I saw the earlier thread about this. The woman who wrote about it was telling of her own childhood experience from the 1970s. My family also had an elf back then. I always assumed everyone did. I was about to become indignant and state MY generation invented it so I looked it up. Turns out Scout elves have been part of Christmas stories since day 1 when Santa Claus first died for our sins (fatass got stuck in a chimney) and parents have been using them to scare children ever since. Old as dirt, who knew.