Parenting column: Thankfully our Elf on the Shelf seems the sensible type

By Louise Flanagan

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Between the recent switching on of the town lights and the much anticipated Toy Show this weekend, I’m finally feeling the Christmas spirit.

It’ll be lovely to snuggle up with the kids to watch it. The Toy Show is a fabulous annual tradition that we’re lucky to have here in Ireland. It’s hard to fathom that other countries don’t have a clue what the Toy Show is and don’t have any similar televised shows in the run up to Christmas. It’s uniquely Irish and something we can be proud of.

My growing sense of Christmas spirit might be helped in part by the arrival of our Elf on the Shelf this week too. Nothing inflicts Christmas vibes quite like an elf running about in your house.

Our elf has been coming to the house for eight years. We’re pretty sure it’s the same elf that comes back year after year, because he wears a tiny bracelet that Lucy made for him.

Thankfully, our elf seems to be a good sensible type; he rarely does anything too outlandish, but the kids love to see where he has moved to and what he has done every morning.

Social media would lead you to believe that elves appear inside a giant helium balloon filled with confetti – ours was found sitting on the kitchen floor beside an advent calendar for each of the kids.

I’m sure they would have been impressed by a more elaborate set-up, but they were delighted to see him nevertheless. An elf loose around the house is magic enough; I refuse to turn it into a money racket.

Elves get up to all manner of mischief during the night. I’ve heard of elves that have drawn funny faces on bananas, oranges and even eggs. Some elves host sleepovers with toys in the house and they’re all found in the morning, lined up inside children’s socks.

Some elves play pranks like taking all of the kids’ books out of their school bags, turning their coats inside out or tying their shoelaces together. Thankfully, our elf has never done anything to delay our hectic morning routine!

There are elves that are absolute rascals – they create mess in the kitchen with flour or cereal. Some squirt ketchup all over the place. Others even throw toilet roll paper all over the Christmas tree.

Basically with elves, anything goes. You’d need the patience of a saint to tolerate an elf that gets up to serious high jinx.

Some parents don’t want an elf in the house for that very reason, but rest assured, there are chilled out elves like ours that bring plenty of smiles to the kids simply by being there.

Over the years, they’ve found him making Christmas snowflake decorations but snipping bits of paper, or helping himself to a tub of celebrations, surrounded by empty sweet wrappers.

They get a real kick out of it and that’s enough for me to tolerate the presence of our festive visitor every year.

I’m not sure if my husband is as enthused about having an elf in the house though; his final prank always involves Dad – he wakes up with painted toenails or a full face of make-up.

Hopefully the elf won’t turn his attention to me this year. I’m perfectly happy to point and laugh at poor Daddy instead!

Louise Flanagan is an admin of Letterkenny Babies Facebook page and the author of the children’s book series, Dragonterra and Dream Beasts. www.dragonterra.ie

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