s/o: if you do Elf on a Shelf are you religious?

[AnnieW625]

Title says it all. Just curious and don't want to start a debate.

Part of the reason we don't do it is we do traditional non chocolate advent calanders that some what explain the birth of Jesus; IMHO that is enough and it gets the lesson about the holidays across. I am very much a live by experience kind of person so we do a lot of the same stuff I did growing up. It is important to me and DH likes it, but even though his family was religious they never did stuff like that growing up ( just learned about Christmas at Catholic school)

[ahisma]

We have an elf. I am not religious.

DH, however, is very religious. As in, he went to a Christian school and college, his grandfather was well known seminary professor, DH won't so much as drop a dime in a slot machine because he feels it's a sin. (How he and I make a marriage work with different religious views is a whole different thread, but it works:)

For us, the elf is really just something fun to do in December. He does goofy things at night and the boys find him. He also stuffs our (experience based) advent calendar.

[Cam&Clay]

We are not religious at all. Little heathens, all of us.

We have an elf and a Playmobil advent calendar for DS2.

DS1 and DS2 have chocolate advents from Trader Joe's as well.

DH in Afghanistan was sent a chocolate one and a Star Wars advent just for something fun to look forward to.

[g-mama]

Yes, we have an elf and we are Catholic. I don't feel there is a conflict there any more than doing Santa and celebrating Christmas for what it is, the birth of Christ.

[Melaine]

We are Christians and consider our faith a very important part of our lives, and we don't do the elf BUT I would if I wasn't so lazy. We don't do presents from Santa but we talk about Santa as a fun holiday character along with frosty, rudolph, etc. We just took the girls for photos with Santa. We read about and teach the story of Jesus' birth as the true meaning of Christmas and historical fact, but I don't have a problem with fictional holiday characters also being a part of our traditions. I think the kids can distinguish between Jesus' birth and fun fictional characters, but I was never comfortable with teaching them that Santa was real. (No problem whatsoever with people who do teach that).

As far as the elf, I am not comfortable personally with the idea that the elf reports behavior back to Santa, but I wouldn't have a problem with a cute holiday elf appearing in different places every day and causing some mischief! I actually wanted to do it with a Bible verse for each day as sort of an Advent count down but I honestly didn't get my act together in time!

[Corie]

As far as the elf, I am not comfortable personally with the idea that the elf reports behavior back to Santa

I don't like this aspect of the elf at all.

[g-mama]

I don't like this aspect of the elf at all.

To be honest, we don't make a big deal out of the Santa aspect of "he knows when you're sleeping, awake, good or bad, etc." compared to many people we know, but how is it any different than that?

[anonomom]

We have an elf, and we are not at all religious (DH an I were both raised Catholic, but no longer believe). Truth be told, I am not completely comfortable with celebrating Christmas as a purely secular holiday, but we have not hit upon a good balance yet.

[ast96]

We're not religious. We don't do an Elf, and we do the Star Wars Lego advent calendar and chocolate German calendars my German MIL sends the children every year.

We do Santa. We don't enforce the "Santa is watching you" aspect of Santa. Santa is just someone we bake cookies for, sing songs about, watch movies about, and get presents from. We mostly just use it as a family "story." The difference to me between Santa and the Elf on the Shelf is that the Elf on the Shelf seems to ask parents to enforce that "Elf is watching you" story and Santa is pretty widely interpreted... that one song lyric doesn't apply to every version of Santa.

[Corie]

To be honest, we don't make a big deal out of the Santa aspect of "he knows when you're sleeping, awake, good or bad, etc." compared to many people we know, but how is it any different than that?


We don't make a big deal out of the Santa aspect either. I don't like
playing up the good/bad and not getting presents if you are "bad".

But here is how they differ in my eyes:

1. The elf is "spying" on the kids and then reports back to Santa.
I feel like this shows that the elf is trying to bust you doing something
bad. The elf is just waiting for you to screw up.
I would like my kids to think that Santa is rooting for them not against
them.

2. The elf is only out during the month of December. I'd like my kids
to think that we should be good/nice people all year long, not just for the last few weeks before Christmas.


Just my thoughts.

[DietCokeLover]

We are Christians and our faith is an important part of our every day lives. Our focus at Christmas is that it is a celebration of Christ's birth. That being said, I have introduced the elf this year. He is a mischief maker, but not really tied to Santa. He brings a Bible verse each night that we are reading and talking about.

[giavila]

We are Christians and our faith is an important part of our every day lives. Our focus at Christmas is that it is a celebration of Christ's birth. That being said, I have introduced the elf this year. He is a mischief maker, but not really tied to Santa. He brings a Bible verse each night that we are reading and talking about.

Same with us. We are Catholic, our children go to Catholic school, etc. We introduced the elf this year as well, just for added fun. My daughters 2nd grade teacher (at her Catholic school) has an elf for the class. They obviously learn about the real meaning of Christmas in Religion class, but the teacher feels like the elf is just a fun thing to do for the kids.

[almostamom]

We are Catholic. My son attends (and I teach) at a Christian school. We have an elf at our house as does our principal, most of our teachers, and our executive director. At least half of the homes of my fourth graders have elves as well. For us, the elf has ended up serving as a bridge to Santa. While my son believes in Santa, he will not go anywhere near one. He gives his Christmas list to our elf who then takes it to Santa. As for DS' behavior, our elf catches DS doing great things all the time and tells that to Santa ;)

[JoyNChrist]

We're not particularly religious (yes, I know, confusing username). I mean we identify as Christian and go to church occasionally, and DS1 attends a Baptist preschool...so we do know the meaning of Christmas and we always read the story of the nativity on Christmas Eve. But we also do Santa and the elf and don't particularly play up the Jesus aspect of Christmas. It's a pretty secular holiday for us, as is Easter.

[wimama]

We are Catholic and we do the Elf on the shelf. We received it as a gift and I view it as a fun holiday tradition. DS loves finding him every morning. He told me finding Lenny was one of his favorite parts of Christmas. Of course he is a kid who after Easter, re-hid his plastic Easter eggs over and over again and made us look for them. We don't really play up the reporting back to Santa part. But he does take DS Christmas list back and sometimes bring a letter from Santa. It is just fun.

[lalasmama]

We're Christian believers, and we do the Elf.

DD knows what Christmas is really about. We talk about it at home. We talk about it at church. We talk about it even more when she gets a case of the Christmas Gimme's. She often says, "We give presents to each other, since we give presents on birthdays to celebrate the birthday person, and Christmas is when Baby Jesus was born!" We read the accounts of Christmas in the Bible. We read other books about the Christmas story.

Elfie reports back to Santa the good things that DD is doing.

Overall, Elfie is about 5% of our Christmas celebration this season. He's something silly and funny. We could do him at any time of the year, really; I could dress him in a skirt and he could be the tooth fairy's friend and she would find him equally endearing, I am sure. For her, Elfie is less about the "tattling", and more about the fun and mischief he finds.

[arivecchi]

We just got one and the kids love it. We were both raised Catholic but are now agnostic. It's a fun new little game for Christmas as far as the kids are concerned.

[essnce629]

We have an elf and are not religious (although I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school from K-12th grade). I'd say I'm now agnostic and DBF is atheist.

I just see the elf as being something fun that the kids look forward to every day.

I should probably stop procrastinating and bring him out!!!