How well behaved is your elf?
About twelve years ago, Ned our elf magically appear at my house and has made his appearance every day from Thanksgiving to Christmas during all of these years ever since. Ned has always made his way to each and every high shelf that he could find in hopes that curious children’s hands never rubbed off his magic. This short character has never been naughty like grating crayons into bite sized candy or sitting in a container of balls with an adjacent sign suggestions that he has a lot of them figuratively. I always saw our elf as a good soldier of Santa Claus and never remotely considered him anything less than a quiet, polite gentleman. So I was surprised recently at lunch I was told that I had been doing this elf thing all wrong for the past dozen years.
When we first acquired our elf, it was a Bible study friend who explained that children could not touch the elf and that he needed to be moved each night as he reported to Santa how well the children have been. In a similar way, her daughter explained to my only child at the time the ways of the elf and the rule about not touching him no matter what. No mischief was explained to either of us and my oldest daughter who was around ten at the time knew no differently. I thought I was doing good and the younger sisters have also followed suit on the he’s a good guy train without any questioning. I had always seen goofy pictures of the elves doing silly things and never quite put the two together that it was common place for them to be a little bad. So when I was informed by another Bible study friend that I had done it all wrong for all these years, I was not disappointed that it has been incorrect. My younger girls need to know that Santa is always watching!
Doing things differently like how we celebrate things do not make us right or wrong, they allow us to be a little unique. If your elf wants to sit on train, get a piggyback ride or play with a pair of scissors, it is all up to you. I won’t judge your elf as along you don’t judge mine!
