When mother-daughter duo Chanda Bell and Carol Aebersold wrote Elf on the Shelf in 2004, Bell’s suggested that they come up with a backstory to explain how Santa knows when children are naughty or nice.According to an interview with HuffPost, Bell and her twin sister, Christa Pitts, said they grew up having an elf in the house throughout December .Based on their behavior, the elf would “report back” to Santa, which is where they got the inspiration from.It seems harmless, even a little adorable, and parents absolutely loathe it.In the 16 years since its publication, Elf on the Shelf has turned into an annual annoyance where parents have to bring out the toy elf on Dec.
1 and hide it around the house.Despite, everything that’s happened so far in 2020, the elf is still coming to visit.
That realization inspired one mom to come up with a very clever way to avoid hiding her kids’ elves 24 different times this year.Complete with a miniature Purell bottle and a coveted bottle of Lysol, the elf requires at least 14 days of quarantining after traveling from the North Pole.Fellow parents on Facebook absolutely loved the idea