The Elf on the Shelf Helps Santa on Christmas Eve - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

The Elf on the Shelf Helps Santa on Christmas Eve

Have you ever wondered how Santa keeps track of everyone and knows who's been naughty or nice? Sometimes he gets help from his elves. Retha Colclasure explains a new Christmas tradition of the "Elf on a Shelf."

Every morning when Lizzy Kerzman wakes up, she does one thing.

"Look for Buddy."

Buddy is what she named this elf, often known as the elf on the shelf. Every day since he first showed up sometime after Thanksgiving...she finds Buddy in a different spot.

"He was on top of the stove. The next day he took a marker and drew on pictures."

Buddy keeps an eye on her, and her brother and sisters, and reports back to Santa at night.

This time, his vantage point was from the nativity set in the living room.

"When we're sleeping he moves out of his spot, and goes into a different spot."

She says Buddy has a lot of good things to tell Santa about during his midnight trips to the North Pole.

"We gave our puppy Toby a bath. Listened to our mom, and did chores the whole way. Helped set up the Christmas tree right here."

Even though his job is to let Santa know if they're being naughty or nice, he's not always on the straight and narrow himself.

"He's kinda in the middle. He's nice sometimes and bad sometimes."

For example?

"He toilet papered the tree."

Buddy also lets them know when they've forgotten to do their chores...like put the laundry away.

"He put our underwear up here."

But as much fun as Buddy is, he's not a toy and there are some strict rules.

"You can talk to him but he can't talk to you. We cannot touch him or then his magic will die."

And no kid wants to keep Santa from finding out all the nice things they've been doing. Buddy the Elf has also had snowball fights with cheese balls, made snow angels in sugar, and been found reading stories to stuffed animals.