I bet if you’ve been on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook today you’ll have seen at least one mention of a Christmas Elf. I know I’ve seen at least twenty but that’s probably because someone added me to a Christmas elf Facebook group without me noticing 😉
In case you don’t know, a Christmas elf is an elf who comes to live with your family for the run up to Christmas. He keeps an eye on everyone and then at night he reports to Santa how well behaved everyone’s been. He might be a little mischievous and he’ll more than likely hide somewhere different each morning when he gets back from seeing Santa so you’ll need to hunt for him when you get up.
We got our elf from the lovely Mary who blogs over at Keynco and he’s been causing mischief since he got here – starting with eating one of the selection boxes we had in, although it clearly gave him a poorly tummy judging by how we found him this morning.
There’s a site selling ‘Elf on a Shelf’ sets for almost £30 which is lovely if you want to buy one but completely not necessary if you just want to join in with the spirit of the Christmas Elves. As I said, ours is hand knitted by Mary but last year we just bought a cuddly toy elf from Tesco for £3. You could use anything really as I’m sure elves come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes.
Whilst I don’t think you need to buy the expensive elves, the website you can buy them from has some great ideas for what to do with your elf and you can register your elf on their site regardless of where you bought him from or what sort of elf he is. You just need to register yourself with your email and then you can print out an adoption certificate and a letter from Santa.
It’s a lot of fun but we don’t take it too seriously, it’s just another family tradition that I think we’ll still be doing when the kids are old enough to leave home but really, that’s what Christmas is all about isn’t it?
Just in case you are looking to buy one, Ikea do a lovely elf for just £4 if you’re passing (or of you’re not and you just need an excuse to go) although he’s very Grinch-like!
