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It is that time of year again when the Elf on the Shelf comes to visit. If you have an Elf that visits during December, then you are probably on the lookout for easy ideas. Many of these ideas are ones that I have seen on Pinterest over the years. I personally love ideas that are quick and easy to do. This is my take on the ideas I found over the years and the Project Life pages I made for our family scrapbooks. For a printable list of all 50 ideas, click HERE.
We began the Christmas tradition of Elf on the Shelf in 2014. The kids knew the story because they had elves in their school classrooms. I had seen pictures from friends and many posts on Pinterest. It seemed like a fun tradition, but the regular Elf on the Shelf always seemed a little creepy to us. I found our elf at a local store, but these plush Elves on Amazon are cute too (Boy or Girl). Project Life was also released in 2014, so it was the perfect way to remember elf mischief/adventures.
2014
Our Elf arrived about a week late the first year. The kids had left letters to Santa on the tree that night, and our Elf arrived the next morning with a note from Santa. The kids decided that his name should be Elvis. Our youngest loved to cuddle him, so it took a little convincing for her to not touch him. Cards on the 2014 pages are from the Hello December card kit.
In week #1, Elvis:
- Read stories to stuffed animals
- Built a snowman from toilet paper
- Brought mugs for the kids to decorate
- Ziplined across the family room
- Toilet papered our Christmas tree
- Took Elsa on a ride in Barbie’s car. 🙂
Week #2 included:
- Counting down to Christmas,
- Drawing beards and elf hats on the kids’ pictures with a dry erase marker
- Brushing his teeth
- Copying himself on our printer
- Watching the Elf Movie while eating marshmallows and M&Ms,
- Using the bathroom (my husband’s idea and still one of the kids’ favorite Elf ideas)
- Taking a group photo of stuffed animals.
2014 finished up with:
- A little note from the Elf (cute printables found HERE)
- Feeding carrots to our visiting guinea pigs
- A Christmas movie and candy canes from Mrs. Claus
- A goodbye letter.
2015
Elvis arrived on December 1, 2015 with a letter from Santa and cotton swab snowflakes. For week #1, he:
- Made minions on our bananas
- Took a marshmallow bath in the sink
- Played cards with toys
- Fished for goldfish crackers
- Delivered letters to Santa
- Toilet papered the tree again
- Made a shopping list of Elf food
(2015 cards were from the Merry & Bright Mini Kit)
Week #2 included:
- Decorating photos with Santa hats
- Bringing a letter from Santa and a countdown chain for the girls to make
- Building a fort
- Pretended to be Santa and used the My Little Ponies as reindeer
- Practiced the piano
- Got a checkup from Doc McStuffins
- Lifted marshmallow weights
For week #3, he:
- Decorated the kitchen cabinets with bows
- Filled our shoes with candy
- Played with the Fisher Price Nativity
- Hung candy canes from the light fixtures
- Checked out what was in a stocking
- Wrapped the toilet in the kids’ bathroom with wrapping paper
- Brought another Christmas movie and treats
(Cards from week #3 pages came from the Hello December 2015 Edition)
Elvis finished off 2015 by:
- Drawing a picture for the kids
- Bringing them a gift of ingredients for graham cracker houses
- Getting out the ingredients to make cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.
2016
For 2016, I decided to combine our Elf photos with our regular weekly pages. Cards are from the Project 52 2016 Edition. Elvis arrived on December 1st with a countdown chain and another letter from Santa. The first two weeks of activities included:
- Making hot cocoa
- Reading Luke 2 to the Fisher Price Nativity
- Playing the glockenspiel,
- Circling favorite toys in a toy catalog
- Toilet papering the tree AGAIN (that has become a yearly tradition I’m afraid 🙂 )
- watching Netflix
- Coloring an Elf coloring page
- Looking through scrapbooks of previous Christmas with stuffed animal friends.
Week #3:
- A note from Elvis and Santa
- Played Twister with stuffed animals (you can find that HERE).
- Watered my poinsettia
- Dressed up to go outside
- Made a cardboard slide indoors
- Ate cookies
- Cuddled up with a blanket by the heater.
Week 4:
- Repeated his most popular stunt of using the bathroom (much to my dismay) :/
- Counted down on the Christmas chalkboard
- Rope climbing the bookshelves
- Getting ingredients in the pantry ready for cookies
- Hanging from the towel rack
- Bringing his traditional graham cracker house ingredients
Our youngest was SO sad to see Elvis leave on Christmas Eve. Santa was nice enough to leave the kids a note and let Elvis stay an extra day with us.
Did you see any ideas that you haven’t tried yet? A few ideas have become yearly traditions, but I will be checking my Pinterest board again to come up with some new ones for this year. Click HERE for the printable list of 50 ideas that I covered here. Follow along on Facebook and Instagram to see what I come up with this year!
Learn more about Project Life here:
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