Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
With a five-year age gap between my second and third child, the relatively new phenomenon Elf on the Shelf has missed our household over the last few years … until now.
This year, my youngest son discovered the exciting adventures that Elves have in everyday homes after watching numerous perfectly posed, heavily-filtered and envy-inducing videos on YouTube.
Just when I thought he was on the fence about the big North Pole Guy, hearing the words, ‘but the elf can even fly mummy,’ was the closing sales pitch.
After a pleading message on social media, it was already a few days into December, the clock was ticking, a lovely friend mentioned she was in the UK and would kindly bring me one back.
The Elf on the Shelf is an interactive hide-and-seek game play - it began in America, as a helpful aid to improve children’s behaviour leading up to Christmas.
The toy elf comes with a book to explain that his purpose is to check if the children are being ‘naughty or nice’ and each night the elf flies to the North Pole to report back to Santa and comes back into a different part of the house every night, creating a hide-and-seek game each morning.
So far, Zart (be careful with the Z) our elf, has been found as a snow angel in piles of flour, tucking into the chocolate advent calendar in the fridge, scoffing a pack of Cheese and Onion crisps with some furry reindeers and tonight I have a feeling he’ll find his way amongst some Christmas tree baubles.
We have another 13 nights to go, unless, of course, the Elf is called back early for a special Santa mission ...
