The Elf on the Shelf tradition started back in 2005 when Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell self-published the book “The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition” along with a special box with a small Scout Elf inside. In an interview with “The News with Shepard Smith,” Bell said the tradition is like a “simple game of hide and seek.”
Or did it???
I remember as far back as 1964 there being an elf on our shelf at home. He came as a decoration on an FTD holiday bouquet. Maybe Ms. Aebersold invented a way to find fame and fortune with the elf, but the elf was definitely alive and well and living in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio in 1964,
The best of internet humor...on the radio 