Years later, Aebersold’s daughter, Chanda Bell, spotted the family’s elf sitting — you guessed it — on a shelf, and she had an idea.
“I told my mom we should write this story,” Bell said. “We were really driven by this idea, this love of tradition, this love of family.”
Their book, “The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition,” tells the story of Santa’s scout elves, who make themselves at home and fly back to the North Pole each night.
“I’ll be back at your home before you awake, and then you must find the new spot I will take. You’ll jump out of bed and come running to see: who’ll be the first to spy little old me?”
Publishers were not interested in bringing the story to market, so the family, including Bell’s sister, Christa Pitts, “took several leaps of faith” and self-published their book. They sold it at trade shows, and after a segment featuring the book aired on “The Today Show” in 2007, it quickly made its way to bookstore shelves.
