What mischief does your Elf on a shelf get into?

[Patience]

Inspired by another thread, I would like to have our Elf, Steve, get into a bit of mischief this season. Last year, when my daughter was 3, he merely hid from her and she would find him each morning in a different location. So what are some fun (and mischievous!) things has your Elf done?

I do not want the Elf to leave gifts. I just want him to make my 4 year old laugh with his silly doings!

 

[aprhj]

JoJo, my son's elf, gets into a ton of trouble in our house. He has been with us for two years and his antics have included: hiding in the freezer because it was too warm here, making a snow/flour angle on the counter, hanging my son's underwear on the Christmas tree, taking a bubble bath in the sink with mini-marshmallows, hanging upside down from and flying the airplane kite hanging in my son's room, hanging a special ornament for son on Christmas tree, playing with legos and sometimes leaving messages, hanging crep paper streamers from ceiling fans, reading twas the night before Chrismas to son's stuffed animals, having a rein deer show up, driving a remote controll truck, playing with matchbox cars, watching tv, having tooth brush ready for son, hiding in all sorts of places, bringing son's birthday (12/17) gifts down hall, and I'm sure there is more. JoJo is not as messy as some of my friends elves, thank goodness.

I, um JoJo, plans on fishing this year. Sitting on top of toilet with a string on a candy cane and gold fish in toilet. He may even pick up a few ideas from others who post here.

 

[onescgirl]

Our elf has hid in the fridge & colored the milk green.
Hung the kids underwear all over the Christmas tree.
Made hisself a little house out of Lincoln Logs.
Has Rolled different rooms w/toilet paper over the years.
Painted our whole family's toenails green while we were sleeping (This one has been their top favorite)
Spelled out saying with mini marshmellows on the counter.
Wrote on the bathroom mirrors.
Has dressed in Barbies clothes & posed playing with Barbie.
Has put melted Hersey Kisses in the kids bathroom toilet.
Green food coloring in the kids bathroom toilet.
Has left tons of blown-up balloons all in their room during the night (that was a lot of work)
I bought some fake snow & he made snow angels in it during the night.

 

[3mickeymom]

Wow, you guys are starting early! But I always like to look for new ideas to keep our elf busy this holiday season. Our elf made a stacked canned good Christmas Tree with cans from our cupboard. This inspired us to make a donation to our local food pantry in keeping with the giving spirit of Christmas. He also brought those cardboard glasses for viewing the christmas lights with a little map of some great neighborhood houses. We go for a ride that night to check out his suggestions! I know you don't want your elf to bring gifts but it is a small gift and it is fun to see the lights turn into snowmen, snowflakes and santas.

 

[wtrmlnlabs]

Not to steal the thread or anything but I gotta ask... what is this elf on the shelf thing? I saw it on here a lot last year and here it is again. I looked a some threads and just want to be sure. So basically it's a hid and seek game for the kids right? Almost like an advent calendar but find the elf? I'm thinking it's something I'd like to do with my boys... not the present thing I've read about elsewhere but they'd have fun with it.

TIA

 

[jasta]

Subscribing! Need the ideas. Our elf's name is cocoa. We were going to name him cocoa cane, but say that name fast and you will understand why we just left it at cocoa! Lol!!!! Cocoa made cookies one night, decorated the tree with the kids underwear (thanks to whoever mentioned that last year), went to burger king but left us nothing (ah!!!) and even played wii. Keep the ideas coming!!!!

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I started our elf last year after reading about it on here and ours mostly just does something different each night. I need some new ideas so I'm taking notes from this thread! Here's what ours has done, I'll try not to repeat what's been posted:

Decorated a castle that my DS had made for a school project and brought back home.
Put out mugs and hot chocolate packets for the kids (and left his dirty mug beside him on the table)
Sat on the couch with the remote and popcorn.
Hung a lighted window decoration on the bathroom mirror.
Painted Dad's toenails green and red.
Got on a Christmas website on the computer.
Played a board game with some stuffed animals.
Gave the kids some Christmas candy (and opened one to eat a little).
Hung from the ceiling fan.
Colored a printed coloring page and left some extras for the kids.

 

[Marshay]

Will use some more of these wonderful ideas -- thanks!

We actually start this tradition in early October -- we have two Halloween doorway greeters (from AC Moore/Michaels) and they have already started their hiding and mischief.

The girls love it!

Then they will give a small gift for Nov 1st morning and be replaced by Thanksgiving Pilgrims. Then on Dec 1st, they give a small gift and are replaced by our Christmas Elves. Last year Santa let our Elves stick around until after New Years! Santa gave them a letter directly!

Oh, and then at Easter we have a Bunny and Duck that come out and hide easter eggs (plastic) along with themselves all over the house.

We have TONS of fun with this nearly all year, as you can see.

I figure it won't be much longer before my 6 yo doesn't believe in Santa, Easter Bunny, etc so we are having fun with it now! yeah, it takes a bit of work, so we usually do general hiding 6 days a week and 1 day a week of mischief.

Great ideas everyone!!

 

[KristinU]

I posted this on that other thread, but the past couple of years I created a calendar of mischief based on ideas here on the DIS. It helped me to have a calendar so I didn't have to try to think of something creative every day. I saved them to Google Docs, so here they are if anyone wants them:

2010 Elf Capades

2009 Elf Capades

I'll put together a 2011 one soon and share that as well.

 

[EMom]

I will be in the hospital for a week or so in December and DH will have his hands full coming to see me, taking care of DD, supervising her hours of nightly homework, doing his job, getting ready for Christmas and a jillion other things.

I fear our elf might lack for creative ideas in my absence. So I plan to scour all these threads for a list of ideas and get them ready. Of course, I have to omit the messy ones because he will have no time to clean up, leave off the ones our elf did last year, and avoid anything that might tempt the cat since she was not around last Christmas....oh, and make sure the elf stays up high so kitty doesn't drag him around thinking HE is HER new toy.

Kitty can and does jump HIGH and drags around various HEAVY objects, so a tiny elf wouldn't be a problem. And she is way naughty. Last year, we brought her home in January and the Christmas tree was still up, although the decorations had been taken down. She promptly launched herself about midway up into the tree, as if it was there just for her amusement. I am not certain the tree will survive this Christmas. We lost one tree in 1991 to another kitten and all the warning signs are there.......

 

[krissypoo1975]

I am trying to subscribe. This is our first year for the elf. My 8, 6, and 3 year old will love it. I don't think the one year old cares ;-)

 

[smile5sunshine]

Not to steal the thread or anything but I gotta ask... what is this elf on the shelf thing? I saw it on here a lot last year and here it is again. I looked a some threads and just want to be sure. So basically it's a hid and seek game for the kids right? Almost like an advent calendar but find the elf? I'm thinking it's something I'd like to do with my boys... not the present thing I've read about elsewhere but they'd have fun with it.

TIA

I had to look it up too. Here's a wiki article that explains:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elf_on_the_Shelf

Hope that helps

 

[Mickeyflower]

I had to look it up too. Here's a wiki article that explains:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elf_on_the_Shelf

Hope that helps

Thank you so much for that! I looked up the author and found a gift set on B&N for $30 that I will get for my niece & grand-niece who is 2. I think this is a great idea! Although I read some of the product reviews, and boy oh boy some people were a tad harsh

 

[stashbin]

I posted this on that other thread, but the past couple of years I created a calendar of mischief based on ideas here on the DIS. It helped me to have a calendar so I didn't have to try to think of something creative every day. I saved them to Google Docs, so here they are if anyone wants them:

2010 Elf Capades

2009 Elf Capades

I'll put together a 2011 one soon and share that as well.

Thanks for posting those calendars!! I printed them and have them ready to go!

 

[KristinU]

Thanks for posting those calendars!! I printed them and have them ready to go!

My pleasure! I've been noting some great ideas on this thread and will integrate them and post for 2011. Keep the ideas coming!

And on the "what is this elf thing???" note: we used this web site when we started: Organized Christmas - Magic Elf Tradition and our elf is from Amazon...we never bought the book or set or anything.

Oh and my annual caution: we're on our second elf because CC got into the band-aids and stuck them all over himself...yeeeeaaaaaah, that one was a big mistake! I couldn't get the sticky parts off of his plush little body. Somehow he got all cleaned up at the North Pole over the summer, though (thank goodness Amazon still carried the same one!)

 

[ColoradoK]

I am a member of an Elf Antics FB group and also have 2 blog posts of 2 years worth of fun...message me if you want the links.

 

[MineMail]

Elf lovers have their own society - how cute!

 

[JaymeC]

Our elf got into all sorts of mischief last year... He moved my car (and parked it in the lawn), went (gold) fishing, took a bath in some cotton balls, got covered in stickers, and also brought some fun stuff like a dvd and a beanie baby We have two boys, and they had a blast. This year, I'm a bit more worried about Cookie's safety as the boys also received a kitten last year. I just thought it'd be fun, so a couple pictures for you:
The day we didn't get the tree decorated fast enough:

Gold fishing

And a lightsaber battle with Mr. Potato Head after getting ideas from Toy Story and Star Wars

 

[StitchBuddy]

I love reading these posts!!! I wish this had been around when my DD14 was younger!! I would have had some great fun!!

 

[leapdaymom]

Our elf's name is Charlie Brown......

he created a mii on the wii and played a game (Bowling)
pulled out all of the charlie brown books and dvd's
created a trail of underwear to the christmas tree
got in the backseat of the car...to go for a ride
hung from the foyers' chandelier on top of spiderman.....like skydiving
ate a bowl of cereal and made a mess
left messages with candy
took pics of himself laying on my son's pillow while my son was asleep (that was hilarious)
went joy riding on my kid's monster truck

a coworkers elf
moved their car to their neighbor's driveway
pulled the mattress off of the bed while her boys were asleep