Elf on the Shelf blamed for pushing Christ out of Christmas

Elf on the Shelf, the Christmas fairy tale juggernaut that has generated more than $10 million in sales, is taking on Santa in terms of prominence during the holiday season — and worrying devout parents nationwide, who say it’s one more secular activity pushing the birth of Christ out of Christmas.

“Everyone does Elf on the Shelf; it’s now like Santa. I can’t comprehend it,” said Amanda White, the author of “Truth in Tinsel,” an Advent and activity book for children. “I wanted Christmas to be about Jesus. Jesus is the magical part — the story about him is magical, so miraculous, we need him to be the center of our celebration. Not that you can’t do some of those other things, they’re just not real.”

The elf is the brainchild of Carol Aebersold and Chanda Bell, a mother and daughter who wrote “The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas tradition” a decade ago. In their mythology, the elf is a “scout” for Santa Claus, observing children during the day and reporting back to the North Pole at night so Saint Nick can compile his naughty-and-nice list.

Children are told the posable red-and-white figure is to remain unmolested so it can observe the goings-on.

The eerie surveillance role the elf plays, and the heightened devotion it gives to Santa’s presents, have some evangelicals rejecting the concept altogether.

“I believe in grace too much to let Christmas be reduced to a monthlong disciplinary tactic,” Lee Hull Moses wrote in “The Christian Century,” explaining why there was no elf on his shelf in December. “The point of Christmas — at least the version I believe in — is not that we behave well. It’s that we’re not always all that nice, and God sends us the greatest gift anyway.”

Others, like mom-blogger Stephanie Farley, have adapted the tradition.

Her concept, dubbed, “Elf on the Shelf Jesus Style,” went viral when she posted the entry to her blog “Crayon Marks and Tiger Stripes” two years ago. She has the elf act out the life of a Christian — posed in prayer or issuing a task to children to donate food to the needy.

“My husband and I want our child (and future kiddos) to enjoy the magical part of Christmas that is Santa. We also want them to understand the true meaning behind Christmas,” Mrs. Farley wrote in her blog. “This Christmas, we are going to do Elf on the Shelf Jesus style. We don’t want to do the ’naughty or nice’ scare tactic. We want to use the Elf to combine the magic of Santa and the celebration of Jesus’ birth.”

How much Santa and how much Elf are recurring questions for parents grappling with raising children in an increasingly secular world.

Blogger Rachel Lacy, of College Station, Texas, was hesitant to even introduce Santa, but figured out a compromise that involves Santa and Elf on the Shelf as accompaniments to the message of Jesus’ birth.

“I struggle with the idea of introducing Santa to the kidlets. I don’t think the concept of Santa is evil, but I don’t want Santa to become the sole focus of the Christmas season for the kidlets and I feel like it is very easy to slip into that,” Mrs. Lacy wrote in her blog “Following in My Shoes.”

She, like Mrs. Farley, adapted the role of the Elf to be a reminder of God’s love, dropping his surveillance responsibilities.

Cyndi Spivey, a blogger and pastor’s wife, is a no-Elf mother. Instead she puts the focus on the Holy Family, beginning Dec. 1, when she reads her children the biblical Christmas story. She placed a figurine of the infant Jesus under her Christmas tree, dubbing it the town of “Bethlehem,” then had Mary and Joseph figurines travel through her house at night, showing up in different places each morning until they reached the tree on Christmas Day.

“Certainly, there’s no doubt Christ has been taken out of Christmas, and, as a parent, if you don’t intentionally put Christ in Christmas, it will be lost,” Mrs. Spivey said in an interview. “We definitely did Santa Claus. I have a lot of friends who won’t, but we never made it the focus of Christmas. We celebrated Christ’s birthday. For years we’d have a birthday cake for Jesus, we’d have a birthday party, always make Christ central.

“Elf on the Shelf, it doesn’t bother me, but it should be just looked at as something fun to do with your kids. If it takes too much time or gets too time-consuming — there are now parents going out of their way to put him in different, elaborate poses — then you should drop it. We get so busy and bogged down with the other stuff this season, we just forget what the true meaning is: the birth of Christ,” she said.

Mrs. White says there’s no harm in introducing children to secular aspects of Christmas, but said it’s important to draw boundaries.

She waited until her daughter was old enough to go to school to introduce Santa.

“And we did so saying he was just a character, like Frosty or Charlie Brown,” she said. “It’s still easy to have a magical Christmas. We can do Santa crafts and eat Santa cookies, but we want to take time every day to focus on Jesus.”