5 Elf on The Shelf Ideas that won't cost you a penny! Little Cherubs Photography - March Baby and Family Photography Studio

So December is almost upon us, and for a growing number of families, it means some mischievous elves will be making an appearance in homes very soon!

For those who don't know, Elf on The Shelf began as an American custom, which over the last few years has become very popular here. Santa sends an Elf to watch over your house in December in the run up to Christmas, and over night the Elf moves to a different spot, or gets into sticky situations or misbehaves. Some say that the Elf reports back to Santa, so children (and grownups!) must behave. We just use ours to build up the excitement of Christmas (and occasionally, when my children are being utter toads, I'll glance at the Elf then back at them with a knowing look, which is enough to make them realise that Santa might be watching! Anything for peace sometimes!)

I'm the parent who thinks about planning the whole month's worth of mischief ahead, then realise that it's Elf time and I've no idea what she's going to get up to! And I know I can't be the only one! So here's a few easy, cheap and quick set ups to use when it's almost midnight and you've just woken up after fallen asleep on the sofa and remembered you've not moved that damn Elf!

(Excuse the image quality, they are phone pictures!)

Taped up by the other toys!

Some toys get jealous of the new addition, and this is a really quick set up - masking tape is probably the best as it's less likely to ruin furniture (but please do check before taping your Elf!)

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Showing off her drawing skills!

So as long as you can draw a half decent tree/snowman/santa/other, this should only take minutes and our kids loved coming downstairs to this - they both adore drawing and colouring so they were pleased that our Elf shared their passion!

Toilet Paper on the Tree!

By far the easiest one, grab a couple of metres of toilet paper (make sure you've left enough for the morning though!) and wrap it around the tree, with your Elf at the top. Easy and the kids thought it was hilarious - winner!

Paper Chain Swing

This happened the night before our Elf covered our living room ceiling in paper chains, and our hands were raw from making up paper chains so we called it a night and attached her to our lamp with a few chains. Flimsy paper doesn't work so well here as Elves are surprisingly heavy!

Snowy train scene

Ok, so this one isn't the quickest, but it was the most fun to set up. We enjoyed laying out the train track far more than we should have (and definitely didn't play with the trains before completing the set up... choo choo!) then sat our Elf down and sprinkled talc everywhere (but not on her as it's a pain to get out of her outfit!).
Downside is the clean up  job the next day - but it's worth it!

There are tons of ideas out there, such as wrapping paper on doors, turn the fridge into a snowman, tea party with the toys (minus the ones who taped our poor Elf up!) and snowball fights with marshmallows. Ours also brings everyone's advent calendars, and this year will be leaving £5 for each child to spend on food for the food bank this year, and setting up activities (usually something simple like colouring or cutting and sticking things - our two are very crafty).

There's also the option of a North Pole Breakfast, we do ours the first Saturday of December and it's a hit even with the grownups! This was our first year, the day our Elf appeared

There you have it, the emergency Elf On The Shelf pack!

If you've got some good EOTS ideas, please share them in the comments!

​Emma