I love seeing the sparkly decorations, the gift tags, the wrapping paper and everything else that they can throw at me. I am the dream consumer for these Christmas marketing people, as I think nothing of buying anything I deem cute!
We have lots of christmas family traditions in our home which include baking and decorating christmas cookies, driving around to look at the Christmas lights in our area and the leaving out of milk and cookies. But the one tradition I want to start this year is The Elf On The Shelf. The Elf On The Shelf is really open to personal preference on how you want to carry it out in your household, but it is basically an elf sent from Santa to your home who keeps an eye on the going ons and reports back to the big man.
Typically the elf arrives from Santa on December 1st to your home with a letter detailing why he is there and that he will be reporting back to Santa every night. Some people choose to have the elf on the doorstep whilst others get him to prepare breakfast and be waiting at the kitchen table, in this situation, your elf, your choice. The elf then gets up to mischief at night, just how much mischeif is your choice, and then is found by children in the morning (usually in some incriminating position)
Some examples of elf mischief are as follows but it's really only as limited as your imagination.
A tea party with one of the ornaments
Getting stuck in the lolly jar
Such a great, fun idea right?
I looked into buying an Elf On The Shelf (which comes with a book and a shelf I believe) but to be honest with prices ranging between $25-$50 I was really not so keen. I'm not saying the official little guy is not worth it but I just personally couldnt justify it. I know my daughter and she is going to want to take him everywhere.... including school for news. I can just see by Cristmas Eve when he returns to Santas workshop he is going to be alot worse for wear (and totally deserving of his paycheck!) So I decided I would shop around and see what was available in my area.
I drove past a Christmas Warehouse store recently and decided to stop in and begin elf watch. To my surprise I found a super cute little elf for $6.95. Thats more my price! Now he doesn't come with a book, shelf or anything fancy but I think he will suit us just fine. I have also found plenty of letters online for your own elfs to introduce themselves to the children in your home if you decide to go down the same path as me (I will post links to the letters once it is closer to elf season) This way it will still make sense to the kids. But if your kids are anything like my daughter once she hears..an elf...living with us...till christmas - thats all that will be required.
Here is a link to the Christmas Warehouse site where I bought our elf so you can see if there is a store near you! (they only seem to be in NSW at the moment)
http://www.christmaswarehouse.com.au/
If you cannot get to a Christmas Warehouse I am sure there would be something similar in another Christmas themed shop or even your local $2 shop when more Christmas stock hits the shelves.
I have christened our Elf Buddy Jinglemen (cause I think its just a rule that your elf must have a christmassy type name) and he is super cute! He has lots of mischief planned and I just know my daughter is going to love him! I think its going to be a very fun December in our house. Plus you know I will have to do a blog post up every day to show you all what he has been up to. Something to look forward to in December. Ill also do a post in November of ideas for elf mischief.
Here is a pic of Buddy who is in hiding, at the North Pole of course, till December 1st!
I am in no way affiliated with the christmas warehouse & paid for Buddy Jinglemen myself :)
Melanie :)
I loooove this. Why? because I love, love Christmas! We have heaps of traditions too, but this one I had never heard off. We always say (and have already started saying) that the elves are watching... but a visit from an special elf, now that is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteVisiting for the first time from Blogtoberfest:)