The Elf on the Shelf--book and doll--first appeared in stores around 2005. The book explained that the accompanying doll was really one of Santa's scouter elves, who would fly back to the North Pole to tell Santa all about his household's activities during the day, then be back in a new spot in the morning. The household kids were allowed to name the elf, but they weren't allowed to touch it, since touching it would risk the poor elf losing his magic. That last detail seems a good way to ensure that younger kids would keep their hands off of the elf, but also would seem to encourage disbelieving older kids who no longer believe in Santa and realize that the elf has as much life in it as a typical Barbie doll to indeed touch it. And woe to the parent who forgets to move the elf one night or doesn't hide the doll properly after Christmas, lest a six-year-old stumbles across it in July.
The toy and book, of course, became a smash success, enough so that by 2010, what was essentially a 30-minute animated commercial, An Elf's Story, was produced. First airing overseas, the special was picked up in 2011 by CBS, and essentially serves as an introduction to the whole concept for households that had yet to get one of the dolls.
A young elf, who, like all scout elves, is nameless, is personally assigned by Santa to the McTuttle household, which consists of a mom, a dad, an older son, Taylor, who looks to be around 8, and two twin girls, who look preschool or early elementary-school age. Taylor has reached the age where he no longer believes, which at the North Pole is treated as a class-A emergency. The elf, who is named "Chippy" in the first of several forgettable musical numbers, decides to help Taylor get his Christmas spirit back by--posing next to pictures of a younger Taylor enjoying Christmas. Not too surprisingly, that doesn't help much at all, and it's only after Taylor accidently knocks Chippy on the floor, robbing him of his Christmas magic, that the kid begins to feel something like remorse.
Needless to say, this isn't a particularly subtle special. It goes through all of the aspects of the Elf like its checking off boxes on a list, and of course, there are several prominent shots of the picture book (which, somehow, the producers resist just having the dad read in its entirety). The CGI animation is about what you would expect from a low-budget TV special from the early teens. There's a few attempts at humor (one fellow elf, adopted by a poetry-loving family, starts speaking in rhyme in all his appearances, which I found amusing), but the target audience for this is clearly young kids who might actually believe the little piece of plastic will come to life at night and fly back to the North Pole.
CBS would air An Elf's Story for a few years, but like many specials, would eventually fall off the network's radar. However, it would find new life after Netflix inked a deal with the franchise's owners to produce new specials, which gave this one a permanent home on the streamer. I haven't seen any of the newer specials (maybe a future Christmas), but hopefully, they're a bit better than this one. If you really want to see a commercial for Elf on the Shelf, there are 30-second ones available on YouTube.
Next time: Back when Hallmark was a sign of quality TV, not cheesy Christmas romcoms.
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