Although Carol Aebersold and Chanda Bell’s The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition was only published in 2005, we’ve had Elf in my household (except on a chandelier) for as long as I can remember (and that’s the mid ’80s). Consider Mom ahead of the trend when it comes to scaring kids into goodness.

Here’s Elf, perched from the kitchen chandelier, making sure we’re good and reporting back to Santa.  Our family friend Molly (sister of The Daily Craic and The Daily Snip) was frightened by my mother for a few years after Mom told her Elf was watching her too.

The other way to ensure we behaved well during the holiday season – putting a piece of hay in Jesus’ manger when we were good and taking out a piece of hay when we were bad. How could we possibly make Baby Jesus uncomfortable for his birthday? If this doesn’t nip at my Catholic guilt, I don’t know what does.