I know this may seem early, but I'm trying to save you the time, money and hassle of buying an Elf on the Shelf.
Christmas is my all time favorite Holiday. Growing up we
used to get together with our extended family for Christmas Eve dinner and
created such wonderful memories. I’ve
always loved the lights, sounds, smells and magic of Christmas. My mom and aunt always made the best cookies.
We even had a dinner tradition, which
was a mix of both my parents’ backgrounds, Italian and Polish. We would eat mostaccioli and homemade pierogies
with a side of perch, mashed potatoes and garlic bread. YUM! Now that I have three kids of my own I try my hardest to continue my
families tradition, but have also tried to create a new tradition that’s unique
to our new family unit.
As a puzzle and games person, every holiday I try to come up
with something fun for the kids. Scavenger hunts are one of my favorites. For Easter, I would set up a 10 questions
scavenger hunt for them to follow in order to find their Easter baskets. I knew that I wanted to do something just as
fun for Christmas and happened to see an Elf on the Shelf at the store. I also heard that many parents started using
the Elf on the Shelf to help their kids “behave” during the month of
December. After seeing that this elf
cost $29.99 and that there were tons of accessories, movies, etc., I knew the
cost was going to skyrocket quickly, and plus we are talking 30 days out of the
year. Also, I heard the kids aren’t even
supposed to touch the Elf. No way I was spending that much money on something
the kids couldn’t even touch or use the whole year. So Instead I came up with
the idea to bring a small stuffed animal to “life” who came to our house as
Santa’s helper. Here is how we did it:
