Christmas magic?

I love Christmas traditions and this year we are adopting the Elf on a Shelf tradition. After hearing about it from my friend last year I couldn’t wait to bring it into our home. I unveiled our elf to the family the other night. She stared back at us from behind the protective plastic window as I read the book that accompanies each elf explaining the ground rules and then we named her Scarlet.

Scarlet is one of Santa’s magical little elf scouts who observes all our naughty and nice deeds and every night she flies back to the North Pole to give Santa a full report. Each morning we search for her as she is perched in a new location. No one is to touch her for touching her will take away her magical ability to return to the North Pole. On Christmas Eve she flies off and apparently we won’t see her until a few weeks before Christmas the following year.

The funny thing is we have a house full of Santa Clause skeptics, even non-believers. Granted, I’m not a promoter and I never pushed the whole Santa thing. We tried Santa photos a few times but the kids found it creepy and annoying to wait to sit on some strange man’s lap. We’ve done letters, milk & cookies but some kids cannot comprehend how Santa can fulfill all his obligations. So here I have a house full of kids some of whom feel they are too old to believe, some who think this Santa and elf business is a little ridiculous since Scarlet’s eyes never seem to really move and some who desperately want to believe and yes, even a couple who wholeheartedly believe.

Nonetheless, I couldn’t resist this little bit of Christmas magic and either way it’s kind of fun (and maybe even a little creepy) to have those beady little eyes watching us and promoting good behaviour. It’s also interesting to see the shenanigans one little elf can get up to. Stay tuned to see Scarlet’s escapades in the Vanderkooi home.