'Elf Surveillance' camera hailed as 'genius' by parents claiming it stops kids from misbehaving before Christmas

2 October 2019, 10:48 | Updated: 1 November 2019, 07:26

By Naomi Bartram

@naomibartram

Parents have praised this Christmas accessory which is designed to stop kids from being naughty.

You’ve probably heard of ‘Elf on the Shelf’, but now parents are raving about another Christmas trend.

The 'Elf Surveillance' is a fake CCTV camera which claims to report kids’ bad behaviour to Santa.

The battery-powered toy features a red flashing light to trick any misbehaving children into thinking Father Christmas is watching them at all times in the run up to the big day.

But this £2.99 dummy camera doesn't actually spy on your kids, it’s just used to make sure they don’t play up before December 25th.

Raving about the ‘surveillance’ camera on the Facebook page I Bought It At, one parent joked: "Your kids will think the Elves are watching them and reporting back to Santa!!

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“Well that's one way to keep them off the naughty list!!"

Another replied: “I'll be picking up one of these bad boys 😉”, while a third added: “I’m getting one for all year round.”

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In the Amazon reviews, other parents raved about the tool, with one writing: “My daughter's face was priceless when she saw that our Christmas elf placed this on our wall to keep an eye to make sure she was on the good list, worked a treat just hoping she'll fall for it next year too.”

A second said: “My granddaughter loved it and wonderful at Christmas for a Childs imagination.”

And a third commented: “My son thinks he's being watched and listened to by Santa and has been a dream since I've 'installed' the cam.. I'll probably leave it up all year!”

This comes after the classic ‘Elf on the Shelf’ technique went viral last year.

The Christmas tradition sees families place ‘special scouts’ around their homes from the North Pole to encourage kids to behave themselves.

The idea is that Santa's little helpers watch the children all day and night before returning to the North Pole to report on whether they should end up on Santa's naughty or nice list.