Elf on the Shelf

Elf on the Shelf (David Marshall)

Title: Elf on the Shelf

General Information about Item:

  • Material Lore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Caroline Puskas
  • Date Collected: 5-15-19

Informant Data:

  • The informants name is Caroline. Caroline is a 22 year old college student from Atlanta, Georgia. She is currently a senior at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Her family celebrates Christmas. As a child Caroline’s family celebrated Christmas at their home in Atlanta, Georgia. As the family has gotten older they have started to travel for Christmas instead of staying home. Caroline’s family now sometimes will sail in the British Virgin Islands during Christmas.

Contextual Data:

  •  The Elf on the Shelf is a relatively new Christmas tradition existing mostly in the United States. The tradition dates back to 2004 when Carol Aebersold wrote a Christmas-themed story about the character. The book tells the story of how Santa’s elves hide in peoples homes and watch the kids during Christmas time. According to the book, while the children are in bed the elves fly back to the North Pole and tell Santa about whether the kids have been good or bad. Since the publishing of the book the elf doll’s popularity has grown immensely. Parents can purchase an elf doll online or at any local Christmas retailer. The elf on a shelf has become a staple of families Christmas traditions in the United States, where each night parents place the elf in a new space in the home while their children sleep. This hiding and seeking continues throughout the entire month of December up until Christmas morning. 

Item:

  • When she was younger during the month of December her mother and father would hide a toy elf around the house. Each day in the morning Caroline would wake up and have to find the hidden elf. She would then leave the elf somewhere and the next morning the elf would be moved again to a new spot for her to find. She said that this tradition continued until her siblings were old enough to be on the trick. Once her siblings were old enough her parents let them hide the elf from Caroline. This escalated to them hiding the elf in very obscure places, such as the freezer. 

Associated file:

Collector’s Name: David Marshall

Tags/Keywords:

  • Christmas, Elf, December, Tradition