Elf on the Shelf and Christmas Pattern Blocks Day 1 of our Christmas countdown

I'm thankful that late last night Frugal Family Fun posted on face book "Do you have an elf on your shelf?". It caught my attention right away...an elf on your shelf...does she mean decorating already for Christmas? I was intriguged so I read through all the comments to try to figure it out and was pleasantly surprised! I ran right out to buy one this morning as it fit perfectly in with out first countdown to Christmas activity.

Day 1) Dig out the Christmas books and music and make Christmas designs with the Pattern blocks

So we dug out all the Christmas books and sat down to read a lot of them right away.

and then I brought out the Elf on a Shelf and the magic and excitement just burst out of Sierra especially.

 As soon as I told them briefly about what the story was about Sierra went running down stairs to tell daddy and nana and she was just bursting at the seams! We read the story together and afterwards (see picture below) Sierra bends over to the box that the elf comes in, leans close to the hole cut out in the protective plastic and tells the elf, "Elfie (our elfs new name) please don't fly away at Christmas...I want you to stay all year"

 Us all pictured with Elfie...our newest Christmas tradition.

If you are looking for a new family tradition then consider the Elf on a Shelf! It's a fun way to make the magic of Christmas come alive in the weeks before Christmas instead of just Christmas Eve. The kit comes with a wonderfully vintage looking little elf  and a story book about how Santa keeps track of who has been naughty and who has been nice. It also explains the rules...like don't touch your elf when you find him or his magic will disappear and Santa won't find out if you've been good! It's a sweet story and is wonderfully illustrated.

On your first night you read the story, name your elf, and put him on a shelf before bed (we left ours in his box up on the shelf).

During the night your elf will return to the North Pole and inform Santa if your kids have been naughty or nice, and then he returns to your house. However...elves can be mischevious...your elf may not got back to where you left him...he may find his own michief to get into (if finding your elf mishief to get into every night is too much of a commitment you could tell your kids that he may come back to the same spot some nights...or just incase you forget to do it one night).

 One commenter on Frugal Family Funs facebook page left this link which immediately hooked me...oh how fun! Such wonderful ideas...how do you choose which ones to do...and how do you come up with your own any better???

Stay tuned here as each day I will post about Elfies michievious adventures in our daily countdown to Christmas posts.

Some of you may see the Elf on the Shelf as another bit of commercialism tied to Christmas but me...I see many years of fun memories in our future with this new Christmas tradition.

After supper we got out the pattern blocks and had fun making some Christmas designs (the designs were downloaded from HERE).

Sometimes our pattern blocks end up being stacked :)

All in all...day 1 of our countdown to Christmas was a huge success and I LOVE our new Christmas tradition! Do you have a favourite Christmas tradition?