Parents Are Sharing Their Elf On The Shelf Fails

Parents are taking to social media to share their biggest Elf on the Shelf fails - and they are hilarious.

In case you're unfamiliar, Elf on the Shelf is a Christmas tradition in which 'elves' are sent by Santa to 'keep an eye' on kids and make sure they're behaving themselves in time for Christmas!

The idea is that the elves travel back and forth between the North Pole to report on whether the children are to be on the naughty list, or the nice list.

The elves love to make mischief, getting up to all sorts of antics in the middle of the night - but they don't move at all during the day.

Because of this, parents spend much of December coming up with creative, mischievous scenarios for the elves, for their children to find in the morning.

But of course, we're all human, and sometimes it doesn't exactly go to plan, which is why parents all over social media have been sharing their Elf on the Shelf fails.

One mum hung her elf on the light, only to accidentally burn a hole in the poor fella'.

"Note to self (and all other Elf on a Shelf parents): Do not place your elf on a chandelier, even if it’s one that rarely gets used… someone will inevitably decide to turn and leave the lights on," she said.

"Excuse me now while I figure out poses that will conceal his abdominal area until the replacement elf comes."

Meanwhile, another mum made the crucial error of letting her elf eat one of the children's advent calendar chocolates.

"So OOPSIE and POOPSIE may have eaten some biscuits last night as well as todays chocolate out of the advent calendar. BUT they left behind some big chocolate lollipops to make up for it," she wrote.

"Well Max is absolutely distraught (and having a right meltdown) over his advent calendar chocolate 🙈 it was only one door ONE BLOODY DOOR."

Meanwhile another poor elf had an unfortunate incident with the cat. "We got a puppy and Jane was pi**ed for like a month .... I guess this is her way of saying no more new friends 😂 🤦🏼‍♀️.... RIP Rifle," they wrote.

Poor Rifle wasn't the only one to have an encounter with a pet.

Another mum explained her elf had had a scrap with their dog Ruby, leaving a huge chunk out of the elf's head.

Of course, remembering to move the elves every day can be tricky, and one parent admitted to totally forgetting to dig out their elf this year, so instead wrote a rushed note to their kids, claiming the elf had been 'delayed at the border' while waiting for a negative covid result!

"December 1 snuck up on me. This is the best I could do before heading to work this morning 🤦🏻‍♀️. We did find the box the elves should be in but those tricksters were not in there," they wrote.

Have you had an Elf on the Shelf fail yet?!

Featured Image Credit: Alamy

Topics: Christmas, Life, Parenting

Lucy Devine

Lucy is a journalist working for Tyla. After graduating with a master's degree in journalism, she has worked in both print and online and is particularly interested in fashion, food, health and women's issues. Northerner, coffee addict, says hun a lot.

@lucedevine