Elf on the Shelf- A month of ideas!

Last year we had our very first visit from an elf. I had been avoiding the whole "Elf on a Shelf" scenario for a few years.... it just looked like soooooo much work- sooooo much pressure, and just ONE.MORE.THING to add to the craziness of the season.

But I finally decided to try it out after a friend raved (and raved) about what fun they had with it the last couple of years. She made it sound so wonderful!

And wonderful it was. 

I soon discovered that it just brought a little extra Christmas magic to our month. The kids were excited to find him each morning, and I caught them on occasion just talking to him. They would guess where he would be the next day, and it was so awesome to see their reactions each morning. It was also really fun to have our oldest son help with some of the set-ups. 

They have also continued taking about him all year. Seriously. The conversations/memories the kids have of our elf "Candycane" have been so fun. I love that what started out as something that I was pretty reluctant to embrace has become such a wonderful addition to our Christmas. It's not taking away from the true meaning of Christmas for us, it just adds a little more fun and excitement.

Last year, we decided that we wanted the set ups to be cute and funny, so none of our ideas really required any clean-up (except for the sugar angel, but that one was too cute to pass up!)

Some ideas came to us so easily and some were found at 11pm the night before on Pinterest. eek!

So, I thought I'd put up a list of what we did and hopefully it will give some of you some new ideas for this year.... you know, in case you were planning on jumping off the fence into the land of elves too!

:)

Dec 1- First Day, the kids found our elf hanging out on the top of our advent calendar. They named him Candycane.

Dec 2- Candycane brought the kids new Christmas jammies to open and wear all month.

Dec 3- A little (and yummy) reminder to "BE GOOD"

Dec 4- A fun game of dominos

Dec 5- Candycane heard our girls singing "Away in a Manger" the night before. The kids found him playing that song in the morning

Dec 6- Reading a Christmas story to his buddies

Dec 7- A game of hide and seek

Dec 8- Candycane covered himself in Christmas stickers and tried to blend in as a ornament

Dec 9- A fun little surprise for the kids when they went to grab their cereal spoons

Dec 10- Eating from one of the four food groups

Dec 11- A Sugar Angel

Dec 12- He brought new Christmas coloring books

Dec 13- Hanging out in the freezer with a new snowfriend

Dec 14-A new family board game for us to unwrap and play- Jenga!

Dec 15- A little hunt. The note says "I hid 4 Candycanes in the room, can you find them in 4 minutes?"

Dec 16- Hot Chocolate for breakfast

Dec 17- Paper chain countdown. Only 8 sleeps left!

Dec 18- Another game of hide and seek. This time in the cupboard

Dec 19- A marshmallow bath in the barbie house

Dec 20- Let's bake sugar cookies!

Dec 21- Watching his favorite movie "Elf"

Dec 22- Candycane (red and white) balloons in the hallway upstairs (woke up to giggles that morning!)

Dec 23- Sugar cube ice castle building

Dec 24- Time to say goodbye. A note from Candycane to the kids telling them what fun he had all month and promising to be back next year. The note said that Santa would lift the Christmas magic for a few minutes so that the kids could hug and kiss him goodbye. Sweetness.