STOCKHOLM — Speaking via Google Hangout to officials in Sweden last week, former NSA Contractor Edward Snowden dropped a bag of coal on his former employers by revealing the hugely popular “Elf on a Shelf” trend is actually an intelligence gathering operation originating with and run by the National Security Agency.

“It actually started out as a joke,” Snowden said in his speech. “Someone photocopied a picture of an elf with the caption ‘I’m watching you,’ and it just kept moving from cubicle to cubicle.”

Snowden said that at some point it occurred to someone that if people as paranoid as NSA staff would play this game, what would happen with civilians?

“Now, the NSA has an agent inside practically every home with a child in it,” Snowden said.