Elf on the Shelf Ideas

The Elf on the Shelf is a beloved Christmas tradition. Santa has lots of little helpers who help make Christmas a very special time of year. His scout elves serve as his eyes and ears around the world helping manage his naughty and nice lists. Your Scout Elf has Christmas magic so that he can fly to the North Pole every night to report about his day to Santa Claus. Every morning the Scout Elf will come back and move to a different location in your home, getting into all kinds of mischief. Children love to wake up and search the house for their Elf on the Shelf.

Or at least that’s how your kids will see it. You, on the other hand, will have to move the Elf every night, coming up with cute ways to stage him. I came up with a few ideas here to get you started. Hopefully, these will give you some inspiration to take your little Scout Elves on countless adventures!

Our Elf, Clyde, always shows up the day after we put up our Christmas tree. He is normally sitting or hanging on an ornament and he usually writes a note that says he’s excited to be back! If your children are especially naughty one day (or you just forgot to move him) their Elf might not have enough good Christmas magic to fly to the North Pole. So he will be in the same place the next morning.

Some things our Elf has gotten into are coloring a Christmas picture (I worked hard on that picture), zip lining to the Christmas tree (great use for all the fishing line my husband doesn’t use), playing doctor with a baby doll (after I searched for 20 minutes to find all of my kid’s doctor toys), and making cereal angels (just one more mess for me to clean up). One year Clyde left my daughter some muffin mix, he even took everything she would need to bake them out of the cabinets. He’s so nice!

Although some nights I would rather flush the Elf down the toilet than to figure out where I’m going to put him next, I really do have fun coming up with new ideas for him. And, of course, I love when my daughter wakes up and runs around the house looking for him! I love that her little innocent heart truly believes that her Elf on the Shelf flies to the North Pole every night and comes back to find a new place to ‘hide’.

Other cute ideas are dressing your Elf up like a cowboy/cowgirl, writing on a picture with dry erase marker, putting him in a car with Barbie because he wanted to show her the North Pole (ours crash landed on top of a cabinet) and have him reading a book to other toys. There are so many cute ideas that you can find online just by googling Elf on the Shelf ideas. I hope that your Elf brings your family a little extra Christmas spirit this year! 

Looking for more Holiday Cheer? Check out our Christmas & Holiday Guide!