A few years ago, Kurt Neesley of Redondo Beach, California, was brainstorming where to put his family's Elf on the Shelf for his three kids to find the next morning.
He decided to make it look like the doll, named Elfie, had painted on their kitchen wall. Neesley used Tootsie Rolls to build an elf-size climbing wall, posed Elfie on it with a paintbrush, and painted a message in green reminding the kids to behave. There was even paint splatter on the floor. (The paint, Neesley said, was left over from St. Patrick's Day when a leprechaun visited and made a mess.)
“Three glasses of wine usually gets the creativity flowing,” said Neesley, who had planned to repaint that kitchen wall anyway. “Elf on the Shelf can be very stressful.”
This isn't just the holiday season. It’s Elf on the Shelf time, and parents like Neesley need ideas.
Elf on the Shelf, who turns 20 this year, has created lots of family memories, laughter and the occasional parental panic over where to move the elf next.
First, a wee history
If you’re unfamiliar with Elf on the Shelf, here’s how it works: Parents stage the doll in different spots around the home during December. The idea is that Santa Claus has dispatched the elves to keep track of the naughty and nice.
The idea of small, mischievous elves who protect the home -- if they are treated well -- can be found in Scandinavian folklore. The modern Elf on a Shelf began in Atlanta in the 1970s, when Carol Aebersold introduced her twin daughters to a magical elf doll named Fisbee who would visit each December. They would wake to find Fisbee in a different spot each morning after his quick trip overnight to the North Pole.
The sisters, Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts, remember telling Fisbee what they wanted for Christmas, believing he gave them a direct line to Santa. “It's the most wholesome thing you'll ever see,” said Bell, who also recalls that the elf would be placed up high so they couldn't touch it. (This is now part of the lore. Children must not touch the elf because that will take away its magic.)
In 2004, Aebersold and Bell self-published an “The Elf on the Shelf” book that came with a doll. Pitts helped with sales and marketing. It eventually took off.
Bell and Pitts co-founded a company, Lumistella, which has also created other dolls from Santa's world. Netflix streams four Elf on the Shelf-related movies, and there's an Elf float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Some parents have mischievous fun
Antonia Katsanos of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, has made her family's Elf, named Twinkle, a year-round presence for her two daughters.
“The elf is watching, you have to eat your dinner. You can't just be good at Christmastime,” she'll say. Twinkle has left notes to the girls asking them to pick up their Barbies.
Twinkle can also be mischievous. One morning, the girls found her seated in the shower by the soap, dressed like a mermaid. Other days, she was in the ice machine or hanging upside down in the car.
“I am a creative person, but you do go dry at some point doing this over and over again, year after year,” said Katsanos. “I Google ideas and look at Instagram. It's sometimes a nuisance. I've popped up from sleep at 3:30 a.m. remembering I need to move the elf."
Seeing her daughters' faces in the morning when they discover where Twinkle is makes it worthwhile, she said.
Some parents keep it simple
Others keep the tradition low-key.
“We don’t get elaborate, we just move the elf,” said Ashley Zavala of St. Paul, Minnesota, who works late as a bartender and doesn't want the stress of dealing with anything too detailed when she gets home.
“Our kids like it and they don’t know the difference because they haven’t had their elf do crazy things."
Still, Zavala looks at pictures online and sends clever ideas to her cousin who goes all out.
Draft the elders
One option for parents who feel fresh out of ideas is to recruit a kid who has aged out of the experience.
“Reacher” star Alan Ritchson says his older son has done just that and it's worked brilliantly.
“Here’s the cheat code. You get a 13-year-old who figures it out a couple years earlier than he should, and then he becomes your little Elf on the Shelf weapon. So they get excited. They’ll never miss a night. And you get a kid who’s coming up with ideas for you. That’s the trick,” he said.
Elf on the Shelf, meet Mensch on a Bench
Ohio father Neal Hoffman was inspired by Elf on a Shelf to create a similar tradition for Jewish families. His Mensch on a Bench doll and book combo teaches kids about Hanukkah. Hoffman successfully pitched the idea on ABCs “Shark Tank” in 2014, where he recruited investors.
Sandi Celentano, also of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, introduced both Elf on the Shelf and Mensch on a Bench to her interfaith household, but it was too much work so she stopped.
“The amount of time and energy that it took thinking of creative ways to display these things every single day -- it just took over everyone's lives. I've boycotted it for about three or four years,” she said.
