Elves are very fragile, and if they are touched by human children they lose their magic and ability to communicate with Santa.
Santa advises that no family member touch their Elf on the Shelf, but he does describe a few rare instances when an adult may use tongs or potholders to help an elf in an urgent situation.
Tell them, “every time they touch the elf, Santa brings them one less gift on Christmas morning.” If there's anything your child wants for Christmas, it's their gifts. Each time they touch the Elf, they get one less present. Of course, this will bring on the waterworks, so use this excuse sparingly.
Considered the most important rule, the Scout Elf must never be touched (of course, apart from when the parents move them around) as that will cause them to lose their magical powers. In some cases, they could also disappear when touched, such as when a dog might get a hold of them.
Each morning, the elf chooses a new vantage point from which to keep an eye on the kids. The night before Christmas, the elf flies off one last time to spend the year with Santa until reappearing next season. Every night, a parent hides the elf in a new place.
Santa is real in the sense that he was an actual person. Otherwise known as Saint Nicholas, his story goes all the way back to the 3rd century. He was a monk who was born in 280 A.D. in modern-day Turkey. As an only child, he was given great affection by his parents.
According to elf legend, the elf moves each night. Some mornings, though, kids might find themselves asking why the elf is still in its same place.
Write a nice apology note to your Elf telling your Elf how very sorry you are for touching him. This is a great way for your Elf to regain Christmas magic. Sprinkle some cinnamon near the Elf. Cinnamon is like Elf vitamins and will help your elf get back to the North Pole and make a full recovery!
Parents need to know that although Elf has some potty language and mild swearing ("pissed," "hell," "damn," etc.) and a few references to bodily functions, it's family friendly at its core.
Yes! Elf Pets® love to be cuddled and hugged! They also love when their families play with them and include them in fun activities. It is important to hold and love your Elf Pets® as much as possible in order to help Santa make Christmas a success year after year!
As for when the shift starts to happen, it's different depending on the child, but expect the questioning to get serious somewhere between the ages of 7 and 10.
According to The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition, the night before Christmas, an elf's job comes to an end. On December 24, most Scout Elves say farewell to their families and fly back to the North Pole following Santa's sleigh.
By age eight, kids begin to acknowledge the unlikeliness of one man travelling the world in a single night. The good news? If you started the tradition of Elf on the Shelf in your household, you can likely send the elf into early retirement around your child's eighth Christmas.
Say something like "I don't know... I didn't know if the elf could really move spots so I sometimes move it. Maybe I shouldn't have, after all, it's part of the magic of Christmas!" Then ask your child if he/she thinks it's a good idea for parents to move it or does he/she think you should leave it alone.
Elves need to wait until everyone is asleep before they can move around. If there was too much activity around the house last night, perhaps your elf only had time to get to the North Pole and back, but not enough time to find a new position. Make sure you get to bed early tonight to help them out!
Crisp apples, leafy green salads and even snow berries—a special fruit grown only at the North Pole—all occasionally become a part of the elves' well-balanced diet.
The Elf on the Shelf tradition started back in 2005 when Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell self-published the book “The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition” along with a special box with a small Scout Elf inside.
"There is no such thing as being too old to believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy," Kelman tells Yahoo Life. "Letting kids figure it out on their own is preferable to parents breaking the news to them.
"It's not an overnight shift in thinking," says Laura Lamminen, Ph. D., a pediatric psychologist at Children's Health℠, "and there's no set age where children should know the truth about Santa Claus." Dr. Lamminen says each family and each child within that family will be ready to talk about Santa at different ages.
Claus (also known as Mrs. Santa Claus or Mrs. Santa) is the legendary wife of Santa Claus, the Christmas gift-bringer in Western Christmas tradition.