Elf on the shelf 2022

[IDontDrinkTea]

Im trying to get ahead and plan what our elf will be up to in December and I thought I’d start a thread to see if anyone wants to join in the chat.

I’m totally unapologetic about this: I love doing elf on the shelf, I love seeing my daughters face every morning as she laughs at whatever our elf has been up to.

If you don’t like the elf / it’s a waste / unnecessary / didn’t exist when you were a kid / blah blah blah, please don’t clog up the thread moaning about it. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but please let this be a positive thread.

So would anyone like to share any plans, favourite ideas, things that have worked well previously?!

I enjoy doing The Elf and this year considering getting a girl elf so they can get up to even more mischief! I use Pinterest a lot for ideas or the elf brings little early gifts wrapped up some mornings if they’ve done something really well at school.

If your child is on pack lunches wrap the contents in Christmas paper, it makes for a lovely surprise at lunchtime and all the kids get excited. I did this for both my dcs and I got to witness their reactions as I’m a lunchtime supervisor. Just don’t send the elf.

When dcs were small we did the advent book thing and the elf loved decorating the tree with pants after reading aliens in underpants save panta Claus.

Stick goggle eyes on all the family photos.

Wrapping the Christmas tree in loo paper
Abseiling down the wall
'Pinching' the sweets - leave wrappers and a smear of chocolate around an open selection tub
Bringing Kevin the carrot & co
Leaving them a Christmas book to read
Opening the mince pies
Leaving flour footprints by the Xmas tree
Getting wrapped up in ribbons and Xmas bows
Gift wrapping the front door
Leaving ingredients for a hot choc station
Writing in lipstick on the bathroom mirror
Swapping toothbrushes for candy canes

Our elf is bringing his wife this year, so I need to find ideas for two elves!

Mine wrote 'I peed on the floor' in frozen peas. Naughty elf! Biscuit tin out and few crumbs on the side. Trying on all DD's jewellery, also trying on ballet gear. We hav a couple of smaller elves too- got the musical instruments out and formed a band!Lots of fun!!

If you have Our Generation toys and accessories or Barbie stuff they’re a great size for the elf.

I’d recommend getting some ziploc bags and putting any accessories you need into them now, making a list and setting an alarm on your phone to remember. The joy wears very thin when you’ve woken with a start at 4am and you’re stumbling about in the dark with the bloody elf!

This was my list of ideas

Easy

1. Stick googly eyes over elf eyes
2. Toilet paper on shower rail
3. Hiding in the toilet rolls
4. Riding the OG horsel
5. Sleeping in tissue box
6. Snow angel using flour
7. Kissing angel on Christmas tree
8. Rolling down stairs inside a toilet roll
9. Trapped under a glass

10. Stuck inside toy candy catcher 11. Driving in the Barbie Car

Medium difficulty

1. Toothpaste snowman on bathroom mirror
2. Dolls queuing up at ice cream van scene
3. Ball pool (use coloured pom-poms from craft drawer)
4. Snow flake toilet tissues
5. Upside down pictures
6. Slumber party using socks as sleeping bags
7. Elf in boots
8. Feeding ducks in bath with bread
9. Trying on doll clothes in dd’s room

10. I ❤️U in candy canes

Forward planning required

1. Paper elves with cut out photo faces

1. Playing elf twister
2. Sledging down bannisters
3. Astronaut in tinfoil floating from solar system mobile in ds’s room
4. Playing Xs and Os using gift bows
5. Using gift bows to make a climbing wall
6. Turn Christmas tree into snowman with toilet paper
7. Treasure hunt
8. Gift inside a ball of wool

10. Microwave popcorn

My favourite last year was a North Pole Breakfast "the elf" set up, we used the star shaped Lidl Christmas biscuits, bowls of cereal with sprinkles and then in the middle was a Pandoro cake (3D star shaped) "the elf" had sprinkled icing sugar everywhere, mini footprints, garlands all over the table. The children loved it, although that was an awful lot of sugar for first thing.

Last year we left eggs out and sprinkled them with magic sprinkles. By morning they had turned into kinder eggs. Planting tic-tacs in magic sprinkles and by morning they had grown into candy canes. All elf’s magic, little one absolutely loved it. Naughty elf also drew moustaches on everyone whist we slept!

I LOVE some of these.
The DC are now about to finish primary school but still love and will fully expect their elf back this year.

Ideas that went down well with them were

Hanging upside down from banister tangled up in tinsel/lights
Playing cards with the Barbies
Watching “Elf” DVD with the DVD cover and remote control beside him on sofa
He turned up on Dec 1st, stuck climbing through the letterbox (another year he was discovered climbing in the upstairs window)
On Christmas Eve he wrote a letter to Santa in curly writing on the laptop - a report on how things had gone in our house and to be careful as we had got a new puppy.

Fantastic!

Watching, first year my DC will be excited by this!

We had to use salad tongs to get him in from the window as you can’t touch him.

Our elves always arrive with a North Pole breakfast. In 2020 they went a bit mad and turned the play room into a grotto!

One that goes down well is riding the robot hoover 😂

My DH takes elf on a shelf to a whole new level 🤦‍♀️ one year he wrapped the entire living room in Tin foil - The telly, sofa, mirror, lights, toys.

He's knocked the Xmas tree over before

Draws on their faces when they are asleep

Takes selfies with them when they are sleeping

Sets up all the toys in the living room

Lines up all the shoes like a train

He's held queen Elsa hostage with masking tape

Smeared poo (chocolate) over the toilet seat

There are others - but I do regret setting the bar of naughty elf so high because our kids now expect it every year for all eternity

Love love love The Elf’s!

I personally don’t like the Elf on A Shelf, I think he looks creepy, when my DDs were younger I got them the plush ones. Only last year did I allow one of the plastic faces Elf’s in my house. I did an Elf themed tree and hid not only Elf on the shelf in there but the Elf mates too. My DDs has already bought herself a new Elf she’s keeping with her 24/7.

the other Elf’s get up to lots of cheeky mischief, we have the original 2 plush ones, boy and girl, baby one I bought in homebargins when I had my youngest. Now she has her own girl one, again from home bargains, we have a blue Alzheimer one I found in a charity shop and a new cute one I bought a few weeks ago in a charity shop. We also have a giant home bargains one. AND a collection of the Lidl ones, so a fair few 🤣 The Lidl ones are not involved in the main mischief, though occasionally get dragged in.

some things they get up to:

Conga line with other toys through the house
Nativity scene
Baby Yoda floated them in the air
Hop scotch on the kitchen tiles
Racing the barbie and other dolls cars with spectators on the side
We made a glittery Elf jail to put any naughty ones in
Doc McStuffin was checking them over for injuries
We bought Kevin the carrot and served him and his family up on plates for the elf’s
Caught in the snack bin or eating popcorn watching a movie
Playing board games
Having a makeover
Doing crafts and getting bits accidentally glued to them
Lots of house escape attempts
Doing gymnastics on the gymnastics mat

The Elf’s also bring Christmas treats, novelty bits usually. I’ve got tickets to Elf on stage as a surprise, that day the Elf’s with bring some Buddy the Elf T-shirts as a clue to the surprise. When we get home they will also surprise my DDs with a Elf monopoly version for us to play.

They always arrive with the advent calendars.

We don’t tend to do really naughty or gross things, especially where mess is concerned, it’s about them being cheeky not naughty.

The hardest part is trying to dig my oldest DDs elf out at night, she tries to hide him and burry him so he can’t get up to anything. When I say bury I mean she will put several layers of pjs, onesies on and stuff the elf in her clothes, or put him in a bag, in a bag in a bag so he can’t escape 🤦‍♀️

I’m not sure if this is allowed so admin delete if not but I have an Etsy shop with printable Santa kids reward charts perfect for the elf on the shelf to bring one morning to keep them off the naughty list!

www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1326417001/

I'm here for the elf fun - don't have any suggestions. Need to up my elf game!

Poundland have got a whole range of elf on the shelf stuff this time

If anyone would like a photo of an elf playing in the snow at the North Pole...

We’ve done Elf on the shelf for about 7 years now…..

a good one is Elf On Strike - a note attached to a door saying because they hadn’t cleaned the room (will be doing this for homework this year) confiscated advent calendars until room was tidy.

changing duvet overnight to Christmas bedding is a good one but can be tricky if you have light sleepers.

easy to do:
faces on fruit, eggs, food
hiding in school bags
’wearing’ kids Christmas jumpers
movie night - crumbs of popcorn & remote on sofa
unwell elf - couple of scrunched tissues, bottle of calpol and tucked under a blanket
making a mess in the toilet with loo roll everywhere
Making choc coins - grating real coins and choc coins at the bottom

We have baby elves. DS put them in an empty crisp packet for time out. Hell awaken to find they sought revenge on the big elf....

Love it @Caszekey haven’t introduced babies here yet, maybe a future year….

Some pretty easy ones guaranteed to delight/horrify:

Put a drop of food colouring in the milk so they have elf milk for breakfast. You can also draw on the bottle so it looks like an elephant.

Swap their usual breakfast for whatever sugar-filled multi-coloured cereal they know you’d never buy them (Home Bargains is good for Lucky Charms etc.) or throw some mini marshmallows into the box.

Empty their underwear drawer and leave them only a pair of someone else’s pants (doll/toddler/dad pants work well). You can either have it that everyone has to swap pants to get theirs back or they have to find where theirs are hidden.

Hide the spoons so they have to eat their cereal with a fork.

Decorate the Christmas tree with their pants.

I second googly eyes on family photos.

Dr Elf - stick plasters on dolls/teddies and wrap them up in bandages. Great if your child has a dr kit.