A dad unwittingly torched his family’s elf on the shelf display after switching on an oven where the festive dolls were hiding (Pictures: Chelsea Hightower)
A father accidentally incinerated his family’s elf on the shelf display after turning on an oven where the festive dolls were hiding. Matt Hightower, from Overland Park in Kansas, cooked the Christmas characters last week while his wife Chelsea went to Target to do some Christmas shopping.
Chelsea had originally placed the family’s three elves – Jingle, Bell and Magic – on a rack next to a piece of bread, and artfully blackened their noses and cheeks to make them look sooty. The trio were wrapped in paper towel, and sat next to a sign saying ‘it’s ALOT TOASTIER in here.’
But the elves – who had spent the previous day in the fridge – met a fiery end after Chelsea failed to remind Matt where she’d put them, and he switched the oven on.
The couple’s oldest son Braelyn alerted Chelsea to what had happened. She managed to remove the charred figurines without her youngest children seeing, and has since replaced them with three new elves.
Matt Hightower didn’t realize his family’s elves were spending the day in the oven to warm up after an excursion to their fridge
Chelsea Hightower was able to replace the old elves with three new replacements, pictured, with her youngest children none the wiser about what happened (Picture: Chelsea Hightower)
Chelsea told KCTV: ‘(Matt) feels horrible, but thankfully the Elfspital got them in quickly, and they are expected to make a full recovery after several hours of reconstruction and rest.
‘Thankfully Jingle, Belle, and Magic have made a miraculous recovery and back to their silly ways.’
Elf on a shelf sees families buy a festive elf or elves, and move the toys around every night after their children have gone to bed.
They can then spend the following morning looking to see what adventures the dolls have gotten up to.
Some parents have complained about the amount of work involved, with social media star Kim Kardashian confining her elves to ‘quarantine’ in glass jars.
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