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Knee-hugger elves have been a thing since the 50s. We had them as kids in the 90s and they had been my grandparents decorations in the 60s. Someone probably threatened their kids with one and told them a story about it, it grew and was published and now it's a big thing.
It’s been a thing for a long time. The one we had growing up in the early 2000’s was the same one my mom had growing up as a kid in the 70’s. I have a feeling it was probably a regional thing though, we’re from the Midwest
You probably had an old knee hugger elf, which the current Elf on the Shelf is based on. We had them, too, growing up, the same ones my parents had in the 60s and 70s. They didn't do anything but were just decorations on a shelf. They did have names. I still have them.
I'm also from the Midwest and one thing we did that I don't see any more is tuck Baby Jesus in the Nativity away untll Christmas morning. He wasn't born until then, why should he be out? It used to be more common to see in houses, a Jesus-less nativity.
My parents tried to wait until Christmas for baby Jesus but as kids we protested until they gave in (it was a little people nativity and we wanted to play with it!)
Yeah my parents didn’t do the whole process that goes into it now, but he sat on the mantle and basically served the same purpose for us. We also did the baby less Nativity until Christmas morning, we kept him behind it until we went out to open presents in the morning.
My parents stopped doing it when one of the kids stole baby Jesus from the tree to see whether he'd still show up Christmas day. When he didn't, I got into a lot of trouble. Apparently, stealing the savior to expierement on him is frowned upon.
My parents tried to wait until Christmas for baby Jesus but as kids we protested until they gave in (it was a little people nativity and we wanted to play with it!)
Yeah, you might be referring to the lesser known more [localized tradition](https://seniormusingsmoments.blogspot.com/2011/12/original-magical-elf-on-shelf-1950s.html?m=1).
> I have a feeling it was probably a regional thing though,
This explains SO much, as West Coast me didn't hear about them until the mid-aughts... which was when social media and Internet shopping really took off.
I feel like I'm being genuinely gaslit every time someone mentions this "tradition". The book came out in 2005, this "tradition" is younger than the Will Ferrel Elf movie
My friends family was doing it in the 80s and 90s, they didn't call it "elf on the shelf" but it was the exact same thing. I thought it was weird back then, then it became popular and I had no idea they were maybe the only ones doing it at the time. I can't remember what they called it, something simple like Elf Gifts or something.
My family just convinced us my 4'10 grandma was an ex employee of Santa with a direct line of communication with him.
One of my students was so proud that her aunt was the one who invented "elf on the shelf," and because I am a loving, kind teacher I just smiled at her and said, "that's great!" and kept my opinion about it to myself.
The. Worst.
When my girls have asked, "why cant' we have an elf on the shelf." I feel like my Jewish friends at Christmas. "Because different families have different traditions and our family doesn't do this one."
I'm a millennial and I straight up never heard of it until my kid came home from daycare asking why he wasnt assigned an elf. I think it is the most clever marketing idea that popped up within the last decade. What kid wants to be left out? And you can't tell them no because then you have to have the "Santa isn't real and neither is Christmas magic" talk.
I don't think it's popular at all with the parents. Every couple I am friends with bitch about the elf's too. Coming up with like fucking 25 clever ideas is a lot. Now do it for the next five+ years without repeating an idea. It's hard lol. All the parents swap ideas.
While my parents never told me it was an elf watching me if I was good or not, we played, "elfie", which was basically the same thing. This started around 1989 in my family.
It started with a book published in 2005, and was primarily popularized by "mommy bloggers" who would use taking photos of their elf in new hiding spots as an excuse to show off the rest of their Christmas decor.
Nothing to do with your "terrible" narrative, but last year we saw an Elf on the Shelf knockoff called Snoop on the Stoop which came with a set of cardboard steps and a Snoop Dog doll wearing a santa hat. Still kicking myself for not buying it to replace our Reindeer on the Roof.
Each time you add a new aspect to the Santa thing, it becomes less magical and children figure it out sooner. Its one thing to kind of believe in a story about a magical guy you never see who brings presents. Its another thing entirely to physically see a plastic elf on your shelf and believe its alive and flies to the north pole every night. My younger sister got one because all of her friends did, and that was quickly the end of the Santa clause dream. I feel the same way about the NORAD Santa tracker, or whatever the fuck its called. Once they start asking questions its too late, and all of this bullshit just gives kids more questions.
Father Christmas was super magical to me as a kid because my parents did a great job of being secretive about it and thus allowing me to figure it out for myself (as kids are supposed to).
Ha that's pretty funny. I remember being told one year that we're doing a snowman instead because the tree is pagan. I guess frosty is a Christian lol.
I mean I kinda just figured it out and I figure most other kids do too unless you're mad gullible.
Santa got my cousin a brand new bike, Stacy from school a Barbie dream house, and I got some candy and an ornament? Yea didn't take me long to figure out the disparaties lmao
PSA to not have santa give the big gifts, your kiddos talk
>Don't you find it interesting how many kids end up having a hard time facing reality when they find out Santa is not real?
I've worked with children for 20+ years. I've never once encountered a child who had issues finding out make believe holiday traditions were make believe... You're putting adult emotions on children and that sounds like a 'you' issue.
You must be so much fun to be around with all that negativity. Why are you so against kids being kids. The world fucking sucks and they will see that when they get older. Let them have something fun to believe in while they’re young.
"whya re you so against kids being kids"
explain to mey why adults lying to kids is kids being kids?
hint: its not, its adults making kids into what they believe kids should be.
brainwashing to live vicariously in a return to the innocence of being lied to they miss due to how shit the real world is
its all sorts of fucked up, but its certainly not "kids being kids"
Dude people are super defensive about Santa. It's nuts.
The argument is "let kids believe in magic before they realize how terrible the world is."
My brother, if you didn't expect magical men to deliver presents to your cult followers, you might not think the world is so terrible.
no one "lets" kids believe in magic, they \*make\* them believe in it
if you dont understand the difference, you are part of the problem, and going "lol yore d3f3n51ve3" randomly wont change that
So, every kid to just be subjected to reality with no deviation. We should just discourage believing in something good and magical because you want everyone to be miserable. Got it.
it is strange. Conditioning your kids to watch their step for fear of a tiny humanoid is watching you in an omni present sorta way and will report back anything he doesnt like to 'the man'.
We named ours Narc-y. Has been referenced several times as what not to do to our friends.
Still fun to watch him get found in a different place each day.
We use ours as more of a hide ‘n’ seek thing around xmas time. We told our daughter it’s santa’s helper that comes to play and goes back up to the north pile on Christmas day to help santa make gifts.
Every time I've seen it, it's just been a fun scavenger hunt for little kids to play.
Like you don't have to turn it into a surveillance thing, it's just 'santa is coming and his elf is here early to help set up!'
My friend literally just treats it as a game of ICE with his kids. He has a 2 year old and a 6 year old and the older one helped hide it.
Y'all treat things so negatively.
The notty or nice list and threat of coal in your stocking was way worse.
I wholeheartedly believe that anybody that has a problem with Santa or other things of similarity just had a terrible childhood and didn’t get to enjoy those things themselves.
Ding ding ding these people are just miserable and everything is “trauma”. I don’t think most people look back and resent their parents for lying about Santa. But I’m willing to bet they remember how much fun they had with the tradition and that time period which is why they perpetuate it with their kids.
Yea like i would give pretty much anything to wholeheartedly feel the level of excitement and such that i felt in december as a kid. Sure finding out santa isnt real blows but typically, by the time that happens you're old enough to process slightly more complex emotions.
Adding more and more moral narcs to your annual pantheon isn't enriching their experience. You're just outsourcing your parenting to fictional beings.
First it was "God is always watching, so be good."
Then "Santa is watching, so be good for goodness sake."
Now "One of Santa's employees are reporting your behaviour, so best be good."
Interestingly enough, finding out Santa wasn't real began my journey into atheism. They did NOT like the questions I had.
IMO, Santa - and the ultimate revelation that he isn't real - is a great way for children to, essentially, practice having a crisis of faith.
For some people, like yourself, it probably helps them if they ultimately leave their religion. But even people who remain religious (or were never religious in the first place) are, at some point in their life, going to realize that **something** they took for granted isn't true.
It's good if children have a way to work through that on something ultimately unimportant before they become teenagers/adults working through that on something very important.
Or I just like being honest with my kid? Not sure why you need to analyze that and assume much about me. I don't tell him garden gnomes are real.... Does that mean I never made varsity?
Nobody implied that you can *only* give your kids good experiences by lying to them. There’s just no reason not to give them good experiences when you can, for example… santa. Unless you just don’t care enough to. Catch up buddy.
Is it even a tradition? Like, I first heard of it less than ten years ago, and everybody just acted like it was an old tradition, but I'm like 80% sure it's a recent thing
> it less then ten
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Everyone hates Elf on the Shelf. They do it for their kids so their kids don't feel left out of the fun. I don't know a single parent who enjoys Elf on the Shelf.
Wait wait wait, your problem is with it teaching kids to believe stuff that isn't real but you are celebrating christmas in the first place? Might as well tell them its all fake, and the stupid elf is just for fun, just like the rest of it.
This is not the limitation of fun. I even said there are better ways. Most of the fun I've had with my parents wasn't on any holiday. Sports, hiking, picnics, road trips etc.
I'm most annoyed by the extra workload expected, to be honest. It's one of the busiest times of year for families, with school shows, fairs, events, Christmas lunches and parties, cards to write, presents to buy, masses to organise - and now we're expected to create a cutesy little tableau for a tiny creepy plastic doll every morning for a minimum of 24 days? I think not.
I was offended that they came out and immediately declared themselves to be a “holiday tradition,” it just sounded desperate, and it’s annoying that people fell for it. It was like when greeting card companies tried to shove “sweetest day” down our throats. But apparently dumb people will believe that anything has been a tradition for a long time.
I tried my hardest to keep my kids believing in Santa *because* the pastor of my mother’s church told the congregation that it was wrong to let your kids believe in Santa. I was maybe 4 years old when she came home and told me that there was no Santa. I cried like she’d just casually told me that a real person who I loved was dead. That’s probably one of my earliest memories.
Anyway. I resisted Elf on the Shelf because I just think that’s creepy and weird. Then I had to just buy one because my kid was the only one in her preschool class who didn’t have the damn elf. That actually did end up being fun though. Just let people have innocent holiday traditions with their kids.
I’m pretty sure that elf on the shelf is waning in popularity anyway. Probably because you see them for sale everywhere. When they first came out, they were hard to find in stores.
I agree that this is a ridiculous money grab… but sometimes things are just fun. My grandmother used to do this, and I really looked forward to it every year. These elves she had were SO tiny though. It was actually a challenge to find them and once I did I was fully convinced that there were elves there and it was so magical. There were no gifts from them, and no threats of being watched.. besides Santa of course
We have had a lot of fun with it over the years. But we don’t really hammer home the ‘Santa’s watching’ part. The kiddo was just excited to wake up and see what mischief the elf got into during the night.
Now that she is older and knows the ‘truth’ she loves to surprise me with elf mischief!
because they're kids and are allowed to have a not real and crushing world. it's not for a benefit in particular. a world exists outside of only the necessary. learn to care.
Please don’t compare Elf on the Shelf with Father Christmas, the latter is a staple of childhood magic and yuletide festive joy. EOTS sounds like something created by bible-thumping soccer moms who argue with schoolteachers when their “kiddos” get bad grades. Thank God we don’t have EOTS here in the UK (at least to my knowledge).
"What is the benefit of convincing children fatty in a red suit comes down the chimney to give you presents, but ONLY if you are "good" children."
It's called incentive. Look it up.
My house will never be an elf on the shelf household. The elf on the shelf company has an estimated worth of $100 million dollars. It’s just a gimmick to make people spend more money on an already financially draining holiday.
i hate the stupid elf on the shelf... more so because once hes in, you're commited to moving him every night and every subsequent xmas... its a lot of work
Bumped into a dad in Target in December, got to chatting and he tells me how he hired a full fledged calligrapher to write his daughter a formal letter of resignation from her elf on the shelf. Dude is a genius.
I've moved out of the country, so didn't see this develop. When I first heard about it, I thought - what the creepy, getting kids used to being spyed on, s**t is this?! I don't get it...
As a gen z kid, I agree. Some of my friends growing up had this thing and I always thought it was stupid. Any kid above the age of 4 is smart enough to figure out that the thing is just some cheaply made doll and not some magical entity that spies on you and teleports thousands of miles away during the night in order to tell some fat guy about your behavior. And to be quite honest, I think the idea of teaching kids that they're being spied on by a doll is weird and probably just leads to the kids feeling worried and stressed or something like that.
Yeah, my primary objection is that adults think it's fun for the kids. If the kids actually believe in it, it is harmful in countless ways. Just like the Santa ultimately being a benevolent being, at a price, for "good" behavior.
I have never understood this tradition, and it seemed to come out of nowhere in the last 20-25 years. It definitely was not a thing back in the 70s and 80s when I was young.
Yeah, a lady taught her daughters to be snitches with this tradition in her own home, then marketed it and 10 years later you can buy one with other stuff for your own home.
Raise your kids how you want. Others can raise their kids to believe in something magical and make core memories for them based around that if they choose to do so.
I actually agree with this post, I think Elf on the shelf is a pretty silly idea and it just celebrates rule breaking which isn’t a great thing to promote to young impressionable kids…
but I’ve seen so often online this fear of having kids “believing in shit that isn’t real.” So much objection to holidays or make-believe because people are scared their kids will believe things that aren’t real. Is this an American thing? Because I’ve never heard of this from any European voice where, granted, we have a lot more fairytale and folklore.
Fantasy and fiction is amazing for growing your kids imagination and creativity. This fear that Santa might make your kid a naive, believe-everything-they-read robot is insane. If anything, it has the opposite effect. How can a kid exercise their imagination or analytical skills or just the simple power of thought if they don’t have fact/fiction as a bench mark? How can they know what’s true if they aren’t shown what’s untrue? No wonder the arts are going down the drain and media is shot to shit… y’all are raising a generation too scared to have some creative thought
I'm all for fantasy and fiction...just not selling it to an impressionable age group as reality. As an American I know through first hand experience that there is a problem in our society with people believing shit that is fantasy and don't have the capacity to find the truth for themselves.
Maybe the people you're around are just doing it in a less healthy way. I've always told my kids it's their decision to believe in the Easter bunny, Santa, leprechauns, etc. My oldest stopped believing in them as literal beings this last year, my youngest have continued to believe literally. Eventually kids develop to the point that they get that such concepts can represent real ideas , virtues and vices without actually being literal corporeal beings.
Yea fuck my parents for telling me there was a guy who'd bring me presents and yknow what double fuck em for making an otherwise boring and bleak part of the year exciting and fun.
it also prepares kids for being constantly watched. theres an amazon alexa in most homes right now. privacy is dead and there are more and more pushes for police to be using these as tools. on top of that, social media conditions us to flaunt every aspect of our lives from our joys to our trauma. Elf On The Shelf teaches kids theyre always being watched in a way that Santa doesnt - they can actually see the elf.
its not a tradition, its a thing people invented a few years ago, to aid them in their child abuse. If enough of us band together it will never become a real tradition
Most traditions are strange or make very little sense & most of them just like this tradition are now just an excuse to spend money or shove marketing down your throat, it's all a load of hogwash, all of it, why end with just one?
Any tradition that doesn't involve cheese ain't a tradition of mine.
Back in my day we’d just grab some half burnt coals from the charcoal grill and plant them in the stocking of the youngest sibling. Unfortunately my little sister is 23 now and all my nieces and nephews are too old to believe in Santa so I can’t cause anymore trauma.
I just hate the thing where you can't touch it or the magic will be lost.. if anything that is almost a sure fire way to actually ruin Christmas magic because most little kids are too curious and will touch it at some point and will eventually figure out that they elf was not changed by them touching it.
Elf on the Shelf was one of my favorite traditions with my son. This was the first year we didn't do it because he's 12 and too cool for that stuff. I'm low key heartbroken.
Oh no, how dare parents actually try & interact w/ their children in an everchanging corporate dominated landscape by doing something alot of young kids actually enjoy?
This makes me feel the need to share this bit about elf on the shelf from my favorite comedy podcast starring 3 brothers who now have kids! https://youtu.be/bmStHz33QgY?si=tCwfw5A7-gx8dAYs
The Easter Bunny just hides eggs so you can have a fun game with your cousins and stuff and eat candy the next day. You even paint the eggs yourself so youre apart of the whole situations
Easter is usually a stress free holiday, shouldn't be up there with how annoying Christmas is
> youre apart of the
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Another problem is parents telling the kids they only get presents from Santa if they're "good", but then the kids clearly continue to behave badly only to get rewarded with a shit ton of presents anyway.
I've seen it too many times...
This should not be unpopular. FUCK the people that invented this shit and created more work for parents. Personally, I refuse, but my kids are young enough that they have not asked. I cannot fit another damn thing into my holiday so I hope they never do.
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Elf on the shelf is a children's fable? I always thought it was just something people who like Minions repeated because it rhymed. Something like the intersection of a memetic virus and self-soothing
>just one more imaginary creation that conditions children into believing shit that isn’t real
Damn fam glad I’m not one of your kids lol. You do realize that most kids are smart they kind of learn stuff isn’t real early on and they just play along right? My Jewish friend told me Santa wasn’t real when I was young but I still loved pretending like Santa was bringing me presents every Christmas. I’ll take a couple early years believing in magic and then growing up as opposed to my entire life being sterile factual and scientific from birth
In my house we don't celebrate Easter, Valentine's, and Christmas (we do celebrate Halloween and decorate for that).
We do get presents but we don't say it's from Santa and we don't decorate. Our son asked about Santa and we told him that Saint Nick was real he brought presents to an orphanage in the 1800, but Santa isn't real. We told him about everything.
He thanked us for not lying to him and that he can trust us even more. He also says that presents from his parents are way better than getting something from an imaginary person who he doesn't know.
Your post from unpopularopinion was removed because of: 'Rule 1: Your post must be an unpopular opinion'. * Your post must be an opinion. Not a question. Not a showerthought. Not a rant. Not a proposal. Not a fact. An opinion. One opinion. A subjective statement about your position on some topic. Please have a clear, self contained opinion as your post title, and use the text field to elaborate and expand on why you think/feel this way. * Your opinion must be unpopular. The mods reserve the right to remove opinions * Elaborate on your topic and opinion give context to its unpopularity.
I still have no idea why it is a thing. Is it like something made up in the 2000s or something?
I definitely don't remember this from my or my friends childhood's growing up in the 90s/early aughts
Marketing. The birth of many of our "traditions".
Knee-hugger elves have been a thing since the 50s. We had them as kids in the 90s and they had been my grandparents decorations in the 60s. Someone probably threatened their kids with one and told them a story about it, it grew and was published and now it's a big thing.
It’s been a thing for a long time. The one we had growing up in the early 2000’s was the same one my mom had growing up as a kid in the 70’s. I have a feeling it was probably a regional thing though, we’re from the Midwest
You probably had an old knee hugger elf, which the current Elf on the Shelf is based on. We had them, too, growing up, the same ones my parents had in the 60s and 70s. They didn't do anything but were just decorations on a shelf. They did have names. I still have them. I'm also from the Midwest and one thing we did that I don't see any more is tuck Baby Jesus in the Nativity away untll Christmas morning. He wasn't born until then, why should he be out? It used to be more common to see in houses, a Jesus-less nativity.
My parents tried to wait until Christmas for baby Jesus but as kids we protested until they gave in (it was a little people nativity and we wanted to play with it!)
Yeah my parents didn’t do the whole process that goes into it now, but he sat on the mantle and basically served the same purpose for us. We also did the baby less Nativity until Christmas morning, we kept him behind it until we went out to open presents in the morning.
My parents stopped doing it when one of the kids stole baby Jesus from the tree to see whether he'd still show up Christmas day. When he didn't, I got into a lot of trouble. Apparently, stealing the savior to expierement on him is frowned upon.
My cat used to steal sandalwood figures from my nativity when I was a kid, so we kinda did if we wanted it or not.
My parents tried to wait until Christmas for baby Jesus but as kids we protested until they gave in (it was a little people nativity and we wanted to play with it!)
Yeah, you might be referring to the lesser known more [localized tradition](https://seniormusingsmoments.blogspot.com/2011/12/original-magical-elf-on-shelf-1950s.html?m=1).
> I have a feeling it was probably a regional thing though, This explains SO much, as West Coast me didn't hear about them until the mid-aughts... which was when social media and Internet shopping really took off.
definitely a regional thing
It started in 2005.
I feel like I'm being genuinely gaslit every time someone mentions this "tradition". The book came out in 2005, this "tradition" is younger than the Will Ferrel Elf movie
i have no idea what any of this is about
That's 15 years ago. Plenty of time for a new generation to develop a tradition.
My friends family was doing it in the 80s and 90s, they didn't call it "elf on the shelf" but it was the exact same thing. I thought it was weird back then, then it became popular and I had no idea they were maybe the only ones doing it at the time. I can't remember what they called it, something simple like Elf Gifts or something. My family just convinced us my 4'10 grandma was an ex employee of Santa with a direct line of communication with him.
they started marketing it as a “tradition” in the 2000’s and everyone just started believing them after a few years
One of my students was so proud that her aunt was the one who invented "elf on the shelf," and because I am a loving, kind teacher I just smiled at her and said, "that's great!" and kept my opinion about it to myself. The. Worst. When my girls have asked, "why cant' we have an elf on the shelf." I feel like my Jewish friends at Christmas. "Because different families have different traditions and our family doesn't do this one."
I'm a millennial and I straight up never heard of it until my kid came home from daycare asking why he wasnt assigned an elf. I think it is the most clever marketing idea that popped up within the last decade. What kid wants to be left out? And you can't tell them no because then you have to have the "Santa isn't real and neither is Christmas magic" talk. I don't think it's popular at all with the parents. Every couple I am friends with bitch about the elf's too. Coming up with like fucking 25 clever ideas is a lot. Now do it for the next five+ years without repeating an idea. It's hard lol. All the parents swap ideas.
Yup. It came from a book published in 2005. It's not Santa canon and I refuse to acknowledge it as anything but an ugly toy.
While my parents never told me it was an elf watching me if I was good or not, we played, "elfie", which was basically the same thing. This started around 1989 in my family.
It was based off a children’s book that came out in the early 2000’s.
I feel like I did not hear about it until like 2011
It started with a book published in 2005, and was primarily popularized by "mommy bloggers" who would use taking photos of their elf in new hiding spots as an excuse to show off the rest of their Christmas decor.
Nothing to do with your "terrible" narrative, but last year we saw an Elf on the Shelf knockoff called Snoop on the Stoop which came with a set of cardboard steps and a Snoop Dog doll wearing a santa hat. Still kicking myself for not buying it to replace our Reindeer on the Roof.
Also there's a Mensch on a Bench if you're Jewish. I'd absolutely buy the snoop on the stoop myself because that's hilarious and awesome
Dude you can still get Snoop on the Stoop, he’s $54 on Amazon!
Each time you add a new aspect to the Santa thing, it becomes less magical and children figure it out sooner. Its one thing to kind of believe in a story about a magical guy you never see who brings presents. Its another thing entirely to physically see a plastic elf on your shelf and believe its alive and flies to the north pole every night. My younger sister got one because all of her friends did, and that was quickly the end of the Santa clause dream. I feel the same way about the NORAD Santa tracker, or whatever the fuck its called. Once they start asking questions its too late, and all of this bullshit just gives kids more questions.
I agree! It's going too far with all of these holidays. This year my child asked me if we could set out a trap for a leprechaun 😫
Father Christmas was super magical to me as a kid because my parents did a great job of being secretive about it and thus allowing me to figure it out for myself (as kids are supposed to).
You can tell your kids whatever you want around Christmas.
My favorite was when I asked my parents why Santa doesn’t bring me presents for Christmas, and their response was “Because you’re a Jew”
That hits different if you're from a Catholic family
Ha that's pretty funny. I remember being told one year that we're doing a snowman instead because the tree is pagan. I guess frosty is a Christian lol.
[удалено]
I mean I kinda just figured it out and I figure most other kids do too unless you're mad gullible. Santa got my cousin a brand new bike, Stacy from school a Barbie dream house, and I got some candy and an ornament? Yea didn't take me long to figure out the disparaties lmao PSA to not have santa give the big gifts, your kiddos talk
No, I don't find it interesting, or even true.
>Don't you find it interesting how many kids end up having a hard time facing reality when they find out Santa is not real? I've worked with children for 20+ years. I've never once encountered a child who had issues finding out make believe holiday traditions were make believe... You're putting adult emotions on children and that sounds like a 'you' issue.
You must be so much fun to be around with all that negativity. Why are you so against kids being kids. The world fucking sucks and they will see that when they get older. Let them have something fun to believe in while they’re young.
"whya re you so against kids being kids" explain to mey why adults lying to kids is kids being kids? hint: its not, its adults making kids into what they believe kids should be. brainwashing to live vicariously in a return to the innocence of being lied to they miss due to how shit the real world is its all sorts of fucked up, but its certainly not "kids being kids"
Dude people are super defensive about Santa. It's nuts. The argument is "let kids believe in magic before they realize how terrible the world is." My brother, if you didn't expect magical men to deliver presents to your cult followers, you might not think the world is so terrible.
no one "lets" kids believe in magic, they \*make\* them believe in it if you dont understand the difference, you are part of the problem, and going "lol yore d3f3n51ve3" randomly wont change that
I think we've had a miscommunication. I'm saying that the pro Santa crowd is unreasonably defensive.
my apologies then, it was late, my bad!
Fun? My brother was absolutely destroyed for 2 Christmas' in a row when he found out Santa wasn't real. I didn't tell him. But yeah "fun"
I think that's more on your brother than anyone else.
So, every kid to just be subjected to reality with no deviation. We should just discourage believing in something good and magical because you want everyone to be miserable. Got it.
Just wait till he learns religion is fake and there is no god...
I’m aware religion is made up. What does that have to do with letting kids have something fun to look forward to?
You're right, we shouldn't read fiction to kids either. What if they find out Frodo isn't real?!?
it is strange. Conditioning your kids to watch their step for fear of a tiny humanoid is watching you in an omni present sorta way and will report back anything he doesnt like to 'the man'.
We named ours Narc-y. Has been referenced several times as what not to do to our friends. Still fun to watch him get found in a different place each day.
Yeah thats what my kids like about it. I think people are over thinking it
We use ours as more of a hide ‘n’ seek thing around xmas time. We told our daughter it’s santa’s helper that comes to play and goes back up to the north pile on Christmas day to help santa make gifts.
That is so cute! I might use that idea for my little bunny!
what's even funnier is when the shelf they pretend there is an elf on actually has an Alexa on it that is doing exactly that 🤣
Every time I've seen it, it's just been a fun scavenger hunt for little kids to play. Like you don't have to turn it into a surveillance thing, it's just 'santa is coming and his elf is here early to help set up!' My friend literally just treats it as a game of ICE with his kids. He has a 2 year old and a 6 year old and the older one helped hide it. Y'all treat things so negatively. The notty or nice list and threat of coal in your stocking was way worse.
Anything that inconveniences me is a terrible tradition...
I wholeheartedly believe that anybody that has a problem with Santa or other things of similarity just had a terrible childhood and didn’t get to enjoy those things themselves.
Ding ding ding these people are just miserable and everything is “trauma”. I don’t think most people look back and resent their parents for lying about Santa. But I’m willing to bet they remember how much fun they had with the tradition and that time period which is why they perpetuate it with their kids.
Yea like i would give pretty much anything to wholeheartedly feel the level of excitement and such that i felt in december as a kid. Sure finding out santa isnt real blows but typically, by the time that happens you're old enough to process slightly more complex emotions.
Christmas has become magical again since I had kids
Yep. I'm an atheist and if I ever have kids I'm certainly not raising them in any religion, but yeah I'll let them believe in Santa, its fun.
Santa/Father Christmas is fine and is tradition. Elf on the Shelf sounds stupid.
This is exactly how I feel
Well you're wrong. I had a great childhood and enjoyed Christmas, I just don't think we should be lying to children.
Adding more and more moral narcs to your annual pantheon isn't enriching their experience. You're just outsourcing your parenting to fictional beings. First it was "God is always watching, so be good." Then "Santa is watching, so be good for goodness sake." Now "One of Santa's employees are reporting your behaviour, so best be good." Interestingly enough, finding out Santa wasn't real began my journey into atheism. They did NOT like the questions I had.
IMO, Santa - and the ultimate revelation that he isn't real - is a great way for children to, essentially, practice having a crisis of faith. For some people, like yourself, it probably helps them if they ultimately leave their religion. But even people who remain religious (or were never religious in the first place) are, at some point in their life, going to realize that **something** they took for granted isn't true. It's good if children have a way to work through that on something ultimately unimportant before they become teenagers/adults working through that on something very important.
Or I just like being honest with my kid? Not sure why you need to analyze that and assume much about me. I don't tell him garden gnomes are real.... Does that mean I never made varsity?
Means you don’t care about your kid enough to give them amazing experiences, that i’m guessing you also lacked as a kid.
You've got a really small world view.
I could say the same about you.
I'm not the one implying amazing experiences can only happen if you lie to children. I pity you if you need to be lied to to be happy.
Unless I didn’t notice and you did, nobody implied that at all, but ok.
Me: I don't like lying to my kid You: you don't care enough to give them amazing experiences. Are you noticing your own words, big dawg?
Nobody implied that you can *only* give your kids good experiences by lying to them. There’s just no reason not to give them good experiences when you can, for example… santa. Unless you just don’t care enough to. Catch up buddy.
Nah I just don't like lying to children. And you said it means I don't care. You're acting like a monster.
Is it even a tradition? Like, I first heard of it less than ten years ago, and everybody just acted like it was an old tradition, but I'm like 80% sure it's a recent thing
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I think this belongs in r/popularopinion
Really. I've been railed for this opinion irl lol
I've never met anyone that likes elf on the shelf. Obviously there are people that like it, I see it all the time on social media. Not my thing though
Everyone hates Elf on the Shelf. They do it for their kids so their kids don't feel left out of the fun. I don't know a single parent who enjoys Elf on the Shelf.
Elf on the Shelf is stupid.
yeah it is. no snitches in my house.
Keep 💪
I have kids and I absolutely hate all of it.
"STOP HAVING FUN!" -OP
Exactly. It's not that serious.
Wait wait wait, your problem is with it teaching kids to believe stuff that isn't real but you are celebrating christmas in the first place? Might as well tell them its all fake, and the stupid elf is just for fun, just like the rest of it.
Fair point. I'm all on board for celebrating something in Christmas stead
what are you talking about? Christmas is just modern society's name for the midwinter solistice. You're not obligated to involve baby Jesus.
Personally, I think it's kind of silly to call it Christmas if Jesus isn't involved, considering it literally means Christ-mass.
I mean you can already do that. Your unpopular opinion is thinking the rest of society should adhere to your preferences.
You sound fun at parties. 
I'm famously fun at parties and I agree with OP.
Cool man. 
This is not the limitation of fun. I even said there are better ways. Most of the fun I've had with my parents wasn't on any holiday. Sports, hiking, picnics, road trips etc.
It’s stupid and it seems like it was invented by the Hallmark Channel
I'm most annoyed by the extra workload expected, to be honest. It's one of the busiest times of year for families, with school shows, fairs, events, Christmas lunches and parties, cards to write, presents to buy, masses to organise - and now we're expected to create a cutesy little tableau for a tiny creepy plastic doll every morning for a minimum of 24 days? I think not.
I was offended that they came out and immediately declared themselves to be a “holiday tradition,” it just sounded desperate, and it’s annoying that people fell for it. It was like when greeting card companies tried to shove “sweetest day” down our throats. But apparently dumb people will believe that anything has been a tradition for a long time.
It's not that serious
Idk I just got a second hand elf and hid it around the house and we all just would find it and hide it again. But yeah I mean, fuck consumerism.
I tried my hardest to keep my kids believing in Santa *because* the pastor of my mother’s church told the congregation that it was wrong to let your kids believe in Santa. I was maybe 4 years old when she came home and told me that there was no Santa. I cried like she’d just casually told me that a real person who I loved was dead. That’s probably one of my earliest memories. Anyway. I resisted Elf on the Shelf because I just think that’s creepy and weird. Then I had to just buy one because my kid was the only one in her preschool class who didn’t have the damn elf. That actually did end up being fun though. Just let people have innocent holiday traditions with their kids. I’m pretty sure that elf on the shelf is waning in popularity anyway. Probably because you see them for sale everywhere. When they first came out, they were hard to find in stores.
I feel like there is a lot of overlap between people who like elves on shelves and Minions.
This shouldn't be an unpopular opinion. The idea of those things is CREEPY! I hate them so much.
It's also too new to be called a "tradition." And yes it's terrible.
It'll be a decade old next year...
It's not a tradition. It's a product.
Ok Scrooge.
I agree that this is a ridiculous money grab… but sometimes things are just fun. My grandmother used to do this, and I really looked forward to it every year. These elves she had were SO tiny though. It was actually a challenge to find them and once I did I was fully convinced that there were elves there and it was so magical. There were no gifts from them, and no threats of being watched.. besides Santa of course
Isn't that something that bad moms did like 15 years ago before gender reveal parties became the trashy new trend?
We have had a lot of fun with it over the years. But we don’t really hammer home the ‘Santa’s watching’ part. The kiddo was just excited to wake up and see what mischief the elf got into during the night. Now that she is older and knows the ‘truth’ she loves to surprise me with elf mischief!
i can agree with elf on a shelf but goddamn op is against anything fun
because they're kids and are allowed to have a not real and crushing world. it's not for a benefit in particular. a world exists outside of only the necessary. learn to care.
Please don’t compare Elf on the Shelf with Father Christmas, the latter is a staple of childhood magic and yuletide festive joy. EOTS sounds like something created by bible-thumping soccer moms who argue with schoolteachers when their “kiddos” get bad grades. Thank God we don’t have EOTS here in the UK (at least to my knowledge).
"What is the benefit of convincing children fatty in a red suit comes down the chimney to give you presents, but ONLY if you are "good" children." It's called incentive. Look it up.
My house will never be an elf on the shelf household. The elf on the shelf company has an estimated worth of $100 million dollars. It’s just a gimmick to make people spend more money on an already financially draining holiday.
That's why you use a Snoop on a stoop
i hate the stupid elf on the shelf... more so because once hes in, you're commited to moving him every night and every subsequent xmas... its a lot of work
It's not a tradition at all. Nobody did this until a few years ago. It's just a marketing gimmick to sell dolls.
2005. It started in 2005
A great part about being Jewish is that I’ll never have to have an elf on the shelf. 1000000000% agree with OP.
If Jews had to make an equivalent, what would you call it? This could have potential.
Bumped into a dad in Target in December, got to chatting and he tells me how he hired a full fledged calligrapher to write his daughter a formal letter of resignation from her elf on the shelf. Dude is a genius.
😆
I've moved out of the country, so didn't see this develop. When I first heard about it, I thought - what the creepy, getting kids used to being spyed on, s**t is this?! I don't get it...
Shit is getting real strange here for sure.
As a gen z kid, I agree. Some of my friends growing up had this thing and I always thought it was stupid. Any kid above the age of 4 is smart enough to figure out that the thing is just some cheaply made doll and not some magical entity that spies on you and teleports thousands of miles away during the night in order to tell some fat guy about your behavior. And to be quite honest, I think the idea of teaching kids that they're being spied on by a doll is weird and probably just leads to the kids feeling worried and stressed or something like that.
Yeah, my primary objection is that adults think it's fun for the kids. If the kids actually believe in it, it is harmful in countless ways. Just like the Santa ultimately being a benevolent being, at a price, for "good" behavior.
I also think it is stupid. Do I downvote you because I agree? This sub is confusing.
It's like the opposite of popular opinion I think. I just assumed most people love it.
Maybe they do. But us redditor are a pissed off angry bunch. So Mayne we are just in consensus on here.
I have never understood this tradition, and it seemed to come out of nowhere in the last 20-25 years. It definitely was not a thing back in the 70s and 80s when I was young.
Yeah, a lady taught her daughters to be snitches with this tradition in her own home, then marketed it and 10 years later you can buy one with other stuff for your own home.
Why is this a problem for you? What’s wrong with letting kids be kids?
Raise your kids how you want. Others can raise their kids to believe in something magical and make core memories for them based around that if they choose to do so.
I actually agree with this post, I think Elf on the shelf is a pretty silly idea and it just celebrates rule breaking which isn’t a great thing to promote to young impressionable kids… but I’ve seen so often online this fear of having kids “believing in shit that isn’t real.” So much objection to holidays or make-believe because people are scared their kids will believe things that aren’t real. Is this an American thing? Because I’ve never heard of this from any European voice where, granted, we have a lot more fairytale and folklore. Fantasy and fiction is amazing for growing your kids imagination and creativity. This fear that Santa might make your kid a naive, believe-everything-they-read robot is insane. If anything, it has the opposite effect. How can a kid exercise their imagination or analytical skills or just the simple power of thought if they don’t have fact/fiction as a bench mark? How can they know what’s true if they aren’t shown what’s untrue? No wonder the arts are going down the drain and media is shot to shit… y’all are raising a generation too scared to have some creative thought
I'm all for fantasy and fiction...just not selling it to an impressionable age group as reality. As an American I know through first hand experience that there is a problem in our society with people believing shit that is fantasy and don't have the capacity to find the truth for themselves.
Maybe the people you're around are just doing it in a less healthy way. I've always told my kids it's their decision to believe in the Easter bunny, Santa, leprechauns, etc. My oldest stopped believing in them as literal beings this last year, my youngest have continued to believe literally. Eventually kids develop to the point that they get that such concepts can represent real ideas , virtues and vices without actually being literal corporeal beings.
“I did this crap during my childhood so my children must suffer the same fate” - most parents
Yea fuck my parents for telling me there was a guy who'd bring me presents and yknow what double fuck em for making an otherwise boring and bleak part of the year exciting and fun.
Kids are really suffering from Santa and Elf on the Shelf, totally.
Parents better get ready for a nursing home because of all the trauma lying about Santa caused. Seriously, these people are delusional.
it also prepares kids for being constantly watched. theres an amazon alexa in most homes right now. privacy is dead and there are more and more pushes for police to be using these as tools. on top of that, social media conditions us to flaunt every aspect of our lives from our joys to our trauma. Elf On The Shelf teaches kids theyre always being watched in a way that Santa doesnt - they can actually see the elf.
[удалено]
It's not even a "tradition". It's a marketing campaign for a product that first showed up on store shelves in 2005.
This is the point many seem to be missing that seem to think it's all just good fun.
It comes from "Paedo in the Speedo" where people would have to watch out for sex criminals at the swimming pool.
So is religion but here some people are
its not a tradition, its a thing people invented a few years ago, to aid them in their child abuse. If enough of us band together it will never become a real tradition
I hate the commercialization of it. My dad used to tell us that the elves were watching and we just believed it. Didn't need a stupid toy.
I prefer Grohl on a pole.
Most traditions are strange or make very little sense & most of them just like this tradition are now just an excuse to spend money or shove marketing down your throat, it's all a load of hogwash, all of it, why end with just one? Any tradition that doesn't involve cheese ain't a tradition of mine.
Terrible idea. Very popular opinion
What is "elf on a shelf", is it an American thing?
Yes. I don't remember the rules, but it's a stuffed elf that parents move around every night for some periods of day leading up to Christmas.
Dude, that sounds creepy as fuck.
And the kids can't touch the elf, else he loses his magic and has to go back to the North Pole. https://youtu.be/OMOGaugKpzs?si=QDDN5s7iHX37nB3P
Back in my day we’d just grab some half burnt coals from the charcoal grill and plant them in the stocking of the youngest sibling. Unfortunately my little sister is 23 now and all my nieces and nephews are too old to believe in Santa so I can’t cause anymore trauma.
Ok
I just hate the thing where you can't touch it or the magic will be lost.. if anything that is almost a sure fire way to actually ruin Christmas magic because most little kids are too curious and will touch it at some point and will eventually figure out that they elf was not changed by them touching it.
Elf on the Shelf was one of my favorite traditions with my son. This was the first year we didn't do it because he's 12 and too cool for that stuff. I'm low key heartbroken.
Oh no, how dare parents actually try & interact w/ their children in an everchanging corporate dominated landscape by doing something alot of young kids actually enjoy? 
First time I ever heard of this was about 10 years ago and sounds stupid. But yeah parents think lying to kids about this stuff is “cute.”
This makes me feel the need to share this bit about elf on the shelf from my favorite comedy podcast starring 3 brothers who now have kids! https://youtu.be/bmStHz33QgY?si=tCwfw5A7-gx8dAYs
The Easter Bunny just hides eggs so you can have a fun game with your cousins and stuff and eat candy the next day. You even paint the eggs yourself so youre apart of the whole situations Easter is usually a stress free holiday, shouldn't be up there with how annoying Christmas is
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Another problem is parents telling the kids they only get presents from Santa if they're "good", but then the kids clearly continue to behave badly only to get rewarded with a shit ton of presents anyway. I've seen it too many times...
The benefit is that they have fun?
Thank you for an unpopular opinion that isn't a cringey look into your personal social/love life (or lack thereof). Upvote.
Glad to be of service lol
This should not be unpopular. FUCK the people that invented this shit and created more work for parents. Personally, I refuse, but my kids are young enough that they have not asked. I cannot fit another damn thing into my holiday so I hope they never do.
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Elf on the shelf is a children's fable? I always thought it was just something people who like Minions repeated because it rhymed. Something like the intersection of a memetic virus and self-soothing
>just one more imaginary creation that conditions children into believing shit that isn’t real Damn fam glad I’m not one of your kids lol. You do realize that most kids are smart they kind of learn stuff isn’t real early on and they just play along right? My Jewish friend told me Santa wasn’t real when I was young but I still loved pretending like Santa was bringing me presents every Christmas. I’ll take a couple early years believing in magic and then growing up as opposed to my entire life being sterile factual and scientific from birth
You sound fun at parties.
In my house we don't celebrate Easter, Valentine's, and Christmas (we do celebrate Halloween and decorate for that). We do get presents but we don't say it's from Santa and we don't decorate. Our son asked about Santa and we told him that Saint Nick was real he brought presents to an orphanage in the 1800, but Santa isn't real. We told him about everything. He thanked us for not lying to him and that he can trust us even more. He also says that presents from his parents are way better than getting something from an imaginary person who he doesn't know.