My tips for surviving Elf on a Shelf

Here we are again, one sleep away from the arrival of the Elf on a Shelf.  Some parents are excited and some are gloomy.  I'm kind of in between.  While I sometimes wonder what I was thinking when I agreed to have the elf come visit, I sit here typing this out and am giddy with excitement over his arrival tomorrow.  Does that even make sense? LOL 

It makes the season feel like Christmas all month long for my son.  Instead of anxiously waiting the one day of the month, he gets excited about every day of the month, now that we have the Elf on a Shelf. 

While it can be a daunting task for me, in the end I am really happy I chose to have the elf.  However, I do know it can be a source of stress for parents too.  So, today I am going to give you the run down of what our elf on a shelf, Jingle Bells, will be up to this year along with some tips that I learned last year.  And a few photos of last years elf movements.  This will hopefully give you a few ideas as to what you can do with your elf. 

First up, to make things a little easier, I started out with a very important rule for the Elf.  I stated that he was not allowed to go in any room where people were sleeping...so that meant that nothing will happen in Caleb's room or bathroom (since the bath is connected to his bedroom). 

I don't want any slip ups during this whole thing and because Caleb is a very light sleeper, tip toeing through his room is not a good move.  So stating this rule out loud, Caleb won't be expecting Jingle Bells to show up and be in his room during any of this.

That's the only rule I have, so now let's get started with the rest....

So these are divided among a few categories.  The "arrival and exit of the elf", "elf fun during the week", "weekend elf adventures" and finally "elf emergency movements" for those times when you need a quick movement in an emergency situation.  We all have those, so it's best to be prepared.

First up is The Arrival and Departure of Jingle Bells the Elf:

• For the arrival this year, Jingle Bells will show up at the house on the mantle with his new found pet (the St. Bernard) and the movie "Santa's St. Bernards Save Christmas"  This one is easy because it will have the elf's arrival letter and the dog.  If you are doing the movie, I'd let your child wake up to the movie on a weekend, so you can have a family movie night that evening and watch the Elf and Pet movie together.

• The elf's last night with us will be a letter saying good bye and then I found a Pez candy dispenser that has an elf on it for a going away present for Caleb from Jingle Bells to remember him by.

Elf Adventures During the Week: 

This will be easy movements from the elf that can be quick to execute and fun for my son when he wakes up in the morning.  Caleb is in the 2nd grade, so we have to get up and get dressed for school, so I can't have him spending thirty minutes looking for a hidden elf, but I have to get up early so I can't stay up late either, waiting on him to fall asleep for the elf to move.  So that's where the following movements will get me the best of both worlds.

• I bought two outfits for Jingle Bells at the Liberty Trade's Days, last weekend.  One is a sweater that has a Pikachu (Pokemon) face on it.  And since Caleb is really in to Pokemon, I will have Jingle Bells and his new sweater sitting amongst all the other collection of Pokemon's that Caleb has.  

• The other outfit I bought for the elf was a taco costume.  This one caught me by surprise, because I wouldn't have thought of such a cute costume....but we have our Taco Tuesday nights about every other week...so this one will be saved for Caleb to wake up to on a Tuesday morning, with the elf in his taco suit sitting on top of the taco shells in the kitchen.

• An easy weekday movement this year will be that Jingle Bells will fill up Caleb's school shoes with Hershey Kisses.  This just makes me laugh when I think about how Caleb will react to this one....I don't know why, but I just giggle from thinking about it.

• Since we will have the St. Bernard dog with us this year for the Elf, I have decided to have him eating out of our dog, Scooby's, food bowl.  This also sets me up for tomorrow night.

• The next night I will have the elf and the dog both taped to the wall and a note that reads "Scooby did it" as a punishment from Scooby for eating his food.  Be sure to use painters tape so it won't peel any paint off the wall when you remove it.

• Again, I will be set for night where the Elf gets down the dry erase board from the fridge and writes "good list and naughty list" on the top and continues to list each member of the family under the "good" section and Scooby (the dog) under the "naughty" section

• I found the Sno Ball Cupcakes from my local grocery store last week so this will be set out on the table as a snow ball breakfast for Caleb from the Elf.  Of course you don't want your kid eating a bunch of cakes for breakfast right before school, so he can share one with mommy (or if your kids have siblings they can split one and share) and then have their regular breakfast waiting for them.  It's a fun and unexpected treat that only and "elf" would think to give for breakfast. :)

• I like to do some of the elf movements in our hall bathroom in our house.  A couple different reasons for this, first off, it's not the bathroom that Caleb uses so he won't come here when nature calls during the "movement of the elf" and second, you can lock the door and do the setup for elf fun in privacy.  So that's why I will have the elf and his dog set up with silly string sprayed all over each other and a can set up next to each one, so it looks like they have been having a silly string fight.  The bonus with the bathroom is that it will be an easy clean up because there isn't much to ruin in our hall bathroom

• Another easy bathroom one will be to have "Elves are Awesome" written with dry erase marker on the bathroom mirror.

• One last bathroom one would be that the elf and dog are playing tic tac toe on the mirror with dry erase markers.  Again these in the bathroom are good because you can lock the door for setup.

• If you have those gold star stickers or any stickers you find in the school supply section of your store, you can have your elf look as though he has stuck them all over himself.  This will make for a simple and funny movement for your child to wake up to.  

• We love books in this house, so Caleb will most definitely be waking up to our elf reading a new Christmas book and a note suggesting that this was the best book EVER and Caleb must read this tonight.

• One night I will take the photos out of two frames and have the elf and dog sitting behind the frame as though they are the pictures.  

• Another simple weeknight one will be to have him set up playing the Xbox in Caleb's play room or you could have him sitting on the couch with the remote control watching tv and eating popcorn (I'd pre-pop the popcorn or buy it in the bag.  Anyone else come running when they smell fresh popped popcorn like my family?)

Let's talk about the Weekend Elf Fun:

These will be more advanced thought and prep that are great for the weekends, when you don't have to get up early, you can stay up a little later and really set the elf up for success the next morning.  These are also going to be things that may take longer for Caleb to find or do, so he can take his time and not have to worry about being late for school.

• The first one for the weekend will be that the elf leaves a gingerbread house kit for Caleb to decorate.  If this comes on a Saturday, he won't have to wait until after school to decorate it.

• Hide and seek candy canes are another fun one.  Just hide 6 or 10 candy canes in one room of the house (or more areas, whatever you feel is good for your kiddos) and write a note saying that they are hidden and to find all of them.  This again would be difficult to do before school so I save it for the weekend.

• Toilet papering the tree would be a good one for the weekend.  It will take a little extra time to accomplish so you can do that after the kids go to bed and then not have to be pressed to wake up early and be productive the next day.

• Another one that Jingle Bells is doing on the weekend this year will be to put crepe paper strips and tape them across the door way.  If your child has his door closed at night you could do this on the outside of his door.  But this will excite Caleb when he busts through the crepe paper to get out of his room or down the hallway.

• One that will need a bit of prep ahead of time, will be to have paper snowflakes cut out (save the scraps) and set the elf up as though he cut a bunch of the snow flakes out himself.  Have a pair of child scissors, the snowflakes and paper scraps all around him on the table.  

Let's talk about the conundrums that can come with these elves.  Sometimes I can stay up later than Caleb and put the elf in fun places, but this isn't always the case.  So last year, I decided to start keeping the elf in my room in a drawer each night so when I got up in the morning I could move him to wherever I needed him to be.  I will be doing that again this year too.  

But there were times that Caleb would wake up before me and I'd still have this elf in my room and no place for Caleb to find him.  So I devised up a plan for times such as these.

• The first one is to have him hanging from a light fixture or door knob of some sort.  This was my "go to" plan for when Caleb woke up before me and the elf was in my room instead of his hiding spot.  Our laundry room is right outside out bedroom so when Caleb couldn't find the elf, and came to my room, I ushered Caleb out of my room and told him I'd "help" him look for the elf. I told Caleb to look in the play room and I'd look in the kitchen.  I then ran to the room, took the elf and hung him on the door knob in the laundry room, which is right off of my bedroom.  

• Another time last year, I had just ran completely out of ideas and was too tired to think of anything.  So I stuck him up against the wall with the Highlights magazine opened and had the "hidden pictures" page open and the pen in the elf's hand.  

• This year's spot will be hiding in the wreath in our kitchen.

• I have also decided a backup one will be to have both the elf and the dog sleeping in our dog, Scooby's, bed.  You can't get much easier than that. 

• One last quick one will be to have him hanging from my rear view mirror in my car.

While these aren't as fun as the Hershey kisses in the shoes or the Christmas book, it will still give you a break from this elf and it will give you a peach of mind knowing that you have a plan B ready to go for anything that comes up.  And to me that peace of mind is worth a million bucks in my book.

And there you have it....my ideas for the arrival and departure of this year's Elf on the Shelf.  I hope you found it useful, even if it's one idea, I hope it works. I think with a little planning it will be fun for your children and you as well.  

I wish you and your family the happiest and peaceful of holidays this year.  

-Kim