100+ Fun & Easy Elf on the Shelf Ideas

Does the Elf on Shelf visit your home at Christmas time?

Our elf, Elfie Pokie Nokie, has been visiting our home since 2012 and during that time he's found himself in all sorts of crazy, and fun, situations. 

I know that a lot of parents can find the elf a little overwhelming, so today I'm sharing one hundred (yes, one hundred!) fun and easy elf antics. Most of these are easily set up in the evening with just what you'll find around your home. No over the top elf accessories here! 

Elf on the Shelf: Week 4

Christmas has been and gone, but I still have quite a few Christmas themed posts to share - you know, as inspiration for next year. Not at all because I'm behind!

As you know, I like to share what our Elf on the Shelf, Elfie Pokie Nokie gets up to each week throughout December. I'm yet to share his last week with us, even though it was only 4 days, so here it is: Our last few days with Elfie Pokie Nokie this year...

Day 22
On day 22 we found Elfie hanging upside down from the Mexican tissue paper banners that I had hung in our entry way. He spent the entire day hanging upside down from one leg, but he didn't seem to mind too much.

Day 23
On day 23 the kids couldn't find Elfie anywhere in our house, and it wasn't until we stepped outside that they discovered him. The day before we had set up new Christmas lights in our front yard including a light up corgi - although Mathilde is convinced it's a shiba inu with no tail! Elfie must have taken a liking to the corgi as we found him tucked under the corgi's scarf. I guess it kept him snuggly warm over night!

Day 24
Christmas Eve found Elfie back inside the house, and in an especially cold spot.  I opened the fridge door to get milk for my morning latte and there he was squeezed into the door shelf next to the juice.  It must have been pretty chilly hanging out in the fridge all day, but I guess he is probably used to it, living in the North Pole, and all.

Day 25
The big day! The kids were so excited to see what Santa had brought for them that they didn't notice Elfie hanging from the mantle along with their stocking for quite some time. Even though he was hiding in clear view he does blend in rather well with the red and white stockings.

After Christmas Elfie traveled back to the North Pole. We look forward to seeing him back in our home again next December.

Does the Elf on the Shelf visit your home?

Elf on the Shelf: Week 3

Another week has passed and Christmas is just two days away! Eek!

So much to do, and so little time, but it also means that another full week with Elfie Pokie Nokie in our home has gone by. Of course, it also means only a few more days of waking up at 2am to the realization that the elf is yet to move!

Here's a look at what Elfie has been up to over the past week...

Day 16
The kids couldn't find Elfie anywhere for quite some time until they went past the laundry to get their jackets and boots for school. That's when they spotted him sitting in the clothes dryer. Now, Elfie has hidden out in the clothes dryer a couple times in the past in our apartment in Berkeley and we always figured it was to keep warm. However, and here's something strange about clothes dryers in American houses that I never knew before, our current dryer has a big outlet pipe that leads outside of the house. I'm not really sure how this works as clothes dryers in Australia don't have this (nor did our dryer in Berkeley), but what I do know is that this pipe brings in cold air from outside! Trust me, when it's -4C outside, the clothes in the dryer are fricken freezing! Unless I take the clothes out as soon as the dryer finishes I get a chilly shock when I open the dryer door!

Day 17
On day 17 the kinds, once again, didn't spot Elfie until we were heading out to go to school. That's when we found him perched on one of our rather festive looking lawn flamingos. I'm guessing he brought them their matching hats and scarves as they weren't there earlier.

Day 18
Some days Elfie's hiding spots aren't very original, and today was one of those days. We found him sitting behind a print in our living room. He has hidden behind prints and paintings many times in the past, but this time it looks as though he made himself a little prop to go with the print. This print is made up of little signs that pay tribute to different areas of San Francisco (we have the New York print too) and Elfie seems to have made himself a North Pole sign to go along with it.

Day 19
Another day of Elfie just hanging about... literally. We found him hanging upside down from the light fixture above out dining table. I guess he has a good view from up there.

Day 20
Remember that crazy cereal cafe that we went to over Thanksgiving break? You can see it here on my Instagram if you're not sure what I'm talking about. Anyway, while we were there Ava ate a bowl of Elf on the Shelf sugar cookie cereal (who knew that was a thing?) and she liked it so much that she bought a box of it to bring home. You can buy it here if you're keen to try it - and it arrives before Christmas if you order now! Back to Elfie... He must have found it in our pantry and thought it would make a good breakfast treat for the kids so he brought it out onto the kitchen bench, and plonked himself inside the box. Must be weird seeing yourself on a cereal box!

Day 21
On day 21 Elfie made an unexpected friend. We found him sitting on the log in Cookie's (Ava's pet leopard gecko) vivarium. At first Cookie seemed a little wary on the intruder, but after a little while he seemed rather curious and started climbing on Elfie. Elfie ended up falling over and I did plan to sit him back up again, but Cookie seemed happy with him there and ended up spending the entire day snuggled up under Elfie. The kids were convinced that Elfie and Cookie had become best friends and that Elfie needed to move in with Cookie permanently, but in true elf form Elfie moved again over night. Mathilde was convinced that Cookie missed Elfie, so she drew pictures of him to stick on the walls of Cookies vivarium. The kids did have me Elfie from his new spot (which you'll see in next week's post) and put him back in with Cookie - who went straight back to snuggling up to his friend! Maybe we now have an "elf on the gecko log" rather than an elf on the shelf!

Three weeks down, just a few more days to go!

Let's see if Elfie ends up becoming a permanent fixture in Cookie's vivarium!

P.S. Elfie is in need of a new hat. Those Krampus horns that he grew last week ripped a nice big hole in his hat. Oops. His Krapus tail left behind a bit of a hole too.

Elf on the Shelf: Week 2

Elfie Pokie Nokie has been back in our house for over two weeks now - which means we're even closer to Christmas. How is it only 9 days away? Totally not stressing out about that! Ha!

While I wrack my brain trying to work out what to get the kids for Christmas (and how to get it in such a short amount of time - eek!) let's take a look at what Elfie has been up to over the past week.

Day 8
On Day 8 we found Elfie poking out from behind a cushion on the hanging chair in our living room. A favorite Christmas book (The Christmas Wish) was sitting out - one that we hadn't left there. It was the perfect invitation to sit down somewhere comfy and read, although Mathilde didn't seem so sure about Elfie reading over her shoulder!

Day 9
On Day 9 we found Elfie simply sitting on the mantel in our family room. Not a particular good hiding spot, however there was something a little peculiar happening here. It looks like Elfie decided to add himself to our family photo! He's not quite to scale though. I don't remember him being so tall! This picture has been the target of Elfie's pranks in the past too with him adding googly eyes onto our faces. You can see that prank here. I guess at least this time he didn't make us look silly!

Day 10
Our advent calendar activity for day 10 was to make honey biscuits (you can find the recipe for these tasty cookies here) so it came as no surprise when we found Elfie perched inside the mixer surrounded by cookie cutters. On a side note, as the mixer is fairly new I completely forgot how much easier it would make mixing the cookie dough, and I did it all by hand. Oops! I guess Elfie tried to tell me, but I didn't pay attention.

Day 11

It's finally looking a little festive around here with our Christmas tree up in the family room. Elfie decided to get into the Christmas spirit and we found him perched on a branch of the tree among the decorations. This year's tree is pretty sparse (Colorado tree farms don't seem to have to lush, thick trees we're used to in California) so Elfie was pretty easy to spot.
P. S. Anyone else have a tree filled with decorations from their travels? I know that nothing matches on our tree so it's not the prettiest to look at, but I love that it's filled with memories.

Day 12
Looks like Elfie decided to take a birds' eye view over everyone, or as close to a birds' eye view you can get inside, and perched himself atop the ceiling fan in the living room. The little guy is lucky that I stopped Lola from trying to turn the fan on to send him for a spin!

Day 13
Elfie sure seems to like hanging out in our family room this year. On day 13 we found him literally hanging out - hung by a tiny peg on the mantle with all of our Christmas cards! You may notice that the kids on all these cards look familiar. That's because they're all the cards that I've made over past years! We only ever receive maybe four or five cards a year (and usually after Christmas) so I hang our old cards up instead. It's a cute way to look back and see how much the girls have grown over the years.

Day 14
Day 14 found Elfie on the mantle again, but there was something different about him. Overnight he seems to have grown horns, a long tongue and a tail. Mathilde was convinced that he had transformed into a demon, but Lola recognized him straight away. Elfie was dressed as Krampus! Now, in the past Elfie has had fun mixing up holidays by stealing Halloween candy, playing with a dreidel, and dressing up as a pilgrim for Thanksgiving. This time around he's mixing things up by playing different Christmas characters. The girls noticed that Elfie seemed to have a parcel for them, and they were excited to find the book Krampus Meets his Match inside. Elfie certainly wasn't quite as scary looking as the Krampus in the book, but he sure was pretty creepy! 

And that's it for another week of Elfie Pokie Nokie in our home.

Time for me to work out how to get hot glue off an elf hat...

Elf on the Shelf: Week 1

He's baaaack!

Whether you love him or hate him, it's that time of year again when the Elf on the Shelf starts making mischief in homes around the world - including ours!

I've seen a lot of discussion lately about the Elf on the Shelf, and the negative impacts of him being portrayed as Santa's spy; there to encourage good behaviour for the month of December. While I'm a big fan of this fun tradition, our elf, Elfie Pokie Nokie, has never been there to spy on the kids. I personally think that's a little creepy, and also my kids have never really thought he was real. I mean, he's obviously made of plastic and fabric, right? Still, they enjoy finding him every day and seeing the antics that he gets up to. He's more of a Christmas treasure hunt in our home - as well as something to keep my creative juices flowing!

Anyway, whatever you're thoughts on the Elf on the Shelf are, I love sharing what Elfie Pokie Nokie gets up to here on the blog. I know that a lot of us need inspiration for fun elf exploits, so I hope my posts inspire some of you.

Here's a look at what our elf has been up to this past week since he arrived in our home...

Day 1
As usual, Elfie Pokie Nokie arrived in our home along with our advent calendar (which you can read all about here) on December 1st. He made no attempt to hide, although admittedly, he does camouflage nicely with the red and white of the advent calendar!

Day 2
Elfie had the kids stumped for a little while at first, but then they spotted him hanging off the side of the fridge among the fridge magnets. Doesn't that mountain lion on the Grand Canyon magnet look like it's eyeing off the Voodoo Doughnut as a tasty snack? Or maybe he's looking at Elfie. Do mountain lions eat elves? I'm not sure I want to find out!

Day 3
Rainbows and elves go together like magic, so it was no surprise when we found Elfie sitting among the books on our rainbow bookshelf. What was a surprise, however, was the teeny tiny books that we found Elfie reading. These elf sized books are Tiny Books from Social Print Studio. I had them printed with pics from Elfie's past antics in our home. They're magnetic so I usually keep them on our fridge but I guess it was tricky to read while hanging there the day before, so Elfie took them somewhere a little comfier. P.S. Don't books like pretty displayed by color?

Day 4
The kids couldn't find Elfie anywhere on day 4 until it was time to put on jackets and boots to head out to the bus stop. That's when they spotted his legs poking out of Ava's snow boots by the front door. What a smelly place to hide! And also proof that he's not spying on the kids, because I don't think he can see much from in there!

Day 5
All elves need a break every now and then, and it seems that Elfie needed one quite early in the season. We found him relaxing on day 5 in a flamingo pool float in the bathroom sink! He really needs a mini cocktail in his hand, right? Isn't this mini pool float cute? The kids use it (along with unicorn and palm tree floats) in the hot tub to hold their drinks, but they're just the right size for an elf!

Day 6
My morning coffee plans were thwarted when a little someone decided that they needed an espresso too - and plonked themselves right in the way! Lucky for Elfie I didn't have time for my morning latte before taking the kids to school so I hit up Starbucks instead - and he got to stay put for the rest of the day.

Day 7
Elfie in the jungle! Well, it's not quite a jungle, but we had very few potted plants in Berkeley so the small collection of plants in my office is the most jungle-like place Elfie has ever found himself. He's not very well camouflaged, but it did take the kids a little while to spot him. He will be camouflaged here a little better once Mathilde's red amaryllis flower in the foreground blooms. It's almost there. P.S. I've learned not to use the Australian term "pot plant" here in the US as everyone thinks I mean marijuana when I tell them about my pot plants! Potted plant. Plant in a pot. Plant potted in a pot.

And that's our first week of Elfie Pokie Nokie's adventures this year. I'll be sharing again at the end of each week until Christmas, so stay tuned for more elf fun.

If you need inspiration for your own Elf on the Shelf, make sure to use the search field above or check out these two posts by clicking the pics for a round up...