The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition

this was my first year with Elf on the shelf- my daughter is almost 4. He arrived the evening of thanksgiving on the front porch. We opened the package/ read the book and she was so excited. She didnt quite understand until about the second day. But the book is cute and really starts the Christmas magic for the season. Our Elf Ben is a good elf, he packed her bag for school one day, colored pages out her coloring book one night (like 30 pictures all over the table), he missed the cold so one night was in in the fridge, he left her little supries like ABC flashcards, one night her left her a frozen workbook for writing letters, etc but every morning she would look for ben and seeing the excitement through her eyes was great. I wish the elf was alittle more sturdy and I think this next year ill take the advice from pintrest about adding wire for stability but I have no complaints and I enjoyed having him- again he didnt do anything crazy (he did go poop (brown mms) in her toilet and left paper all in the bath room which she was not amused and thus was the craziest thing he did). Children ONLY have a few Christmass of pure magic/wonder- lets embrace it and kindle that spirit.

This creature possesses dark magic. I thought I was going to have to move him around like other people say they do but I didnt. He was always in a different place in the morning. At first the things Jingle did were pretty cute; making the toilet paper into a snow man, writing notes to my child in cute backwards handwriting...but then things started to get strange. The first morning that I became concerned was when I found him in my daughters bathroom in front of the mirror that had writing on it. I expected it to say something cute like Its almost Christmas or Happy Holidays! but what I found was REDRUM. Being horror movie fans, I just chalked it up to him trying to mess with my husband and I and told my daughter that he was just being silly. But then the next morning, I found something VERY disturbing. Jingle was sitting in my daughters floor with one of her barbies in A NOOSE. After this occurred I told my daughter I thought it was time to send Jingle back to the North Pole and ask Santa for a new elf. She was confused but said okay. So I took the elf and tossed him in the dumpster at our apartments and went to Target to purchase a new one. Due to being freaked out over the elf I had received I purchased a girl one this time. That night I showed my child her new Elf on a Shelf and she named her Lulu Bell. That evening I placed Lulu Bell in the Christmas tree and the next morning she was still there! I was elated that I had finally gotten a normal elf and that Jingle was gone. I went to bed that next night after putting Lulu Bell on the couch with a book on her lap and the next morning I woke up to my daughter screaming. I ran into the living room to find Lulu Bell on the floor with what I assumed was ketchup on her neck and there beside her was Jingle, with a butter knife in his hand and ketchup on it as well. I quickly called Amazon and informed them of the situation and then I found out, they had never sent me an elf because the one I wanted was on back order.... (This was a fictional story for the amusement of myself and others. My true review is that my daughter loved her elf and we had a lot of fun with it!)