The Elf on the Shelf tradition officially began in 2005, when a children’s book titled The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition was published. The book was written by American author Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell, and illustrated by Coë Steinwart. The idea actually came from the authors’ own family tradition. When Carol Aebersold was raising her children (Chanda and Christa) in the 1970s in Georgia, USA, they had a small elf doll named Fisbee. Every year after Thanksgiving, Fis