The Elf on the Shelf Tradition

Last year was my first year doing the Elf on the shelf tradition with my daughter… and I LOVED it. I think I went a little crazy! Ha! Some of you love it and some of you can’t stand it and I am proud to say I am a part of the former. In fact I shared three posts on it last year and they were shared thousands of times in just a few days! I couldn’t believe it.

If you missed any of my other Elf on the Shelf idea posts, here they are:

I didn’t, however get to share my final night of our visit from our elf, Josie. I’ll share some others from last year soon as well. Josie left some cookies and Mia a little note that said:

Dear Mia,

Thank you for being a good girl this year. I hope your Christmas is full of cheer. I made you these cookies for you to enjoy. I’ll report back to Santa to bring you a toy! Merry Christmas!

Love, Josie

This is her when she found it that morning.

To make the “cookies” all I did was wrapped a small piece of cardboard in foil to look like a cookie sheet. Then I placed four gingerbread man cake embellishments I found at Walmart (they come in a package of 12).

My daughter ate them that day. When we came back from the store later, Josie magically made another batch for her when we returned!

Watch the video

More Elf on the Shelf:

Ten Easy Elf on the Shelf Ideas – From being chased by reindeer to building a fort with Christmas cards, these ten ideas are clever, but simple.

No Sew Elf on the Shelf Skirt – The Elf on the Shelf clothing you can buy at the store is so expensive. This is a quick and easy no sew tutorial for how to make an apron skirt for pennies.

Best Elf on the Shelf Ideas – This post shows the first night our elf showed up and nine other adorable ideas including a letter our elf wrote after a day of my daughter misbehaving.

Two Dozen Easy Elf on a Shelf Ideas – Two dozen ideas that are helpful, especially when you forget and need a quick move!

Elf on a Shelf Ideas – This is the first Elf on the Shelf post I ever wrote and includes 7 ideas incorporating my daughter’s toys and games.