To make it easier on me, I plan out our elf's hijinks in advance. I write it all on a calendar and that way, all I have to do each night is set up the elf- no thinking involved! It's especially helpful this way because I can plan more involved hijinks on weekend nights, less involved hijinks if we are out of town, etc. Anyway, our elf's name is Jingles, and here are his hijinks! He is coming on Black Friday.
Day 1: he's arriving in a parachute (I guess Santa drops him down from his sleigh)- I used a red Solo cup and a garbage bag and the parachute actually works!
Day 2: I'm going to put him in the middle of a roll of toilet paper and roll him down the stairs (we will be at SIL's house, so nothing fancy)
Day 3: makes a naughty/nice list (I'm putting the dog on the naughty list!)
Day 4: Brings the movie "Mickey's Christmas Carol" and watches it at the "drive in" with Barbie in her car
Day 5: plays poker with some of the kids' toys
Day 6: decorate a room like CRAZY (like the scene in Elf? I've already started cutting snowflakes in my spare time!)
Day 7: Turn cars into reindeer and have Jingles riding one (brown pipe cleaners for antlers)
Day 8: Have him hanging from the fan, with red and green streamers dangling from it
Day 9: Bring new ornaments (which the kids really wanted at Kohl's but they think I didn't buy them), with a scavenger hunt leading them to the ornaments
Day 10: Put streamers across the kids' bedroom doors
Day 11: get caught under the mistletoe with Barbie
Day 12: fall asleep in the bed of DD's dollhouse, with an eye mask on
Day 13: green pee/marshmallow poop in the toilet (always a hit)
Day 14: he's going to go "sledding" down that cotton decorative snow stuff
Day 15: does the YMCA with Barbies (that's one that's been going around on Pinterest)
Day 16: find Jingles on the computer and discover that he used the "Elf Yourself" website (they always love that one, too)
Day 17: puts candy canes all over one room
Day 18: decorates the tree with the kids' undies
Day 19: find him cooking up some grub in the kids' play kitchen
Day 20: find him playing the Wii (totally setting up his own Mii, too!)
Day 21: turns into Batman elf (I'll make him a cape and mask out of felt and put him in the Imaginext Batcave)
Day 22: find him in a hot air balloon
Day 23: I'm going to stick him through the center of a bunch of glow bracelets and put him in the bathroom with the light off- disco elf!
Day 24: find him playing a board game with friends
Day 25: find him racing his friends (like this
https://www.mommyupgrade.com/tag/elf-on-a-shelf-racing)
Day 26: he's going to paint the kids' noses red while they sleep
Day 27: find him in the fridge and find that he dyed the milk green!
Day 28: builds an elaborate train track
Day 29: puts pictures of himself in all of our frames
Day 30: brings seeds to plant (seeds will be Christmas chocolate chips- the red and green ones)
Day 31: discover that the seeds "grew" into Gingerbread men
Day 32: delivers our traditional xmas pjs and book
That's it!