Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Cute little doll, nothing exceptional about the quality. It isn't easy to pose because there's no wire inside. Comes in a sturdy box with a nicely illustrated book. BUT the story and obligation will absolutely ruin your Christmas. My daughter discovered this thing at a friend's house, and begged us for the magic elf that moves by itself. It was her number one request to Santa and she debated for weeks on how it might move (a robot, perhaps?) Her enthusiasm was infectious and the doll looked so cheery that we thought we could reign in the crazy and have fun too. On Christmas morning she was so excited and played with it a lot. It was so sweet to watch. Later she found the book before we'd had a chance to look at it. She read it, and immediately broke down in tears. She discovered that she had broken The Most Important Rule: DON"T TOUCH THE ELF. According to the admonishment-ridden book, touching the elf could drain its magic. The elf is part of Santa's surveillance and this will cause Santa to think you forgot about him. And the official way to restore the magic is apparently to write an apology to the elf?!? My daughter was having so much fun playing with this thing and now she's bawling because she 'ruined' it, and Santa will never come again. Now she's supposed to write an APOLOGY to the doll for playing with it? Granted, there are simpler ways to restore the magic, but the fact that the authors felt that guilt and apology are the first, best course of action is too much. It's incredibly disappointing and really demonstrates the overall psychological effect this story has on kids. Fun play gave way to desperation and fear that our daughter had upset the elf and that Santa would no longer visit. Our reassurances did nothing to calm her, so that night even though it was after Christmas, the elf obviously had to move because that was the whole point. Needless to say, the book disappeared. We also broke our promise to ourselves and had the elf write a note saying not to worry about the rules, and that it had been so much fun playing with our daughter, and it hoped our daughter would keep playing with her. And with that we crossed over into the crazy zone. Day two; our daughter was ecstatic that the elf had moved, and she wrote several notes to it, and spent private time apologizing to it and singing to it. Her thoughts turned sad again because the book says that Santa takes all the elves back to the North Pole on Christmas, and my daughter is now sad thinking Santa will come back to take it away, or that it will die soon or fall asleep. A potentially fun activity is now ruined by the shortsighted guilt-ridden brainwashing of the story. We are debating on just telling her the secret because it's really ruining her whole Christmas break. So my advice- ditch the book and make your own activity. Forget the 'magic' and challenge your kids to out-elf you by putting it in interesting situations, but expect to deal with confusion when your kid talks to their friends. Or better yet move along and don't buy the thing. Or resign yourself wholeheartedly to the depressing mystique of the elf on the shelf.