Have you noticed this new phenomenon…well maybe it’s not “new” but it’s new to me. My Facebook feed is filled with photos of Elves in various strange situations and poses. It actually very strange if you think about it. We parents are posing these little elves, which we paid a lot of money for, and then having a photo session. Why? I’ll look at that next.
First lets talk about the Elf on the Shelf juggernaut. It started out with good intentions. Basically you tell your children that Santa has sent an elf to live with you during the Christmas season to report back to him. This lets Santa know if you should be on the naughty or nice list. The kids love it and it makes for a way to keep your kids in line. Well, maybe YOUR kids, but mine still misbehave. My 4 yr old says “I tried daddy, but it’s just so hard to be good”. He takes after his mother.
So this year we took the dive and purchased one of these gimmicks…I mean wonderful little elves. The first morning the elf comes, the kids have to give it a name. Our kids chose Fred for our elf. I have to admit that it is fun. My wife and I come up with these cool little things to do with the elf after the kids go to bed (Thanks Pinterest).
But at a certain point I realized that we may be going astray. We spend more time arranging and taking photos for Facebook than we do enjoying our kids reactions in the morning. I mean, we’re arranging lighting and shadows and taking multiple angles. I think I may have stumbled upon my new part time seasonal job….Elf Photographer.
It’ll be great, you can hire me to come over each night and pose/photograph your elf in fun and mischievous situations. You can then post them to your Facebook wall to wow your friends and family. I’ll surely make a small mint on this idea.
I know it sounds a little strange but if you look at Facebook you see photo after photo of these wacky little elves doing crazy stuff. Let’s be completely blunt and honest for a moment. We all use Facebook as a way to showcase our lives. We like to put the absolute best out there for everyone to see so we can say “Look how GREAT my life is”. Of course, there are a small percentage who take it the other way and just complain about their lives…but let’s not worry about them right now. So, we have taken this little elf, who is supposed to be used to bring joy to our children, and turned it into a vehicle to one-up our friends on Facebook.
So, now that I have come to this realization what am I going to do about it? I’m heading over to Pinterest for some better Elf ideas…I only have 12 hours until my next photo session.