The Elf on The Shelf is a household name, a fun family tradition, and the soul of The Lumistella Company. And it might seem like Elf on the Shelf has been around forever… but it’s actually a relatively knew Christmas tradition. And it’s from right here in Atlanta!
How did the Elf on the Shelf tradition begin?
Well, at first, Santa didn’t have a whole troupe of scout elves, checking in on children all over the world. At first, there was just Frisbee the elf, who lived in a family home in Marietta.
The story starts in 1974, when Metro ATL resident Carol Aebersold told her three kids that their adorable little red-clad elf was there to check in on them and make sure everyone was behaving in the days leading up to Christmas. Aebersold told her children that Frisbee would report back to Santa nightly, to ensure good behavior from the kids near Christmastime.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Consitition, who spoke with the family, the tradition is
… based loosely on Scandinavian folklore, [and Aebersold] told her girls that he helped Santa keep tabs on them. They were not allowed to touch Fisbee or he would lose his magic. Then Aebersold began moving Fisbee around each day, calling it a fun ‘hide and seek’ game for the girls and her younger son Brandon.
And Frisbee’s story actually goes back even further. He’s actually a pixie doll elf from the late 50s and early 60s, from Carol Aebersold’s childhood in Tennessee.
So how did Elf on the Shelf become such a huge phenomenon?
After the kids started outgrowing their own personal Elf on the Shelf, Frisbee sat on the… well, the shelf, collecting dust. UNTIL! In 2004, when Aebersold and one of her daughters, Chanda Bell, decided to write a children’s book about Frisbee and his adventures.
At first, after self-publishing this story, the family struggled to get the word out about Elf on the Shelf.
The AJC reports,
Bell loaded up on credit card debt. The Aebersolds cashed in their retirement savings. And [Christa] Pitts quit her job as a QVC host and sold her house to take over the business end of things.
Of course, that’s not how things stayed, however! Carol’s twin daughters, Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts, are now co-CEOs of the wildly successful Lumistella Company, and the Elf on the Shelf tradition has spread worldwide, with more than 17.5 million Scout Elves adopted all over the globe.
I am thrilled that our family pastime continues to create merry moments which are being passed from one generation to the next with the earliest adopters of our tradition now sharing it with their own children