Best price for Pop-in-Kins? And is the book good?

[elmojessi]

Want to get at least one of these for my kids, but maybe one for each (the boy and the girl). Do I need to get the books? Are they worth the extra money? You can buy the elves themselves from this site with free shipping over $25. I could get both elves and the cat for just a few dollars more than one elf and book set on amazon. If I plan to get both elves, maybe having two different books would be confusing?

http://www.selecttoysandbooks.com/ca...1?categoryId=7

Thoughts?

[indigo99]

We just got ours out for the first time this year, and my DC are too young to really care about the book yet. The story isn't especially good but does explain the whole idea. He worked in Santa's workshop but wants to go visit the kids so Santa agrees to let him go stay with them. He's not supposed to let them touch him, and he is supposed to "report back" to Santa before Christmas.

I like that you can make a bigger/smaller deal out of the report part if you think it's creepy to teach your kids that the elf is actually watching whether they're good or bad. I actually don't mind the kids playing with ours so I'll probably skip the part about not touching.

eta: I don't know anything about the girl doll or the cat since that's a different book with apparently a different story (no cat in the boy book). I do think you'll probably want the girl book if you're getting her and the cat. If you have a girl and a boy though and are just wanting each to have their own elf then I'd get the boy book with a boy and girl elf or just one elf to share if you aren't going to let them touch them anyway.

[happyturtles]

I just opened our Christopher pop-in-kins last night. My girls are 3 and 4 yo and they liked looking at the pictures of the elf in the book. The book seems to focus more on Christopher visiting boys and girls and hiding each night to delight the kids. The very last page, Santa does mention to Christopher to remember to report back on xmas eve, but doesn't say/specify what to report back.

I don't do the naughty/nice thing, my girls don't have christmas wish lists. So I only tell the girls that Christopher is here visiting to play and I plan to just hid him someplace new each night. Low involvement

I read on Amazon reviews that Christina and the Book set does not include the kitten, but the book specifically mentions the kitten. Thus some parents weren't happy. I think if you don't get the books, the kitten won't be necessary either.