Real-life Elf on the Shelf keeps students guessing

A Westlock teacher is bringing smiles to his students faces, while keeping them guessing, with his own take on the Elf on the Shelf storybook tradition.

Every morning starting Dec. 1, Stephen Womack dresses up like the popular elf and sets himself up somewhere on the school property.

He has named himself Yukon Cornelius and, like the traditional Elf on the Shelf, hides himself in a different setting each morning.

Day 1, he was swinging from the rafters in the cafeteria.

On the second day, he gift wrapped a car in the parking lot and was waiting to greet bus students.

The third day he built a makeshift tent above some gym doors and was roasting marshmallows.

To close the week, he poured flour on the floor and made snow angels for all to enjoy.

Womack originally got the idea to dress up as the all-seeing elf from his wife.

"This is just kind of a silly idea that my wife came up with. She found online a life-size Elf on the Shelf costume and said, 'You're kind of a crazy guy. How about you put it on and sit around the school?' "

The results have been better than he expected with even the coolest kids in school searching for him in the morning.

"They walk around the building and they try to find me and if they don't find me, they find me later in the day and say they couldn't find me and want to know where I was," he said.

As for where the elf may appear next, Womack wouldn't reveal any secrets to Edmonton AM's Mark Connolly, but did hint that he has been influenced by the Island of Misfit Toys.

When the high-school teacher at R.F. Staples High School isn't dressing up as an elf, he teaches English.