One Complicated Elf on The Shelf ISO Creative ideas.

by admin on December 3, 2009

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Our Elf hiding in the bathroom windowstill

Our Elf hiding in the bathroom windowstill

Last year we received our Elf on The Shelf from a good family friend. I have to say it truly was one of the best gifts ever.

For those not familiar with the tale the Elf on The Shelf-  he is sent by Santa (with a story book) to watch over little girls and boys during the days leading up to Christmas. Each night he flies home to the north pole to report back on how good (or bad) their child has been. In the morning, this silly Elf hides himself in various places around the house for the children to find him in the morning.

I’ve been hearing lots of cute stories on twitter about kids and their elves. Some caught whispering their Christmas List to the Elf, others finding their elves next to a picture of the family with funny faces drawn on the frame with dry erase marker. People get so creative with these little guys and I cant help but feel like we need to step up our Elf-i-ness in this house.

Prime example: Most give their elves  silly names like Jasper and Clyde… my son named his “Elf THE Shelf” – you see what I mean?

And then yesterday Mr.Complicated came home with elaborate stories of what his co-workers do with their Elves.

One places the box with the book and elf sitting on top on the front porch, he then rings the bell and runs back inside – giving the kids the impression that the Elf rang the bell to announce his arrival…

Another, puts army men parachutes on the elves and fixes them up in their tree outside with a note saying how they parachuted there from Santa’s sleigh (While this is cute, the non-child like mind of mine can’t help but think— but doesn’t the Elf fly? why does he need Santa’s Sleigh and a parachute?)

Anyway, ours showed up this year just sitting in our tree with the book beneath it, and every night just hides from place to place… don’t get me wrong– my son LOVES it, but now I feel like I need to do more.

Do you have an Elf on The Shelf? What are some of the fun things you’ve done with it?  Give me some ideas!

Related Complicated Simplicity:

  • mdb
    Our elf drew mustaches on our girls (and mom and dad) while they slept and then drew mustaches and beards on lots of our framed family pictures...easy to clean off with windex! the girls thought it was a hoot! when the girls woke up, the elf was hanging on one of the framed pictures. also, drawing red reindeer noses on the girls was a hit too.
  • Blondie
    I will confess that not all my ideas are original but I thought I would still share them. One night the elf and other various stuffed animals were found with crumbs of Christmas cookies and other sweet treat remnants sitting around our table. They each also had a little milk left in their cups. I used the kids dishes.

    One night the kids followed a Christmas wrapping paper trail through the house to a wrapping area where the elf had left a huge mess of paper, bows, and tags, and their were 2 small presents wrapped for the kids.

    One night the kids woke to a huge parade of stuffed animals going throughout the whole house. I can't believe the kids had 100+ stuffed animals between the both of them.

    Tonight the elf and some other Christmas stuffed animals are going to go through the kids' drawers and wear various articles of clothing and wear them in silly places.
  • Carla
    My daughter's Elf "Glenn" toilet papered her room. My daughter got such a hoot from it. He's switched her sock drawer to her underwear drawer and put her toothpaste in the refrigerator -he was sitting in the frig holding on to it. By the way, those $40 elf kits from Borders are way too expensive. Our elf is a cutie little stuffed guy - $6.99 from a Hallmark. You can be as creative as your mind will allow. But forgo the pricey verson! Merry Christmas!
  • Also, a friend's Elf was found in their family's car-- and the car was parked in the garage BACKWARDS.
  • One morning the kids found our Elf ("Bubbles") had made a pyramid out of an entire bag of jumbo marshamallows. He had half-eaten some of them too.

    Another morning he was found reading a story to a dozen or so stuffed animals around the Christmas tree.
  • Mommy of 3
    We have an elf and LOVE him! My children named him Mr. Pickle Wickle and we have only had him a few nights but we just love having him. One night he bungie jumped from our very high cabinet top and we found him hanging up side down from the bungee cord. One night he took the light bulbs out of the chandelier in the kitchen and hung upside down from it. One night he got out some cookies and the game chutes and ladders and was found in the morning sitting on a bucket at the kitchen table with Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and Barbie playing the game. My children LOVE him (and so does Mommy!!)
  • Nancy
    My boys are 3 and 4. They named our elf Ernie. Ernie hasn't pulled any pranks at our house, but the first thing my boys do when they wake up is to search the house for him! Ernie always hides up high, because my boys would probably forget that "the magic wears off if you touch him." Maybe Ernie will be mischievious when my boys are a little older! Right now, we focus on him letting Santa know if they have been "naughty or nice." They don't want Ernie to catch them being naughty!
  • mommyof2
    WE HAVE ELFonso, and Missy as our elves and they had a bottle of water they shared with 2 straws in it and a donut they were eating on the top of the kitchen counter.
  • AJ OM Mom
    My 6 year old son named our elf Gingerbread, we're calling him Gingie for short. So far this year Gingie has caused the following mischief... he was sitting on the ceiling fan and hung several christmasy items from the fan blades, the next night he was sitting in a vase on top of the kitchen cabinets and he took everything off the fireplace mantle and scattered it in the living room, the next night he landed on a plant ledge with one of the BIG tonka trucks he took up there and all the other cars, trucks and trains the boys have were in a circle around the Christmas tree, the next night he was sitting on top of the tree and all their underwear was hanging on the tree, last night he was sitting in one of the boys' stockings and there were LOTS of hershey kiss wrappers, hershey bar wrappers, empty pop cans, empty cookie containers and an empty bag of M&M's on the floor under him, he even had chocolate on his face!

    Good luck Moms!!
    AJ & OM Mom
  • Jennifer
    Our daughter's favorite Elf on the Shelf prank this year was when Darby (our elf) pooped in the potty and didn't flush. Four raisins or craisins make PERFECT elf poops!
    Darby has also hung their underwear from the tree and hung candy canes from the light fixtures. I'm quickly running out of ideas, so I think Darby's next prank will be the dawing on the picture frame!!!
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