This year is my first year doing The Elf on the Shelf with the kids.
Emma is 4 years old and Owen is 2.5 years old.
While Emma is the one that has been enjoying it the most, Owen also has fun depending on what the Elves do or bring that day.
Emma named her Elf Lulu and Owen really wanted to name his Elf PJ Masks, so we settled on PJ – lol!
Thinking of 25 different things to do with your Elves can be kind of hard, so I decided to share some easy Elf on the Shelf Ideas and what our Elves have been up to daily, in hopes that I can help some parents.
I will be updating this blog post until Christmas Day so that all of our Daily Elf Adventures are on here!
For now enjoy these easy Elf on the Shelf Ideas!
Let me know some ideas in the comments below! 🙂
For Day 1 I had the Elves bring Emma and Owen’s Advent Calendars.
We do Advent Calendars every year starting on December 1st, and so I thought it would be cute to have the Elves bring them for the kids.
I think that I will be doing this every year on December 1st!
Emma’s Advent Calendar | Owen’s Advent Calendar
For Day 2 I had the Elves toilet paper our tree.
This so far has been Emma’s favorite (I’m writing this on Day 11!!) and she still talks about it!
She prefers when the Elves cause mischief haha!
This one was super easy to do and I think that before the Elves go back to the North Pole until next year I’m going to have them put toilet paper somewhere else!
For Day 3 I had the Elves “eat” a bunch of our candy.
I had extra Halloween candy lying around so I used them.
First I was going to write a note with all the Skittles, but the mix of colors was bothering me so I had the idea of having the Elves separating the Skittles keeping the red and green and making a YUCK cup with the other colors.
Day 4 happened to fall on National Cookie Day so I had the Elves bring the kids personalized Elf Cookies.
I purchased them from a local baker and had the Elves give them to the kids.
For Day 5 I had the Elves take a Marshmallow Bath.
I got the kids’ rubber duckies from their tub and threw them in there too!
For Day 6 I was out of town so the Elves went to Grandma and Grandpa’s House.
I tried to keep things easy for my parents so I decided to have the Elves bring the kids a treat every day.
Today they brought the kids puzzles! Both Emma and Owen LOVE puzzles and to make it extra cute I had the Elves playing with a puzzle too!
Mini Puzzles for Girls | Mini Puzzles for Boys
For Day 7 I was still out of town.
I had the Elves bring the kids a treat – easy!
I put them hanging upside down because I thought it would be cute!
I got home late on Day 8 so my mom was still in charge of the Elves.
I found some cute and cheap Santa Minnie and Santa Mickey little bobble head things and I thought it would be cute for the Elves to bring them since I was at Disney!
Minnie & Mickey Bobble Head Set
We love Family Movie Night so for Day 9 I had the Elves bring the An Elf’s Story DVD along with some cute new Popcorn Buckets!
For Day 1o I was so lazy that I did the easiest thing I could find online haha!
I stuck the Elves in the blinds and wrote:
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
We go stuck in the blinds
Coming back to you!
Both Emma and Owen love Elena of Avalor so for Day 11 I used one of our Elena Doll’s dress for Lulu.
(I had to cut apart her hands to put the dress on!)
I put Lulu on Skylar, and then I had Elena sit with PJ – haha!
This is easy and can be done with any of your child’s favorite toys!
Elena & Skylar Set | Elena of Avalor Doll
Day 12 was MESSY!!!!
I have seen these “snow” angel elves all over the internet so I figured I would do my own, and oh my gosh – flour is harder to work with than I thought!
I wanted to be very honest because I wish I knew how clumpy and not smooth it would be to work with/spread on the table!!!
At the same time, this was super easy to do, and the kids LOVED it! 🙂
Another way I have seen is using sugar or sprinkles!
Emma asked to sleep over my parents’ house and I said yes not even thinking about her missing out on seeing the Elves the next morning! 🙁
I felt like this was the perfect opportunity to be lazy with what the Elves did and so I just had them have a Sleepover Party in Emma’s Room.
I purchased some Barbie Christmas Pajamas for less than $5 and put them on the Elves.
They fit perfectly and are a lot more affordable than the actual licensed Elf on the Shelf accessories.
PJ is wearing his pajamas too, but I just had him only wear the shorts, so you can’t see it because he is under the covers! 😛
For Day 14 we got pets! 🙂
These Elf Pets are super cute, and the best part is that the kids can touch them!
I made it clear that the Elf Pets will NOT be flying to the North Pole with the Elves every night lol, that way it’s so much easier to just let the kids play with them and leave them wherever without having to worry about moving them or including them in whatever we are doing with the Elves that morning.
On Day 15 I had the Elves bring everything we need to make gingerbread ornaments.
When I taught preschool I used to make these with my students!
All you need is apple sauce and ground cinnamon, and then optional extras to decorate!
I chose to get some Googly Eyes and Buttons, and I’ll either hand draw lips or get some yarn and glue it to make a smile!
Googly Eyes Pack | Mini Buttons Pack
Do You Want to Build a Snowman?
For Day 16 I had Elsa, Anna, Kristoff and Olaf help me out.
I got a pack of 3 snowman kits, made one example snowman from the Elves, and let had 1 kit for each kid to make their own.
These kits are super cute, they come with mold-able foam and eyes, nose, mouth and arms to complete your snowman.
Do You Want to Build a Snowman Kit
So for Day 17 I made a huge cute candy platter and I was going to have the Elves bring it for the kids, but since they have been fighting a lot I made up something about the Elves getting sick when kids aren’t being nice! LOL!
I wrote a note saying that when boys and girls misbehave the Elves get really sick because they get their magic from kindness and happiness and since the kids have been fighting that made them sad and sick! 🙁
This was super easy to do because I just used items I already had around the house!
If your kids are perfect and never fight or misbehave you can still use this idea but maybe say that your Elf got a cold from the North Pole since it’s super chilly there?
Since I had already made the candy platter, for day 18 I had the Elves bring it for the kids to “sweeten” them up!
I got all the candy from Target!
The marshmallow Snowman faces and snowflake are mug/cocoa topper marshmallows, the rest are regular candies in Christmas colors – M&Ms, DOTS, Hershey Kisses, etc.
For Day 19 the Elves decided to have a party in the tub – LOL!
They brought some friends along for the fun too!
The little mini floaties are actually drink coasters that I got on Amazon.
They have a lot of options, but I liked this variety pack I got because I love the look of all the different styles they had, making the tub party look extra fun and colorful!
For Day 20 I went the gross, but silly route cause ya girl is running out of ideas, lol!
I took the toilet from Emma’s Barbie Dream House and put a Hershey’s Kiss inside it.
Then I had PJ wrap Lulu in toilet paper to be extra mischievous.
