Who came up with Elf on the Shelf?
hive-108045·@ablaze·
0.000 HBDWho came up with Elf on the Shelf?
# <center> They're at it again </center> # These little guys somehow find their way into our home in and around the 1st of December every year. We've tried elf-traps, elf-deterent, you name it, but they always find a way and then unleash havoc upon our house until Christmas day and then disappear for another year. Don't get me wrong, I love elves, but these guys are mischievous and what's more, there are three of them! As far as I know this began as an American tradition, but rather than rely on assumptions, I decided to do a little digging and found out all about the magnificent history behind it. I started off by asking a friend, the all knowing Mr. G. Oogle, who is an expert in questions of all varieties. Mrs. A. Geeves and Miss Y. Ahoo were once go to experts also, but these days Mr. G. Oogle is the man. He pointed me towards a Huff Post article, link to follow that delves into the rich history of Elf on the Shelf and it's quite the story. # <center> A little History Lesson </center> # If asked, the majority of us would probably assume cynically that a toy company had come up with the Elf on the Shelf concept in a bid to further comsumerise Christmas. Well we'd all be wrong about that assumption and the truth is a much nicer story about a family tradition stretching back to the 1970s in America. Here is what I learned in the Huff Post article Mr. G. Oogle pointed me to. > The Elf on the Shelf idea dates back to a family tradition from their childhood in Georgia in the 1970s. > “We had an elf growing up for as long as we can remember. Our elf was named Fisbee, and Fisbee of course would report to Santa Claus at night and be back in a different position in our house the next day,” Pitts explained. “We loved it. It was a chance for us to tell Santa directly what maybe we might want for Christmas, or to do good deeds so that Santa would know about them.” > When Aebersold was a child herself, Fisbee was more like an ornament that stayed on the Christmas tree and didn’t move. But the tradition morphed over time, and when she became a mother, she told her kids the elf would magically fly around at night and mustn’t be touched or it would lose its magic ― likely “to protect it, because we were pretty rambunctious children,” said Pitts. > The idea of a magical elf that flies to the North Pole at night and reappears in a surprise location was “super fun and whimsical” to the twins and their brother, Brandon, Pitts recalled. “It had all of us racing out of bed in the morning to find our elf!” Here is the family that started off this wonderful tradition all those years ago.  In 2004 they actually turned it into a business by writing a kids story called Elf on the shelf, they had the idea and the catchy name, they just needed a publisher. Surely they would be queueing up to be the ones to publish the book? Nope. On the contrary nobody would back the project, so the three strong women rolled their sleeves up and by selling houses and taking some calculated risks, they were able to start their own publishing company and launched the book. They called their enterprise Creatively Classic Activities and Books. They published 5,000 copies of the Elf on the Shelf, illustrated by local watercolor artist Coë Steinwart and so it began to spread slowly through communites one Christmas at a time, eventually gaining mass adoption around 2017 after some high profile celebs started doing Elf on the Shelf with their kids. It's amazing that something so popular could have started from something so simple and family based. I really like that. You can read about it here in more detail if you wish. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-elf-on-the-shelf-history_n_5a24c89be4b0a02abe920d71 # <center> Our Elves and a drone! </center> # Here is what the little rascals got up to last night in chez @ablaze!! The kids were up at 6:30am looking frantically around the house to see what mischief they had gotten up to. We soon heard the belly laughs emanating from the kitchen, when they found what the little guys had gotten up to. They found the drone and brought it for a nighttime test drive and wouldn't you know the crashed it into our lights!       # <center> Sleep.... What's that? </center> # Well much and all as elf on the shelf is great fun for the kids and I love hearing their excitement while they run around looking for the hell raising elves in the morning, the down side is it's usually at 6am and the first awake wakes the others and off they go on the hunt while shouting with excitement! Are any of you good folks doing Elf on the shelf? Any good suggestions for us? <center> *These photos are all my own* </center> ## <center> Thanks as always for stopping by everyone. </center> # <center> Peace Out </center> # <center>  </center>
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