The 11th Day of Christmas: Elf on the Shelf - the Remix

Regular readers of the blog know I am the number one anti-fan of Elf on the Shelf. If you're not familiar, you can read all about my loathsome hatred for the thing here.

Yes, it's no secret. I think this tradition is WHACK. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that when we moved to Berlin with a meer nine boxes of possessions, that funking fairy didn't make it across the pond.

So, what could possibly convince me to tap the "buy now" button on Amazon prime and send her catapulting directly back into my living nightmare? Was it the performance anxiety of concocting a creative scene each night or the feelings of failure when I had been lazy and just tossed it on a different shelf that I craved so much? No, no.

Does my lack of a corporate job mean I am now able to compete with the elaborate Pinterest scenes flooding social media that have obviously been produced by someone who works for freaking Disney?! Ha. Hardly.

It wasn't any of that. Instead, I realized we're in a year where everything was turned upside down for most of us. Where a new normal could have meant not seeing your friends at school, keeping up with the demands of working from home while facilitating e-learning, always remembering (or forgetting) your mask, or missing family holidays or celebrations due to travel restrictions. In a year filled with so much change and disappointment, I'm inviting the Elf on the Shelf back for another year of nonsense. If this mischievous little fairy can deliver a little holiday spirit and be a fun distraction while we're all missing what we would normally be doing over the holiday season, then I'm all for it.

Plus, my kid is eleven now.

The jig is up! Accidentally touching her Elf doesn't make me the murderer of Christmas anymore, so the stakes are way lower.

Dare I say? This year might even be a little fun.

Elf on Shelf.jpg