I have a very imaginative 8 year old who still believes and I absolutely love that she does.
We have always had a naughty Elf that visits her and her big sisters sisters in December and they look forward to him arriving and getting up to mischief, he will be back this year but after 10 years of entertaining him I have kinda lost the love for his shit!!
Dd (who is animal mad) and I have been reading Alison Uttley’s stories for Christmas among other books and the imaginative stories of woodland animals celebrating Christmas, enchanted woods and the calm, Christmas traditions that have become a little lost are really sparking my joy and reminding of the the reasons I started Elf on the shelf in the 1st place.
I had bought her a little Maileg mouse in the sales last year for this Christmas, she is very sweet and is a Christmas edition and comes with a little stocking and I’m thinking of moving her gradually in over the course of December until she arrives on Christmas Eve.
While Dd still truly believes, I know there won’t be many more of it being this special and magical for her (and me) and it makes it seem all the more precious that we are going back exploring and enjoying reading about more simple Christmas’s where the joy and excitement didn’t come from things and people came together and were kind and generous despite having not a lot to give and I’d love to be able to reflect this instead of trashing the house with toilet roll and bastarding flour!!
What ideas can I use to make this fun, magical, nostalgic of times gone by and preferably non messy?
I have a little fairy door and thought that could appear and then items from her (the mouse) and also Christmas themed additions to her door and little house (wicker house shape storage tub I have seen in Zara)
Christmas tree appearing (little branch from our own) Mini mince meat pies to hand out, an activity such as stuffing oranges with cloves are some of the things I have thought of, can anyone help me with anymore?