Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This product is definitely cute and a decent alternative to the elf on the shelf. However, the book is not well written and does not share my values of what I want my 2&5 year old to read. This idea could have been brilliant and some of the pages are well written, but overall it falls short. I found myself rewording the story to better explain it, luckily they can't read yet. Next year I won't be reading the story or using the recipe cards as I've found a better shepherd alternative online and on Pinterest, but I will still use our cute little shepherd. Just a really expensive $30 shepherd toy. I didn't just want a toy to hide and do silly stuff (like the elf) I wanted it to be something that drew them more to Jesus and to share the good news of Jesus' birth with others, a very intentional tradition. The idea of using the online recipe cards sounded great, but didn't work for us because each day is more of an activity then a way to hide him and have it correlate to Jesus. I again found myself changing it almost every day and making it all our own because of not having time to prep for the activity or so the activity. I will explain some of the things that bothered me. Inaccuracy: In the book it shows a large star over the stable and makes it seem like he is following it and on the online "recipe cards" they mention the shepherds following the star. This doesn't line up with the bible. "The shepherd followed the bright star...", "The lights help us remember that the shepherds followed the bright star to find baby Jesus." Which the shepherds did not do in the Bible, that was the Magi. Disobedience: "Telling kids like me to stay....I couldn't stay behind and miss this miracle so great....I couldn't follow close behind because the shepherds might say, 'No!'" The little boy shepherd is told to stay behind and he doesn't listen and runs away. Is that really necessary?! I don't want to teach my kids it's ok to disobey or to run away to get what you want. Fear: "The night looked very different when the shepherds weren't around; I jumped with fear and shivered when I heard a scary sound." It shows a dark page with spooky dark eyes glaring everywhere. My 5 year old asked if it was a bad creature and why did it have to be so spooky. There is no need to put a scary page and teach them to be afraid of the dark. I'm not overprotective, but this wasn't necessary in a dun family book. This may not be deal breakers for some, but I wish I would have known about them before I made the purchase.