Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend and that your home is looking thoroughly Christmassy!!
I get lots of questions about how we ‘elf on the shelf’ so I thought I’d share how we do it at our house. I actually can’t believe how controversial the elf seems to have gotten! People downright hate it but you know what? I think it’s just a bit of magic and fun for the kids, and if you’re keen on ‘elfing’, you can use it any way you like, to fit your family, there is no right or wrong way! :o}

Our Elf’s name is Peppermint, that name was chosen by the kids last year (which was our first year of Elf fun!)
To be honest I had searched and searched for a different elf to use because I wasn’t sure about this one, but as I like to be very organised for Christmas and I was buying my elf mid-year I had real trouble finding one. {Nice alternatives seem hard to find mid-year, but turn up closer to Christmas}
He has grown on me now though! And the kids love him and that’s really all that matters. You really could use any cute little elf {or other Christmassy character!} to bring this kind of magic and fun to your home! It doesn’t have to be this ‘commercial’ one.
Our Elf isn’t here to ‘watch’ our kids and ‘report’ to Santa. I really don’t like to use the “Santa is watching” thing with them, and we don’t really emphasise naughty/nice, they’re pretty intuitive and sensitive kids and I think it’s a bit much pressure for them so our Elf is visiting because Santa thought that they have been so wonderful through the year that they might like to have one of his special helpers come to stay for a while! We haven’t used the book that came with the elf at all. Again this is just how we use our Elf, you might use it differently, and that’s totally ok!

This year Peppermint’s special Elf Door just appeared by the tree one morning – but there was no elf to be seen. {These door and Christmas packs can be bought from The Fairy Door Store, but stay tuned for Thursday as I will have one to give away!}
Next to the door there were two little bottles of magic dust {glitter} for the kids to use. Yes, I’m a sucker for punishment and love glitter and let them use it as they like. My kids are normally pretty sparkly and have very beautiful dandruff this time of year :o}

The next morning our Elf was sitting in his sleigh with a letter for the kids telling them that he knows they have been so good this year especially at welcoming their new baby brother but also that he was proud of the effort they put into learning new things this year and that their mum and dad were very proud, too. 

Now our Elf is certainly cheeky and loves to get into a little mischief. He usually starts out tame but gets a little crazier as the nights go on. Some days he is messy and some days just hiding. 

Often he is doing something that is relevant to our advent activity for that day, and some times he just leaves a note or reminder about kindness, giving, family or faith. And sometimes he does things he really shouldn’t do, and we use this as a fun and light hearted way to talk about ok and not ok behaviours. 

Often we will leave him where he is if he is not in the way and hasn’t made a mess. If he is in the way a grown up needs to move him somewhere safe. If he’s made a mess, the kids help me to clean it up.
 

I really just love the fun he adds to the house at Christmas. I know it’s a crazy busy time already and it’s just another thing to pop on the to do list but I guess I just love anything that makes my kids smile and adds some more Christmas spirit to our home. 

I’ve had a few requests for the letter I made for my kids to be made into a printable and I had really wanted to get that organised this year but it just didn’t happen. Let me know if you’re interested though and I’ll work it up for next year if there’s enough interest. 
Are you ‘elfing’ this year? 
xx
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