Anyone Having Fun With the Elf on a Shelf?

[nanglgrl]

Ours is a naughty little elf too. I'm going to have to steal your idea and use it sometime next week. I was starting to run out of ideas already and it's only the 7th of the month .

What are some silly/fun ideas that you ladies have caught Elf on a Shelf doing? This is our first year doing it. We don't celebrate the holidays like this either but I thought the kids would like the surprise ... they did . We're doing a mishmash Christmas this year .... we're having our "traditional" Christmas like we do every year but I wanted the kids to experience Christmas with my old Mexican traditions the way that I used to (processions, nativity sets, reenactment of the journey to bethlehem, holy kings celebration etc ... which all run through to January) and then we also got Elf on a shelf. I hope my kids don't develop a complex ::.

Our elf toilet papered the living room, drew red noses with lipstick on all of the kids while they were sleeping, ate candy from the advent calendar, made a snow angel in flour, had a date with Barbie and drew mustaches on our family photos. The red noses with lipstick didn't work well. It was hard to do and the kids ended up wiping most of it off in their sleep. I'm now officially out of ideas.
We do a lot of Christmas things, is my favorite time of year. Our house is decorated with lights that dance to music, we drive to Des Moines wearing our silly Christmas hats and with mugs of hot chocolate every year to see Christmas lights (my 19 year old college son even comes home to join us). The rule is if you don't wear your hat you can't go. Grandma even started to join us and proudly dons her goofy hat.
Santa always leaves a note and some sort of proof he was here. It could be a piece of fabric torn from his outfit when he went up the chimney, his spectacles, boot prints in soot.....one year my daughter wanted a picture of Santa so my dad (now deceased) slept on the couch and got a picture, it was my dad's last year here so that memory is precious. We always track Santa on Norad and the kids get a video message from him, we go on a carriage ride to Santa's cabin for a visit and take a train ride to his village. We also have a lot of neat things in our town and eventually I hope to do some sort of family work with the local food bank. I love these things, the looks on the kids eyes and knowing that these little traditions might live on in my family long after I'm gone.
I think it's great that you want to do some old traditions with your children. I'm sure they will love every minute of it.

[MarinaVanessa]

Our elf toilet papered the living room, drew red noses with lipstick on all of the kids while they were sleeping, ate candy from the advent calendar, made a snow angel in flour, had a date with Barbie and drew mustaches on our family photos. The red noses with lipstick didn't work well. It was hard to do and the kids ended up wiping most of it off in their sleep. I'm now officially out of ideas.
We do a lot of Christmas things, is my favorite time of year. Our house is decorated with lights that dance to music, we drive to Des Moines wearing our silly Christmas hats and with mugs of hot chocolate every year to see Christmas lights (my 19 year old college son even comes home to join us). The rule is if you don't wear your hat you can't go. Grandma even started to join us and proudly dons her goofy hat.
Santa always leaves a note and some sort of proof he was here. It could be a piece of fabric torn from his outfit when he went up the chimney, his spectacles, boot prints in soot.....one year my daughter wanted a picture of Santa so my dad (now deceased) slept on the couch and got a picture, it was my dad's last year here so that memory is precious. We always track Santa on Norad and the kids get a video message from him, we go on a carriage ride to Santa's cabin for a visit and take a train ride to his village. We also have a lot of neat things in our town and eventually I hope to do some sort of family work with the local food bank. I love these things, the looks on the kids eyes and knowing that these little traditions might live on in my family long after I'm gone.
I think it's great that you want to do some old traditions with your children. I'm sure they will love every minute of it.

Oh how fun. I'm stealing some of your ideas!!! I'll let you know what else I come up with.

[Happy Hearts]

Today I saw him making a snow angel on spilled salt on the counter

[wdmmom]

My kids are all too old to carry on the fun but a fellow daycare provider and friend of mine has little ones. I look forward to her wacky ideas.

One day Sally was hanging from the curtain rod. Another day she was having hot chocolate. She has spelled out the kids names in Fruit Loops. Today she was covered up with a doll blanket next to a box of tissues and a thermometer.

[Country Kids]

Shared the stories with my daughter.

Her response-:confused::confused::confused:

Why are grown woman doing this is her first thoughts. Our families should be getting out of the house more was her second thought. We are really needing some more adult interaction if we are having this much fun with a stuffed doll is the final thought.

Now off to find something I can use for an elf. Don't have one but sure I can find something.

SSHH-don't tell my daughter!

[Sunchimes]

I got my elf from Lakeside Collection for $4.50. It isn't a true elf on the shelf, but it is an elf, and that's close enough. I only have one dck old enough to notice, but she's involved. She has one at home, so this isn't new. I told her that Kiwi is her elf's friend.

We also had a magic door appear the same morning that Kiwi appeared. I told her it's his magic door. It's actually an ornate iron door that worked it's way to the surface of our yard during the drought last year. I scrubbed the rust off and painted it red (our house front door is red). I used double stick tape to keep it upright.

Kiwi is a calm elf. He will move around, but he won't be doing bad things. I have enough creatures to clean up after around here, and I refuse to clean up after an elf! ::

[nanglgrl]

Oh how fun. I'm stealing some of your ideas!!! I'll let you know what else I come up with.

Steal away! I stole them from other people. :: I can't wait to see your ideas. I need more! Our elf's not always naughty, tonight he's reading to the other toys.

[CozyHome]

My daycare children are all under age 3 this year so when I sing Frosty or Rudolph or Jingle Bells it's all pretty new to them. My oldest boy joined us in the summer and was in a bad daycare centre last year so doesn't seem to respond to any of the songs I'm singing. Pretty sad, but good that the parents caught on and moved him to my daycare! So over the next few weeks I'm sure my repetitive songs and stories will make an impression.

[Hazel]

We have Henry! He is a very experienced elf! He has been around since the 1950s and doesn't look like the new elves out there. My daughter wanted to know why Santa sent him and not the red kind all her friends have and I explained that one of those younger elves couldn't HANDLE what goes on here! There are too many kids and it takes a more seasoned and experienced elf to do the job! Henry isn't naughty tho, he is very very well behaved, but he moves every night and actually had to leave at nap time one day bc we had a rough morning and he needed to inform Santa! Henry also brings little treats back from the north pole every now and then. Last week the kids all had candy canes in their cubbies with a lil note from him! This week , since we are a very very blended group, Henry will bring some Hanukkah gelt!

[Mommy2One]

Do all your day care families also use the elf at home? I was thinking of doing it in our preschool room, but was thinking that some of the kids might wonder why there is an elf at daycare and not at home. Especially if we read the book too.

We don't do Elf on the Shelf at home. I've thought about it, especially when I read all the fun ideas online but because I'm a working-outside-the-home-mommy our mornings are already rushed without looking for an elf. Our provider does Elf with her own kids and she let us borrow the book to read with our daughter. We just told DD that Sprinkles is a magical elf so he can see her at her house too. The first few mornings she was really excited to get to the provider's house to see where he'd moved to. I wish there was a way for the Elf to just move around or visit on the weekends because it sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Maybe there will be too many good kids next year so we'll have a part time elf...? Instead we do a nightly Christmas Countdown activity. Most nights it's a book, sometimes with a small toy or candy that goes along with it, a couple times it's puzzles, a game or a movie. It fits our schedule better.

Long story short, if you can sell it, little kids will buy it ::

[magsgma]

We don't do elf on the shelf. Never got into it. A few of my friends do it and post pictures every day.
The thing I'd like to know is:
Why is an elf, who is supposed to report the children's naughtiness (or niceness) back to Santa, getting into so much mischief? isn't that kind of counter productive? I'd be nervous my kids would see the elfs "antics" and copy him, saying it must be ok cuz the elf did it and he's still buddies with Santa.

Agreed... Our Elf is a different one than elf on a shelf. He is Christopher Pop -InKins. He plays hide and seek each day with the children, but does not do naughty things. He watches to catch the children being "good" so he can tell Santa. He is just an observer - another pair of eyes for me. The children are excited each day to be the first to find him.
I do not like the idea of the elves that get in trouble. I never thought of Santa's elves that way. I think of them as his helpers.

[brookeroo]

There are tons of ideas on Pinterest.

[MarinaVanessa]

Our naughty little elf (Wiley) was found climbing our christmas tree today.

The kids love finding the little elf doing silly little things like that.

[Dardy]

We have Christopher at our house and he has a little notebook that he writes in with gold from his magic hand. He tells Santa if someone has been naughty that day. No one wants to see their name in the little book. They get up from naptime checking the notebook each day and if their name is not there, they celebrate/or straighten up if it is! We have a large home with many decorations and it takes a while to find him each day. Today he is riding in a large train my husband has set up.