Elves on my Shelves
Elves on my Shelves
by Ms. Smith
Embedded Files
Some find the Elf on the Shelf just a tad creepy, but for me, it’s nostalgic. I can still remember Sharon Jackson, my beloved babysitter of over ten years, telling us kiddos, ”Peek-a-Boo is watching.” We’d all smarten up for a bit, wanting to be counted on the nice list.
When I left Owen Sound, I was shocked others didn’t know about this special, magical ‘scout elf’. I later discovered that Peek-a-Boo was a character in a local radio show that ran for a quarter of a century while my parents were growing up, where children called in to share their letters to St. Nick. Peek-a-Boo would be asked to verify whether the child had been naughty or nice. While the show ended in the 1970s, “the characters [of] the Santa Saga who would be unique to the Owen Sound area audience [had] become etched in the memories of the local kids who grew up in this era”, according to John Christie, author of “Remembering Peek-a-boo and Mrs. Twiddle”.
When my daughter was gifted an Elf on the Shelf as a toddler, we named it, you guessed it, Peek-a-Boo as a nod to my childhood memories. We read the charming storybook that comes with the elf, and for the first year, starting mid-December each night the elf left poems for my daughter that gave her clues as to her elf’s whereabouts. All went off without a hitch except for one accidental and unfortunate swim.
The second year brought us a baby boy, and our elf brought us lots of joy. We were subletting an apartment in Vancouver from a family with a little boy our daughter’s age, and our elf loved to gather an audience of his toys. It was not uncommon to find our elf making mischief with action figurines, be it Marvel or DC, or even herds of dinosaurs. One day, she even skipped work to fish.
The next year and the one after that, the pandemic was in full swing and our silver lining was that the elf was delivered to us in a glass jar, complete with miniature pillow, blanket, and enough candy to survive two weeks. There was a note that described that due to Covid-19, the elf needed to remain the recommended fourteen days in Elf-Isolation. But as soon as the fortnight was over, the elf was up to her mischievous tricks, hiding, leaving notes, and encouraging good behaviour and Christmas cheer.
Last year, our son was given his very own Elf on the Shelf from his pre-school at CHEO. You can surely imagine my Christmas joy as my cup already runneth over. My son, who is developmentally delayed, didn’t understand how the Elf on the Shelf works. So my daughter helped to name the elf Crackle, after, you guessed it, Snap, Crackle, and Pop (the Rice Krispies Elves). Crackle didn’t arrive until near the end of the season, and so he only hid a few times before rejoining the jolly old elf himself in the red suit on Christmas Eve.
That brings us to 2022, the year of the tripledemic, and our family, like all of your families, got hit with some bug in late November. Our daughter was anxiously awaiting some merriment with the elves’ arrival on the first of December. The only thing that arrived, however, was an official Elf Memo addressed to her and my son from the Chief Elf Health Officer Jingle Jangle alerting my daughter that due to the risk of RSV and the flu, on top of Covid-19, she would need to create a habitat for the elves to quarantine in until our family’s health improved. She excitedly gathered all the items, ensuring the elves’ comfort in their confinement. When our symptoms subsided, they escaped their habitats and have been up to all their elfish antics since encouraging our daughter to decorate the tree, pen Christmas cards, put together Christmas puzzles, bake and decorate a gingerbread house, and who knows what else by Christmas Eve.
While sometimes it can be challenging to “find” the elves in creative and original ways, for the most part the joy they bring my daughter makes the effort worthwhile. She’s seven now, and someday sooner than I’d like to think about, the magic of the season will wear off and the voice of her inner believer will be muted for a time. Until then, Peek-a-Boo and Crackle will continue to bring our family light and merriness in the darkest month of the year and warmth into the hearts of those that look for them.
Page updated
Report abuse