I know that every family who enjoys the Elf On A Shelf tradition does it differently, some elves create mischief, some just move from place to place, and some elves are helpers in reinforcing the true meaning of Christmas. This year my family decided to adopt our very own Elf. We went to Target and chose the Elf that would spend our Christmas seasons with us. I decided I wanted to do a 30 day elf trial run this year, seeing as the day after Thanksgiving has always been the day the Christmas decorations start coming out of the boxes.
I wanted our Elf to do pretty much all of these things, plus a few!
I wanted our Elf to do pretty much all of these things, plus a few!
Today when we got home from Target, we read the book that came with our adopted elf, but surprise there was a note from Santa tucked into the book cover! The letter was a way of tying Elf On A Shelf, Santa and the true meaning of Christmas all in one fun family tradition.
The idea of a letter from Santa was borrowed from HERE it is a wonderful letter, explaining that Christmas isn't just about gifts, but many more things! I tweaked the letter a little for our own family and talked about grace and forgiveness a little more but you can get a basic idea from the original letter.
After we read the letter we continued on to read the actual book that comes with our elf and then watched a DVD that we found about Elf On A Shelf. The DVD was only about thirty minutes long but the children seemed to enjoy it, well we all did! I like that the DVD allowed the children to visualize everything, plus it was nice all of us cuddled up enjoying some family movie time. Even baby Boogie sat through the whole movie!
The kids went to bed tonight and magically Toby (that is what we named him) came to life! Toby made personalized Christmas ornaments out of Scrabble tiles and hung them (the first ornaments to be displayed this year) on the tree.
Day 1: Toby our elf
Toby also brings a letter from Santa back every morning! It is written on this free printable Santa letterhead that I found HERE ! The letters from Santa will congratulate the children on the good choices they are making and discuss or remind them about bad choices that could have been made better. Santa will not nit pick about every little thing but he will remind them that he learned to be forgiving and full of grace from Jesus and God!
Before the kiddos went to bed, Babydoll was displeased that we only had a boy elf on the shelf and not a girl one too! She had seen the girl elves on the DVD so I quickly told her about Toby's twin sister who we went ahead and named Twinkles! Toby and Twinkles will take turns showing up at our house so the other one can help Santa at the North Pole! I am too cheap to buy two dolls,(besides the only difference in the boy and girl is that the girl has thicker painted lashes) and honestly I know that they sell the little skirts for the girl dolls but meh why buy one when I can make one?!?! So using felt, some ribbon (I couldn't find my snaps) and my hot glue gun, Toby can magically turn into Twinkles!!
I think the skirt looks almost exactly like the one they sell!
So there you go our Elf On The Shelf has begun, I think I might also try to tie in some Elf / Santa recommended Random Acts of Kindness in the letters we get back every morning! I also alreay love the fact that my oh so original kids named our elves the same names as out dogs!
Elves: Toby and Twinkles
Dogs: Toby and Twinkie
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are like your calling card, tell me what you think!