When my brother and I were around the ages obnoxious, and annoying my mother had us to a project during Advent (I think she gets bonus points for coming up with this "pre-Pinterest"). We made a small manger out of cardboard, and cut "straw" out of small pieces of yarn. The empty manger was put on our television cabinet, with the pile of straw next to it.
Our task was to fill the manger with straw to prepare it for baby Jesus. In order to put one small piece of straw in it we had to do something kind and loving for someone else, and in order for it to count, we weren't allowed to tell anyone what we did.
Instead of my mom having to worry about moving an elf every night (I don't have children but I did have an elf in my former Kindergarten classroom, and my fellow staff members can tell you I often forgot to move it/him/her... and often maxed out on excuses on why it hadn't moved) we were sneaking around doing nice things for each other.
I am not against the Elf on the Shelf. Instead I am for anything that makes children think about others more than they think about themselves. Doing nice things for others improves behaviors as much or more than thinking they are being watched by an elf every day.
On Christmas Eve that year we had the joy of seeing the manger overflowing with straw. Our love and devotion to one another had prepared our hearts, home, and the manger for baby Jesus.
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