If you’re a family who plays Elf On The Shelf, then you’re probably right in your busy peak elf time right now. Most people’s elves tend to arrive around the first of December and stay until they leave with Santa on Christmas Eve or the early hours of Christmas morning.
The difficulty (for parents) is that these magical little creatures need a bit of help in setting themselves up in all sorts of fun and mischievous predicaments each night for the little people to discover them in the morning.
Coming up with different ideas for an elf on the shelf can be exhausting and time consuming, so one of the easy ways out is to simply have the elf bring a gift for the child.
That way the child is so excited by the small gift that they’ve received that the elf doesn’t have to be found in a particularly difficult or elaborate hiding spot or scenario.
We’ve never had an elf on the shelf in our house – I don’t really like the way they are sent to ‘spy’ on the children and make reports to Santa, that’s just a bit too creepy for my family. But, we’ve always had Christmas elves come to visit us at Christmas time.
Our elves are friendly and helpful and like to remind us of Christmas events like decorating the Christmas tree, or suggest when we might like to bake some Christmas cookies.
Sometimes our elves will even suggest that tidying up the living room or folding the laundry will help make the days until Christmas pass faster! But, one thing our visiting elves have always been very good at is bringing the occasional gift or treat for the family to enjoy.
Here are some great ideas for gifts that an elf on the shelf, or any other type of Christmas elf might like to bring:
- Christmas tree decorations
- An advent calendar
- Christmas cookie cutters
- Christmas socks
- Christmas PJ’s
- Candy bars
- Lolly pops
- Candy canes
- Christmas books/stories to read
- New hats or beanies to wear to go out and see the Christmas lights
- Rolls of wrapping paper if there are Christmas gifts that need wrapping
- Printed recipes of cookies/cakes/treats that the children might like to bake
- A photograph or ‘elfie’ of the child with the elf
- A Christmas treat for a household pet
- A melting snowman
- All the things needed to make some hot chocolate
- Christmas mugs
- A Christmas stocking – it doesn’t have to be new – the elf can just appear on Christmas eve morning with your child’s Christmas stocking and a note saying it’s time to hang the stockings.
- Christmas apron
- Christmas activity – coloring in/craft kit/painting – anything your child would enjoy that could be used to help get ready for Christmas
- A Christmas blanket
- Christmas movie – either a DVD (if you still have a DVD player) or some visual representation (like a printed out picture of the DVD cover) of a movie you intend to stream and watch together.
- Snacks for the Christmas movie – popcorn, chocolate etc.
- A Christmas scented candle to make your house warm, cosy and Christmassy
- An ugly Christmas sweater – or other Christmas themed clothing
- Stationary to write letters to Santa
- Christmas jigsaw puzzle to waste away a few hours until Christmas
- Christmas toys – lego/stuffed animals etc – but nothing too big to detract from waiting for the big day
- Christmas stickers
- A small little (elf sized) Christmas tree that they could help the elf decorate
- Small pieces of a Christmas village that you can put together and grow over the years
There is almost nothing your elf couldn’t bring! Really anything your child would enjoy that either adds to the excitement of Christmas, helps to get ready for Christmas, or helps to while away the time until the big day arrives.
Hopefully our list of gifts for an elf on the shelf to bring has given you some inspiration and got you thinking about what little gifts your Christmas elf might appear with next.
Elves should be seen as generous and fun and not as though they’re spying on you and about to dob you into Santa. Bringing gifts for the family to enjoy is a great way for Christmas elves to be enjoyed in the lead up to Christmas.
Playing a game of Elf By Stealth is another great way to have fun with some Christmas elves this year!
