Easy elf ideas for busy parents: a low mess plan from arrival night to Christmas Eve

Ten minutes of setting up saves a month of late nights

Most elf stress arrives at ten o'clock on a school night, when you are tired and out of ideas. A little setting up in late November takes most of that away.

• Choose the arrival night. Many elves turn up overnight so they are waiting on the morning of 1 December. Others arrive on the first weekend of December. A shorter visit is just as magical and far easier to keep going.
• Make an elf box. A shoebox kept up high with things you already own: sticky notes, a pen, masking tape, string, a mug, teaspoons, toy cars, empty loo rolls and a length of tinsel. Most of the best ideas need nothing more.
• Write the two big letters now. The arrival and goodbye letters take the most thought, so write them while you still have the energy.
• Set your house rules. Decide where the elf never goes, such as near the cooker or anywhere a toddler can reach, and that school night scenes never leave anything to tidy before the school run.

Easy school nights, bigger weekends

If you take one idea from this guide, take this one. From Sunday to Thursday night, your elf does something that takes two minutes and leaves no mess. On Friday and Saturday nights, when mornings are slower, the elf can do something bigger.

That means you need only seven or eight bigger ideas for the whole season, not twenty four, and the weekend scenes become the ones the children talk about. Keep one spare quick idea up your sleeve for late nights and poorly days.

A plan from arrival night to Christmas Eve

Here is a simple shape for the month. Swap anything that does not suit your family.

• Arrival night. Keep it small: the elf beside a letter introducing itself, perhaps with a new Christmas book or a hot chocolate sachet.
• Week one: settling in. Tiny, funny scenes so the children learn that the elf moves every night: sitting in a mug of cotton wool bubbles, tangled in tinsel, or hiding among the soft toys.
• Week two: helpful and kind. The elf leaves a kindness mission, a colouring sheet for each child, or paper and an envelope for a letter to Father Christmas. These double as calm things to do after school.
• Week three: busy week, cosy ideas. Nativity plays, parties and late finishes, so lean on the quickest scenes: the elf tucked up in a tissue box bed, or holding the remote ready for a family film.
• The last few days. The elf counts the sleeps on a sticky note, perches on top of the tree, or brings new pyjamas or a festive book for Christmas Eve.
• Christmas Eve. The goodbye letter: thank you for having me, one thing each child did well this month, and a promise to come back next year. Many elves fly home with Father Christmas that night, so Christmas morning belongs to the stockings.

Ten two minute ideas with no mess

Each one uses things already in the house and leaves nothing to tidy.

• Loo roll snowman. Three loo rolls stacked up, a sticky note face, and the elf standing proudly beside its work.
• Spoon skiing. Two teaspoons for skis and the elf halfway down the kitchen table.
• Shoe shuffle. Every pair by the front door swapped round, so nothing matches.
• Wrapped remote. The TV remote wrapped like a present, with a tag that reads "Not until after tea".
• Traffic jam. A queue of toy cars along the windowsill, with the elf directing traffic.
• Teddy school. Soft toys in a row while the elf teaches from a sticky note whiteboard.
• Message in the steam. Write a short message on the bathroom mirror with a clean finger. It appears when the shower steams the glass.
• Sleeps to go. The elf holds up a sticky note with the number of sleeps left.
• Hide and seek. The elf tucked somewhere new, with a note: "Ready or not, come and find me".
• Bedtime story. The elf and a teddy sharing a picture book.

For 28 more scene ideas, see Elf on the shelf ideas.

The morning you forget

It happens in every house at least once, usually after you fell asleep on the sofa. Do not panic, and do not over explain.

Move the elf while the children eat breakfast or get dressed, then let them discover it. If they have already seen it, leave it where it is with a short note in the elf's voice: "It was so cosy here that I slept all night", or "There was a snowstorm at the North Pole and I only just got back."

Write two or three of these in November and keep them in the elf box. An evening reminder on your phone helps too, as long as the lock screen does not give the game away.

Keeping it safe for little ones and pets

Elf scenes sit out overnight, often at child height, so a few checks are worth a minute.

• Swap marshmallows for cotton wool with under fives. The Child Accident Prevention Trust says marshmallows turn sticky when wet and can seal a young child's airway. Cotton wool makes just as good a bubble bath, set up out of reach.
• Check anything with a button battery. Battery tea lights and small fairy lights often use them, and the same charity warns that a swallowed button battery can cause severe injury. Make sure covers are screwed shut and keep spares up high.
• Keep chocolate away from dogs. PDSA explains that chocolate is poisonous to dogs, and darker chocolate is usually more dangerous, so keep chocolate scenes out of reach overnight.
• No real flames. Never use a real candle in an elf scene, and keep the elf away from hobs, heaters and fires.

Questions people ask

Where Christmas Magic helps, and where it does not

Christmas Magic is our Android planner for parents and carers who keep a Christmas elf each December, and it is out now on Google Play. Choose the morning your elf arrives and it fills every night to Christmas Eve from 169 original ideas, with quick, tidy ideas on school nights. Its one evening reminder can show only "Evening reminder" on the lock screen. It has ten morning rescue notes to print, plus arrival and goodbye letters, elf notes and a reply from Father Christmas with your child's name and news. Everything stays on your phone, with no account.

Free: 36 ideas, the planner, reminders, memories, the countdown, receipt printing and the classic letters. A one-time Pro unlock adds all 169 ideas, every letter design, the Nice List certificate and letters for up to 8 children.

What it is good for: taking the thinking out of December evenings.

What it will not do: move the elf for you or find the props. It is a tool for grown ups, and children only see the letters and notes you print.

Questions or bugs: Email us.

Sources

1. Safe from chokingChild Accident Prevention Trust · capt.org.uk
2. Button battery safetyChild Accident Prevention Trust · capt.org.uk
3. Chocolate poisoning in dogsPDSA · pdsa.org.uk