I did not grow up with the whole Elf on the Shelf tradition. I didn’t even hear about it until I had kids and frankly, when I did hear about it, I wasn’t all that into it ’cause it’s kind of weird to have a doll keeping an eye on you and moving around your home as it pleases.
But this year my eldest daughter started talking about it and I thought it might be a fun little tradition to add to our holiday repertoire. So I went searching online for an Elf on the Shelf to buy and call our own.
Hijo de la Chanclada, these pasty little guys cost $29.95! You have got to be kidding me, I thought. I don’t want to pay that much money for one of those things.
I decided to keep looking around to see if I could find a cheaper version and preferably one with a darker skin tone so that my daughters could see that Elves can be diverse too.
Eureka, I thought, when I found a cute plushie girl version for just $12.95. Not only is she way more affordable, but she’s also brown and proud like we are.
When she arrived, I promptly put the Elf on a shelf in the kitchen. When my eldest discovered the doll she was delighted. She giggled and asked where she had come from and I shrugged my shoulders and pretended to know nothing.
But my youngest daughter was not delighted. She was horrified that the Elf just showed up out of nowhere. At one point I caught her choking the doll as she smashed her into the shelf and called her creepy.
Yup, I caught my daughter trying to murder the Elf on the Shelf. I told her to stop being so mean to the Elf, but she wasn’t having it.
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Eventually, later that night, it ended in tears because she was afraid to go anywhere in the house and be scared by the Elf. Even after I copped to being the one that was moving it around, she wouldn’t stop crying. She made it clear that she does not like that Elf, she does not trust that Elf and she wants to know where that Elf is at all times.
OK, she doesn’t like the Elf thing, no big deal right? I laughed, but then as I held that adorable little Elf girl with gorgeous brown fabric skin, the part of me that is always vigilant for injustice, racism and discrimination wondered if my youngest was racially profiling our Elf.
Is my youngest afraid of our Elf because she’s brown? Would she have been nicer to the Elf and less afraid of it if it were a pasty white Elf like the ones she’s used to seeing on TV?
Does she think this brown Elf was not sent by Santa but was an Elf impostor breaking into our home because of how the media portrays people of color in movies and TV shows? Or has she bought into the notion that brown Elves are taking jobs away from white Elves? Or is she WOKE and upset that because this Elf appears to be Latina, she is only getting paid 53 cents for every dollar the average white non-Latino Elf male makes for doing the same job? When did buying a freakin’ Elf to put on my shelf become a political act?
OMAIGA, have I failed as a mother? Is my daughter racially profiling our ELF or is she just freaked out by stuffed dolls that come to life when she’s not looking? 🤷🏽♀️
I don’t know, but I’ll tell you what: The Elf is staying and my youngest is just gonna have to get used to her.
What do you think about the whole Elf on the Shelf tradition?
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