Who knew one elf could make such an impact? From there, they built a business featuring this Christmas Elf. That’s the story you now find in the Elf of the Shelf storybook ( affiliate). Then one day, the daughter – Chanda Bell – wrote a poem about the elf’s special job during the Christmas season. Each night he would report to Santa and return in a different place in the house in the morning. As kids, they had a Christmas elf that visited them. The idea originated from a stay at home mom and her twin daughters back in 2004. Especially when considering the history of Christmas.

It wasn’t until I started researching its history that I learned the Christmas Elf tradition is actually pretty new. When I saw my first Elf on a Shelf, I thought he was a vintage elf from the 1950s that someone had rebranded. How Did the Christmas Elf Tradition Start? So, I invited a Christmas elf to stay with us from the North Pole for the season. It seemed like a good time to some holiday cheer to our family. We weren’t going to be able to see family this holiday and didn’t trust traveling. And I was too sleep deprived when the kids were little to even consider it.īut, now we were celebrating the holidays during a major world crisis. My issue was the work involved in figuring out how to move him every night. One of the holiday traditions that I’ve avoided for a long time has been adopting a Christmas Elf. So, we decided that we needed something to keep things fresh and interesting.

It’s hard to keep life interesting when you have to avoid large crowds and not go to indoor activities. Having survived the first half of a pandemic, things were starting to get dull. Last Christmas was a big year for our family. As always, we only recommend things that we truly love. This post contains affiliate links which help support One Simple Party.

Elf last names