Day of arrival.
So... when *I* was little, in Finland, there was the myth of Santa Claus using elves to keep an eye on the children's behavior, but it was never the kind of snitch culture this Elf on the Shelf culture is. Maybe it started like that, but I never, ever was afraid of the elves or Santa! They are GOOD!
An elf would rather choose to help me stay out of trouble, than look at every step I take just to gleefully run to Santa to tell how "bad" I was because I didn't brush my teeth - or didn't brush my teeth WELL ENOUGH.
I get the feeling that these mothers who use the elf to "make children good", are nitpicking perfectionists and the kids can never be good enough. So when Christmas arrives, and the children will get a mountain of gifts, what does that tell them? Mommy is an a-hole, the elf is an a-hole and Santa... a pushover? Why is there the message of that Santa isn't happy about the kid's behavior, when it really doesn't matter at all. If you seriously think your child is behaving badly, they should be getting coal or switches as present, and you should have a Krampus coming and taking them away to punish, torture and abuse them during the Christmas time, because the child isn't fit for human company. But you won't, will you, because you KNOW the kid isn't behaving badly. And if there's Krampus and coal to a child who can't handle a bad day, what is there for adults having a bad day?
No, it's the parents' job to teach the children to handle a bad day, to teach them how ordinary everyday things are done, to explain them why and to help them do their chores.
Seriously, if you can only think of spanking and using the elf to blackmail the child to "behave nicely", then the child is "behaving" only of fear of punishment, and doesn't really have any ethical and moral values, because their only way of knowing what is "good" and what is "bad" is that some authority figure tells them that. If they haven't been told, they'll do what ever comes to their mind, whether it hurts anyone or gets unwanted consequences, because they have never been told what makes the behavior "good" or "bad".
You are to brush your teeth every morning and evening, because if you don't, you get problems with your teeth. Not because mommy tells you to.
You are to go to bed in time to get rest and wake up the next morning full of energy and ready to have new adventures. Not because someone tells you to go to bed.
You don't yap against mom, because... Nah. Of course you can yap against mom, if you think your mother is wrong. And your mother should be able to tell you why she is not wrong, so that you understand, or to admit that she is and apologize. Communication is important, and the only way to learn to communicate, is to communicate. Soldiers are to be quiet and obey, not children. Children are to ask questions and to be taught, explained and shown how to do things.
It's better if you let the elf leave some mini-missions to the child, with a reward if they manage to do it. Like "I have hidden a surprise in your room... you'll find it if you clean your room." Let them collect tokens that can be exchanged to something they want. When I was little, some kids had a poster of a child with no teeth, and they got a white sticker when they brushed their teeth, and could put it on the poster, to fill the child's mouth with teeth... you could give the child a reward when the mouth is full.
The elf could bring some gifts to the kids, like candy or so. Or maybe it might not be good to give the children candy... maybe a sticker or something else like that. A bookmark or new erasure or pencil topper...
The surprise ball could have the elf inside... packed in a plastic bag so that the child doesn't touch it. If that is your tradition. Now, with Toy Story it's a bit weird they invented the "don't touch or it loses its magic" story. Toy Story shows that toys can be magical. Everyone should know that teddybears are magical, defenders of the children from monsters of the night... so why wouldn't a toy elf be at the same time industrially fabricated toy of plastic and fabric AND Santa's elf?
Also, instead of reporting "bad behavior" to Santa, why not tell a story of that they are here to HELP the kid to be nice
I like this idea of elf arrival; he comes with a mission for the child: to collect forgotten toys so that the elf takes them back to Santa so that they can be fixed and given to some other child.
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