While it feels like many Christmas traditions are centuries old, there is one tradition that is from our current century. It involves hide and seek, and an elf with a propensity for snitching.
Based on the book Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition (published in 2005), Elf on the Shelf is the tradition of a cute or creepy (depending on who you ask) elf who hides in people’s homes and reports their comings and goings back to Santa. That’s the story in the book at least; practically, the tradition revolves around kids searching for the mischievous stuffed elf who moves (or is moved) to a new hiding place every day.
For many who didn’t grow up with Elf on the Shelf, the thought of this stuffed elf moving on its own and causing mayhem might bring traumatic memories of a certain murderous, red-haired doll—but for many kids, Elf on the Shelf is another magical component of Christmas and Santa Claus. There’s fresh excitement every morning leading up to Christmas as they wake up to discover where the elf moved to and what shenanigans they got up to during the night.
Still, Elf on the Shelf takes the refrain from “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” about him seeing you when you’re sleeping and when you’re awake to new levels. Too often, we think of God as this sort of omnipotent, omnipresent version of Santa Claus. We might think he’s a God primarily concerned with whether or not we’ve made the naughty or nice list.
This is contrasted with the God of scripture—the God of Christmas. A deeply relational God who desired communion and relationship with his creation so much that he gave his only Son in order to repair the rift we created. John 3:17 reminds us that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
While, for all intents and purposes, Elf on the Shelf is just some Christmas fun, it’s important to be consistent in remembering and reminding that the season is about celebrating the incarnation of this God we see in Scripture.
Conversation starter: Do you ever think of God like Santa Claus? Do you think I do?