) and things quickly went from bad to worse for the poor little guy. By the end of the night, he was into me and my buddies for Two Large. "I wonder what Santa would think about all this?" I asked him pointedly.

Long story short, the reports on my daughter back to Santa have improved dramatically, and Larry has started down the long road of working off his debt by Christmas. I hope you can share the excitement of fabricating new chores each day for your own elf. We use an advent calendar to track the compound interest and keep things simple. Big fat five stars for this product!

As soon as we opened the box, my 3 year old daughter said it was scary. I decided to let her warm up to it so I just put it on the mantle and read her the book. When I was done, she said she didn't like the elf and asked me if it could go to Santa's house and not come back here. I think it's a really cute idea, but maybe if the elf doll was a little...cuter looking(?) it would work better. That or she just doesn't like the idea of a doll watching her all the time, not sure I blame her on that one.

Yes my children loved this, but I thought it was creepy. This sounds like a wonderful idea until you get sick of moving the stupid elf everynight. One night you'll lie awake in bed and remember, damn it, I forgot to move the elf. Then wait until the kids tell their other friends about "their elf" and their friends don't have an elf, and then they call your kid a liar. Year after year until you can't take it anymore and you can't move the thing another 30 days another year and you finally tell them that you are the elf on the shelf and then your kids cry. I'm not making this up.

Okay, so I bought this last year assuming my kids would really enjoy it. "Frankie" started to freak them out after a couple of days. Two of my girls 6 & 9 had nightmares! Even in the spring they wanted to know if Frankie was in the attic. lol I heard similar stories from a friend. Good luck.

My wife had me running around looking for one of these after getting a rave review from a friend of hers. I was sorely disappointed. The premise is kind of cute, but the story is fairly mediocre, the elf looks cheesy and doesn't sit up by itself (my wife always has to lean it on something). If it had cost $10 I might not feel so ripped off, but unfortunately I bought it for the ridiculous price of $30.

But I think I'm most uncomfortable about the premise of lying to my child. It's not that I expect it will cause any trauma or anything, I'd just prefer not to do it. If this is not an issue for you, I'd recommend buying a much cooler/sweeter/prettier Christmas-themed character or stuffed animal for $5 somewhere, and spinning your own (probably better) story. The storybook is completely unnecessary and just lays out the premise without providing much in the way of reading entertainment.

We just received this as a gift. It is perfect for my 3 year old who is having constant struggles with being a good little boy as he grows more independent. We've named our elf and everyday we remind him that his elf is watching him and he instantly stops the negative behavior. He's even told his wish list for Santa to his elf. It's been a great motivational tool for improving his behavior when other techniques have failed. Brilliant idea!!

This is such a wonderful tradition. Because I collect children's Christmas books, I place a different book with our elf each morning. Then, we read a new book together at bedtime. My children look forward to finding our elf and to having a new Christmas story.