It all began with an elf named Fisbee.
In the 1970s, when her three children were growing up, Carol Aebersold would place her childhood toy Fisbee in a new spot each day leading up to Christmas. The family lore was that Fisbee was watching over them, ready to report to Santa if the children were naughty or nice.
In 2004, Aebersold’s daughter Chanda Bell suggested turning the family story into a book that would be sold with a toy elf. After struggling to find a publisher, the family drained their savings and printed “The Elf on the Shelf” themselves. Aebersold’s other daughter, Christa Pitts, left a job at QVC to help with marketing; by the end of 2005, they had sold their first 5,000 copies.
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