Elf on the Shelf

[hollyxann]

It's that time of year! Time for those sneaky elves to return.
How do you have your elf arrive? When does your elf come?

I told Kennedy last week hers will return sometime after Thanksgiving. However she has been acting pretty bad the last few days and so I told her that her elf may not come, or that she may be late. Last year was our first year of doing it and we kept it SUPER simple and I was slightly too lazy to deal with it lol. I didn't want to over do it, or have to live up to making every year awesome. Lol This year I want to do a little more with it though.

I figured we could share our stories or ideas here. I have a ton of stuff on a pinterest board for it too, I'll come back with the link for my board.

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[carrie1977]

No Elf here....I forget about the tooth fairy and that's a one night deal. My elf would be pretty boring.

[kristalund]

We have an elf...the Kiddos are already talking about it!! I am hoping this year will help with my 4 year old DS. Last year the Elf helped with potty training.
I think this is our 3rd year.
Here are some of our faves:
TPing the Cmas Tree
Replacing our stockings with everyone's undies
train (use Kids' toy cars, etc) around the tree
Elf reads to other toys
Elf spells something like Be Good or I am Back in mini M&Ms
creates cards
snowball fight
photoshoot

[MamaBee]

I found Christopher Pop-in-kins at Goodwill and really want to get away from the creepy red elf! When I ran it by J that Santa sent a note that Elfon and Landon were retiring, and a new elf was being assigned... J was super upset by it... but now he is kind of on board, probably because his grandpa is retiring in December. So this should be interesting.

[LeeAndra]

Tracy Ducar always has incredible elf antics so hopefully she will pop into this thread to share.

[nesser1981]

This will be our 6th year! I'm so tired of coming up with new and creative things.

I'm still debating if Skippy will be coming on the 1st to bring breakfast and then come back a little later in the month. Or just come around the 10th.

We was starting to make toys last year for Santa, so he could be busy this year.

[rach3975]

We do a Hanukkah version (Mensch on the bench), but he's only here for the 8 days of Hanukkah. Good thing, since I'd be an epic fail at doing it for 25 days.

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[farrijc]

Originally Posted by nesser1981

This will be our 6th year! I'm so tired of coming up with new and creative things.

This!! My oldest is 13 this year, so I feel like I've been doing it forever. I love how excited they get about it, but I don't love that they get up even earlier than normal to see where he is... thankfully, that seems to be getting a little better as they get older.

[scrap2day]

I have some pictures from a couple of years in my gallery.

Favorites have been the zip line, replacing the family photos with photos of himself and the "bubble bath" in mini marshmallows.

[hollyxann]

I really don't want to get overly creative because then every year hereafter I have to come up with equally awesome and creative ideas lol and let's face it I'm lazy, a mom and forgetful when it comes to the damn elf.

[britaneejean]

We LOVE our elf! We usually rotate through the same antics every year but our girls love seeing it. We usually have a North Pole breakfast the day after Thanksgiving. I still haven't planned it for this year though. And since we moved, we have a bunch of new places he could hang out so we're all excited!

[Sherri Tierney]

The first year ours arrived in the mailbox in a big envelope with a letter explaining why they were there. The next year they showed up at our hotel when we were on vacation... knocking at the door. Every year they arrive differently. Often they will set up a special 'North Pole' breakfast for that first day they are here (or do it the last day).

I don't have official 'Elf on the Shelf' elves. We have plush elves from Fiesta toys. We started with 2, boy and a girl for my boy and girl. Now we have the original elves, 2 cousin elves and twin baby brother/sister elves. It was funny around here last year keeping up with 6 elves at times. Some came and went though, they didn't all stay the whole time. There was a whole drama when the twins came up missing from the North Pole. My son was so excited when he found them in our house. He wanted to immediately call Santa and tell him! LOL This will be like our 8th year with elves, I think. I've went all out most years. I guess last year I got a little lazy because my (barely) 11 year old has said that he hopes our elves are not boring this year. We are in a new house with new places to do things, so I'm hoping to use that to my advantage.

My 14 year old said that she wouldn't be upset if the elves didn't come this year, because she's too old now. My 11 year old still totally believes in them. She did until this year when she started high school. LOL

[tjscraps]

Our Thanksgiving was in October, so we wait until Dec. 1 or a little bit later to bring the elf back - a few less days we have to think about! lol

[JennNtheBoys]

This will be our 3rd year with our elves.... I have to admit that I love them and always try to out do myself every year. Our first year we only had one Elf.... Farkle. Then last year I was in a Co-Op group that was selling Elves for $5 so I decided Farkle needed a little help keeping an eye on these guys, so we got a Girl, Finkle to keep things interesting I liked having two Elves because instead of doing mischievous things to my house, they played a lot of pranks on each other which in the end kept things a little more simple. Our Elves arrive on the 1st of December.... they bring with them the boys' advent calendars.... My boys are big into following Pop Culture and headline news/trends, so I am thinking the elves may need some orange face paint and a sign that says they are here to "make Christmas great again" LOL

I just had a thought.... I guess I need to spend some time up in the attic today going through the Christmas Boxes and find the little buggers! Tomorrow they will be here!! YIKES!

[YepBrook]

I am so grateful we don't do Elf on the Shelf. I just know I would fail miserably at it! I can't even be trusted to successfully play the Tooth Fairy! LOL

[wendyp]

here no elf eather, and same problem with the tooth fairy.

[Kjersti]

Now that my girls are older the Elf brings something fun every day - lipgloss, mascara, cookies, scarves, giftcards, etc.