Every year I like to think of a few meaningful Christmas Elf ideas to do with our Christmas Elf Family.
I’m all about sentimental things, especially during holidays. I love the handmade ornaments my kid made at daycare, and I’ve already started a little ‘save box’ full of letters to Santa to keep.
My favorite sentimental items are the easiest, though. I love to take photos during the holidays and print them out. Each year I swap out the photos in our frames for the holiday memories. They are my favorite bit of decore each year, and we have so much fun remembering the adventures every time we pull them out.
As I plan out our Elf on the Shelf ideas, I make sure to add a couple meaningful Christmas elf ideas to make sure I get my fill of meaningful memories to share for years to come.
Here are some of my favorites that we’ve done so far.
1. Writing Letters to Santa
One day each year, our elves bring everything we need to write our letters to Santa. The elves bring us fun stationary to use (This ones shown are from Polar Post), a treat to munch on (the Believe Bar is also from Polar Post), and even their own mini mailbox to mail their own letters.
We are lucky enough to live by a little city with a Santa Mailbox, so we’ll usually head over there to drop off our letter. (There is a group of volunteers ready to write replies to each letter.)
If you don’t have a Santa Mailbox nearby, you can mail your letter through USPS and get a reply, here’s how.
2. Polar Express
I was inspired to do this last year when we purchased tickets to ride the Polar Express train ride hosted by a local train. We got our Polar Express book a week or so before so my son could get familiar with the story. The night of the ride, our elves brought us our train tickets, a silver Polar Express bell and even a mini train. (Because I do love a theme)
My son brought the bell on the trainride and I have the cutest picture of him ringing it as we got off. (It’s one that I printed out and stick in a frame during December.)
This year we opted to skip the train tickets. (It was so fun, but there are so many activities we want to do at Christmas so I figure we’ll rotate through a bit.) I just brought out the same book, bell and train and it was still such a lovely Polar Express themed evening together.
I’ve found pulling the same items out each year not only saves money, but creates a fun tradition to see them again after a year as gone by.
3. Handmade Christmas Ornaments
I usually stock up on Christmas ornament kits at Hobby Lobby or Michaels after the holidays. I stick them in our decoration bins so I remember to use them the next Christmas- they keep perfectly well and make a super easy elf drop off.
4. Holiday Decorating
My favorite Christmas memories from my childhood are decorating the house with my brother. We’d crawl into the attic and get the boxes of Christmas stuff. We loaded the 5 disc carousel full of Christmas CDs (Bing Crosby and accoustic guitar, because that’s what Mom had picked out) and decoarted away.
My little guy doesn’t have a super long attention span, so I usually keep this one simple. The elves deliver mini decorating items for their elf house, and a few ornaments to put out at ours. We put on some Christmas music, make some hot cocoa and I make sure to get lots of photos to love for years to come.
5. Baby Elf
There’s just something about babies that are so endearing. Even baby toys. The elf babies are by far and away my son’s favorite elf family members. He loves the day when we pull out the baby beds and we can tuck the little ones in.
I try to pair it with the book, When Santa was a Baby. And I’ll pull out some pictures of when my little guy was a baby at Christmas. It turns into the most adorable little evening.