My family had those elves as Christmas ornaments back in the early 1960s. They had no "you're being watched" bullshit connected with them.

The elf-on-the-shelf just used a common widely-available ornament, which in my mind, tainted it forever.

Elf-on-the-shelf isn't a "Christmas Tradtion." It is a control-freak, narcissist parenting fever-dream. There is nothing wholesome about it.