Why Catholics should think twice about the 'Elf on the Shelf'

Over the last few years, a Christmas tradition has emerged in American households. Known as "The Elf on the Shelf" families set out a plush doll in their home and tell children that the doll reports to Santa Claus nightly. Now at least one professor has questioned if the doll conditions children to accept the conditions of the police state.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - For decades or longer, children have been cajoled, bribed and threatened to behave. Parents have resorted to these tricks since the beginning of time because children are - well, children.

We are taught, as Christians, that omniscience is the realm of God alone and that no person, nor agency, nor other fictional deity or being has such power over human thought or deed. Nonetheless, children are gullible and impressionable and the Elf on the Shelf, which reports to Santa every night, is the prefect ploy for parents who want their kids to behave.

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According to the story that comes with the plush toy, the Elf on the Shelf reports to Santa Claus nightly if a child has been good or bad, and a child's name is put on the "good list" or the "naughty list." The elf is a "scout elf" which the family names and the children must never touch. Children can also talk to the elf, reporting their wishes which will be passed along to Santa Claus. Each morning the elf returns from the North Pole and chooses a new hiding spot in the house.

Many families have taken to shenanigans with the elf, photographing the toy in compromising poses and in the midst of various misdeeds of its own. Such images occasionally go viral on the internet.

Most parents see this as harmless fun and a way to get desired behavior from their kids - hoping that perhaps for one month of the year, they can have a little more peace. However, according to one professor, the Elf of the Shelf is far more sinister, and conditions children to accept the surveillance state.

Laura Pinto, professor of digital technology at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology recently published a paper which labels the Elf on the Shelf "a disturbing cultural phenomenon" and says that it conditions children to accept life in a "surveillance state."

The Elf on the Shelf is "an external form on non-familial surveillance" which "sets up children for dangerous, uncritical acceptance of power structures." Professor Pinto continues, "If you grow up thinking it's cool for the elves to watch me and report back to Santa, well, then it's cool for the NSA to watch me and report back to the government."

Note the key term, "non-familial surveillance" meaning that Professor Pinto is concerned that external forms of surveillance, which we would believe excludes God and family, are harmful to children by instilling a culture of fear and acceptance that is necessarily harmful to the formation of a child.

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As Catholics, we know omniscience is the realm of God alone. We also find disturbing the notion that a child can share its wishes with a plush doll, who is then believed to return to the North Pole to report the petition to Santa Claus. The whole notion is a trifle too close to prayer (idolatry) for comfort.

The proper formation of the conscience should happen without interference from the state, which could be atheistic, or Islamic, or attempt to impose some other kind of moral worldview on children. Only God and parents deserve unconditional obedience because only they have unconditional love for a child. States and fictional elves may be thought to love, but any love they have is conditional and grounded in control.

As Catholics it is all the more important that we replace the Elf on the Shelf with the Nativity and that we emphasize the Christian reason for the season. The holiday is not about receiving presents from Santa, but about receiving salvation through Christ. It is a time to reflect on Jesus, Mary and the Holy Family.

Children will soon understand that Santa Claus and his elves are deceptive constructs, and they must understand that God is entirely different. It's a small step rom realizing the lie of Santa to questioning the existence of God. Remember, children do not have the capacity to think logically and discern the distinction between Santa and God, unless they are properly taught.

They must also be brought up to understand they have free will, a conscience, and that the state and structures of power and surveillance may not respect their sincerely held religious beliefs and freedoms. Children should do right for the sake of right, as clearly taught by Jesus, and doing right in expectation of gifts from Santa cheapens the virtue of the deed. As such, the Elf on the Shelf probably belongs in the drawer or trash, and in its place, the scene of the Holy Nativity that belongs on the shelf instead.

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