There was one hot item this holiday season that may be on your shelf now - watching you.
In a few short years, the "Elf on the Shelf" picture book and accompanying elf doll has been transformed from a phenomenon known mostly around the Atlanta area to a national sensation sold in 12,000 stores.
For parents, the elf is an adorable yuletide enforcer. They ensure he pops up in a different place each morning to watch over children and ensure they are not naughty, but nice.
Carol Aebersold and her daughters Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts, creators of "Elf on the Shelf," say it has its roots in their family tradition dating to the 1970s. An elf would appear every year after Thanksgiving only to vanish each evening, the children were told, on a journey to the North Pole with reports for Santa on who had dared to pout, misbehave or cry.
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In 2005, Aebersold and Bell wrote the book to encourage others to adopt the tradition in their families. All major publishers rejected it.
Undeterred, the family founded CCA and B Publishing in Marietta, Ga., to put out the $30 book and the 10-inch elf doll by themselves.
Some think it's sweet, and some think it's just creepy. Undisputed: It's been a massive success since the company's founding in 2005.
About 2.5 million have been sold to date. And this year, it reached No. 2 on USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. It sold out at Target stores in the first year the chain carried it.
Last month, on a nationally televised special on the day after Thanksgiving, 4.2 million viewers tuned in to watch "Elf on the Shelf: An Elf's Story," on CBS, according to Nielsen.
It's become a social-media darling, too.
Elf on the Shelf has 7,564 (and counting) Twitter followers and 92,545 friends on Facebook. There are blogs about where to place it in the house, a different spot every morning, and how to dress it up.
"We have seen the sales of The Elf grow every year since 2008," Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said. "It is wildly popular with our customers."
CCA and B has had at least double-digit sales increases every year since 2008. The company recorded $10 million in revenue last year.