Toni, the co-founder of 'Elfing Around,' was kind enough to answer Bored Panda's questions about the Facebook group, as well as the elf on the shelf phenomenon.

"Holly and I created Elfing Around in 2021 as a way for parents all over the world to easily share their own elf ideas and get inspiration and advice from each other," she said, referring to her friend Holly, who also runs the 'Simplify Create Inspire' blog. Meanwhile, Toni has plenty of blogging experience running 'Finding Myself Young.'

"We had been sharing our own elf ideas on our blogs for a few years already, however, the Facebook group has allowed us to bring people together in a more interactive way and it's grown into a wonderful international community. It's been great sharing our passion for elf on the shelf with so many like-minded parents, however, neither of us expected it to grow as quickly as it has this year."

Bored Panda was curious to get Toni's take on why people love elf on the shelf so much, and why it's such a popular concept. 

"Kids are only young for such a short period of time and the key for me is to harness their imagination and belief in magic during those years. Elf on the shelf is a wonderful way parents can bring the magic of Christmas alive for their children and create amazing memories they'll look back on fondly once they're grown," she shared with us.

"As parents we all want to see our kids happy and the joy the kids have each morning getting up to see what the elf's done is priceless and makes all the late nights in December worth it," she said.

Meanwhile, we just had to know if there's a secret to making a fantastic elf on the shelf decoration. "I think the main thing to focus on is to do ideas that will impress your own children because that's ultimately who you're doing the elf for. My best advice would be to follow their current interests and add in an element of [age appropriate] humor," Toni said.

At the time of writing, the ‘Elfing Around’ Facebook group had just shy of a quarter of a million fans—the community has 237.4k members. In the last week alone, 6k people joined the group!

The community itself was started in September, 2021, and has been growing strong ever since. The beauty of the group lies in just how wholesome the content is. We honestly couldn’t stop smiling when we saw how imaginative some of the holiday decorations were. These people are going the extra mile, and sharing their ideas with the world. It’s hard not to feel motivated to do something similar, but with a personal creative twist.

To keep the entire community running smoothly, the administrator and moderator team that runs ‘Elfing Around’ asks the members to follow certain rules. “We're all in this together to create a welcoming environment. Let's treat everyone with respect. Healthy debates are natural, but kindness is required,” they urge everyone to be polite to one another.

“Make sure that everyone feels safe. Bullying of any kind isn't allowed,” they note that there’s a zero-tolerance policy for any degrading comments.

There’s also no room for spam or irrelevant links. The focus should be on elf on the shelf decorations and ideas. Meanwhile, self-promotion and product promotion are only allowed on a specific weekly post. 

“Being part of this group requires mutual trust. Please remember when sharing photos of children that this group is public and other members can then share them. Please also stop and think whether your child would be happy having their photo/video on the internet before posting them to the group. Videos of children obviously upset will not be approved, share them on your own fb page, but not in this group,” the team running the group set some ground rules for all of the other members.

If you enjoyed the pics, be sure to check out the 'Elfing Around' Facebook group, as well as Toni and Holly's blogs, 'Finding Myself Young' and 'Simplify Create Inspire.'

The idea of the elf on the shelf has its roots in a 2005 American picture book for kids, The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition, written by Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell and illustrated by Coë Steinwart.

The story is about elves who visit children from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, and then return back to the North Pole until the next year. While they’re scouting out people’s homes, they help Santa keep track of who’s naughty and who’s nice. It’s a family tradition started by Aebersold and her twin daughters, Chanda and Christa.

Ever since the release of the picture book, the elf on the shelf has become a viral phenomenon and has entrenched itself into pop culture. Though many people focus on making the decorations as beautiful and fun as they can, others hone in on the more humorous aspects of the fad. They make parody decorations in a wide range of settings. Others do their best but end up failing in spectacular ways.

If you enjoyed the photos, be sure to join the Facebook group. And if you’d like to share your own winter elf deco, feel free to do so in the comments, dear Pandas! For some more elf on the shelf inspo, check out Bored Panda’s previous posts right here and over here.