We enjoyed our first December with an elf on the shelf. He brought a lot of joy with M&M tic tac toe, Kinder eggs, mini marshmallows roasting over a candle, and an angel made out of sugar. However, even during a pandemic, 24 days is enough and we are ready to move on to Christmas presents and a countdown to New Years Day.

Our elf gave us something positive, silly and festive to think about each morning. I loved waking up to our children excited about their surprise and/or talking about what the elf had done the night before. On rainy and cloudy days, an elf is great motivation for a kid to get out of bed in the morning.

The elf on the shelf definitely brought extra Christmas spirit into our home. And while we usually celebrate Christmas all month long with gingerbread houses, advent calendars, decorating the Christmas tree, singing Christmas carols and reading Christmas stories, having an elf brought a little bit of Christmas cheer into each and every day.

I’m unsure if we will do the elf on the shelf again next year. He was great during a pandemic when our lives have slowed down and we needed something positive and silly to distract us each morning. But usually our mornings are a bit more rushed and we wouldn’t always have time to fully enjoy him on school mornings.

Next year, if we do try this again, I would do a few things differently. I need to remember that order matters. Once our elf started giving our kids candy, books, and other small treats, it was not as exciting when he just did something silly. I also need to write down all of the ideas our kids had for what the elf could do. While the internet is full of simple ideas, it can be challenging to find ones that the kids think are more creative, fun and silly than the last. I think next year our older kids would be great help setting up the elf each night for their little sister.

Merry Christmas Eve!