Elf on a Shelf has become very popular lately, but we decided to modify it at our house. I made our little guy out of felt and wire and wrote a little not to accompany him. We didn't want the emphasis to be taken away from Christ, but rather to tie everything into Christ.
Here is an excerpt from the letter:
"I am a special little
elf from Santa's workshop. I have come to stay at your house to watch you
and make sure you're being nice. Every night, after you fall asleep, I'll
go home to the North Pole and report to Santa.
Now Santa and all of us elves know that the real reason for Christmas isn’t
about presents or Santa, but to remember
our Savior, Jesus Christ and celebrate His birth. Jesus Christ is our greatest
gift!
We want everyone to try this month to be
like Jesus and do what He would do. To help you remember Jesus, each
morning I will be holding a special paper with a scripture attached. Your job
is to read that scripture together as a family. Each scripture is about Jesus
Christ."
The kids woke up on December 1st to find him on our tree with his note and first scripture. They ran up to find us in in bed, they were so excited! One of their first jobs was to name him. There were dozens of suggestions, but in the end the kids voted on "Super Elf".
Here are a few of the places the kids found him throughout the month:
They kids were only mildly motivated to be good because of the elf, but I loved having the daily scripture. December gets so busy and I'm afraid we wouldn't have read about Christ like we should if we hadn't had the reminders.
It was a fun tradition that helped the kids realize that Santa is trying to be like Jesus too.
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