This whole Elf on the Shelf thing scares me.  We tell children not to talk to strangers and then terrorize them by putting them on the lap of a strange man with a red suit and fake beard. That’s OK, it’s tradition! But now parents take it a step further with an elf on the shelf. That elf seems sinister to me.  I see it’s eyes shifting as I walk through the room.  I suspect it’s a cousin to Chucky. You remember Chucky, the possessed doll in those horror movies. Anyhow, this elf is a spy who will let Santa know who is naughty and who is nice.  You adopt it and register it like Cabbage Patch Dolls. I don’t know if I would want to adopt a spy. And a sneaky spy at that. I liked the old “the elves are watching” and never really seeing them.  Having the kids think that they were everywhere and peeking in the windows had them on their toes.  I have a feeling that if we had an elf on the shelf when my kids were little they would have found a way for that spy to be abducted by aliens.