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A Christmas miracle! Elf on the Shelf can have little elf babies

It's a wonderful life!
/ Source: TODAY

Breaking news alert: Your Elf on the Shelf can procreate.

If you’re somehow unfamiliar with the kooky holiday tradition of Elf on the Shelf, here’s the 411: The elf is a spy for Santa who gets up to all sorts of antics around your house at night. Parents invariably carry the load of moving the elf into different scenarios each evening, and kids eagerly find the elf in funny new spots each morning in the days leading up to Christmas.

But the elves apparently have other responsibilities to bear — like parenting.

Multiple online retailers are selling ridiculously cute elf babies, which means that you too can add to your elfin family. There’s been a huge uptick in the trend this holiday season, two sellers told TODAY Parents.

A little elfin baby.
A little elfin baby.Baby Elf Love

Jessica Ruiz has been sharing the magic of elf babies for the past three years via her Etsy shop, aptly named Elf Stork. She said she sold close to 700 wee little elves during the 2018 holiday season.

“We had the boy elf and then once Elf on the Shelf came out with the girl elf ... (her daughter) said they needed to get married and have a baby,” Ruiz said. “And I was like, ‘Where the heck am I gonna get a baby at?!’”

The Illinois mom of four got together with her friends and made a few of the babies to keep and to give away as gifts, and everything snowballed (pun intended) from there.

“I get all kinds of stories and photos,” she laughed. “All my hard work goes toward something and these kids get a lot out of it.”

Nicole Blose of the Etsy shop Baby Elf Love also has been making the babies for the past three years. Her shop started a similar way: with a request from her daughter.

You can get multiple elf babies if your elf wants a big family!
You can get multiple elf babies if your elf wants a big family!Baby Elf Love

“So I made one for my daughter and she was, like, obsessed,” Blose said. “Then her friends wanted one and it turned into me making them for friends and friends’ parents.”

She enlisted the help of her grandparents and expanded the business. She’s already sold about 500 babies this year. It’s a family operation she runs out of their home, with grandma wrapping the babies in blankets before shipping and grandpa handling the mail.

Blose has gotten so many orders this Christmas that she thinks she’ll need to work year-round in 2020 to handle the next season’s orders.

“The sales are definitely going up faster than I can handle, for sure,” she said with a laugh. “I’m like, ‘Gram, we gotta wrap them up faster!’”

Both Blose and Ruiz said they don’t think this newfangled Christmas trend is going away anytime soon.

“Every year when I do this, I’m like, ‘I’m gonna see how it goes,’” Ruiz said. “I kind of think the parents at some point will get over it, but as long as there are little ones in the house ... I think they’ll keep doing it.”

Blose echoed the same sentiments.

“I think it’s going to last a long time,” Blose said. “It’s just growing and it’s to the point that I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have an elf.”

“The elf is another full-time job for a parent!” she laughed.