Why didn't someone think of this sooner?!?

For those of you who are not familiar with the phenomenon, basically it’s a small boy or girl elf doll which you ‘adopt’. S/he comes with a story book which also acts as a set of instructions for the parents, presented in a way that’s entertaining for children. It’s brilliant in its simplicity. The story goes that the elf is a magical scout elf who works for Santa Claus. After you have ‘adopted’ (read: bought) your elf and taken him/her out of the packaging, you pick a name that is unique to your elf, put the information into the book that comes with the elf and finally go to the website to legally ‘adopt’ your elf into your family.

The elves have no magic until after the adoption and naming are done. After that, no one is allowed to touch the elf for Christmas Magic is the most fragile of all magic, and if you touch the elf, the magic might come off then your elf would no longer be able to travel to the North Pole. Your elf cannot talk, but s/he listens to everything that goes on in the household. Each night, when all the humans are in bed, s/he flies back to the North Pole to tell Santa about the activities at the house and if the children were good or bad – this helps Santa come up with his Naughty and Nice list.

The next morning, after flying in from the North Pole, your elf will be in a new location in the house and the children will have to find them. This is a lot of fun, especially since the elves have been known to get into a lot of mischief when everyone is sleeping.

My daughter loves the Elf on the shelf it is fun for the whole family