Popularized by social networks, the tradition of prankster elves has been spreading in France for several years.
While this concept has its origins in Icelandic folklore, Celtic and Nordic traditions and Christmas stories, it emerged in the United States in 2005 with the publication of a children's book entitled “The Elf on the Shelf”. Legend has it that Santa Claus entrusts his elves to families to watch over children until his arrival. But in reality, elves sleep during the day and wake up at night to do all sorts of mischief! Something to entertain young and old and thus wait until Christmas.
Heritage highlighted
For its digital Advent calendar, each year the tourist office looks for original ideas that create engagement on its Facebook page, while highlighting the region's heritage. This was the case with wash houses, village town halls and even the birds of our regions.
This year, the tourist office team has chosen to ride the trend of pranking elves and offer a more unusual Advent calendar. But be careful, the pranks are not chosen at random: it is a question of promoting the tourist offer of the territory, as well as the services and activities offered by the tourist office. We can thus find “Germain” and “Madeleine” behind the scenes of the tourist office – with the tourist leaflets, the rental bikes, in the shop, the children's area, etc. – but also outside, on sites like the church of Mont-devant-Sassey, the ballast pits of Dun-sur-Meuse, Dun-Haut, Lac Vert, the Beer Museum tavern, the city circuits…
To see and review on the Facebook page “Tourist Office – Monts et Vallées de Meuse”.
More photos on www.estrepublicain.fr
Other very mischievous elves, also to be found on Facebook
Tic et Tac on the “Dun-sur-Meuse firefighters” page, Truc et Muche on the “Le Petit Commerce de Brieulles” page.
Lifestyle
