Magic Christmas Elf overview

We had lots of fun with our Elves on their first visit to our home. The children got into the swing of looking for them each morning and enjoyed seeing what mischief they got up to. And poor Sophie was really quite sad when she realised that today was their last day with us.

I thought I would put a list together of all their mischievous behaviour in one place in case anyone wants to copy for next year. I made a list of ideas just before they came and did use quite a few from this. Once the elves had arrived though, I realised that some ideas would just not be feasible and found that I tended to make things up on the spur of the moment (normally about five minutes before we went to bed, as I invariable forgot about them!).

So here is what they did this year (the elves came in the last few days of November, hence the reason there are more than 24 things):

1. Drew a picture of favourite cuddly on a chalk board, causing a mess with the toys whilst trying to climb up high enough to reach
2. Took a shower in the dishwasher, complete with soap, reindeer flannel and elf size towel
3. Tried to be helpful by decorating the christmas tree, with the children's' pants
4. Cooled down with some magic snow. They were obviously missing the North Pole ...
5. Hid in a food cupboard after emptying all the tins and food out first
6. Had a race on ride-along toys and kept a tally on the chalk board of who won each race
7. Dressed up as Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi and recreated the famous battle scene with lightsabres
8. Played a board game
9. Pretended the bath was a swimming pool, complete with swimmers, goggles and toys
10. Covered the sofa and ironing board with white sheets and used a tray to toboggan down
11. Had a tea party with some teddy friends, Santa and Frosty
12. Played on the piano
13. Watched Christmas movies with popcorn, chocolates and lemonade
14. Had a cotton wool snowball fight 
15. Made paper snowflakes
16. Played with toy cars and set up a ramp for them to race down
17. Made music with wooden spoons and pots and pans
18. Made a tent out of sheets and played with some new wind-up torch gifts
19. Built a tower out of wooden blocks under the kitchen table
20. Took a balloon flight by attaching helium balloons to a basket
21. Took all the presents out from under the Christmas tree
22. Got the stockings out and fell in trying to put some chocolate coins in
23. Made pictures with a magnet scene game
24. Sat in a tent being read Christmas books by inflatable Santa 
25. Held large chocolate Santas for the children

Other ideas which the elves didn't do (but which might happen next year) are:

• Playing with lego
• Playing with cards i.e. snap or match the pairs
• Playing musical chairs with other teddies
• Making snow angels in flour on baking trays in the kitchen
• Hanging from a light or something similarly high up
• Making a mess with toilet paper
• Eating sweets from the sweetie tin
• Playing in the doll's house
• Trying the drive the car
• Playing Star Wars lego on the Xbox (or something similar)

Thank you Colin Snow and Sally Flake and hope we see you again next year! I hope you have had as much fun with your elves as we have.
© 2011 Nicola Noble