Dear reader, the magical time of the year has finally arrived, yes, this year there seems to be more desire than ever for Christmas. In esteponeros you can find everything you need to know about Christmas or rather about Christmas in Estepona, its events, its sweets, shopping, meals and drinks… but let’s not forget that, if this time of the year is full of illusion for everyone, undoubtedly the little ones are the ones who enjoy it the most.
It is important, or at least for me, to create indelible memories for our children, nieces, nephews, cousins… messages that are engraved in the memory forever and that tomorrow will make us adults capable of bringing out the child in all of us.
That’s why I bring you an idea to make the time before Christmas pass quickly and above all in a very funny way, I propose you to open the doors of your home to the most mischievous and cheerful Christmas Elf of all:
“EL ELFO TRAVIESO, Elf on the Shelf
We must begin by clarifying that this tradition, as you may have guessed, is not Spanish, since it is inspired by Santa’s helpers. I personally am very much a Three Wise Men person and I love to follow the traditions I experienced as a child. But if there is something different, cheerful, entertaining and above all that I know my loved ones will love, why not turn it into a tradition? Let’s stop with the nonsense and properties and let’s enjoy the traditions we like the most, wherever they are from.
The Naughty Elf is a North American tradition, already spread in many countries, which is about an elf who watches the children living in the house. At night, he travels to the North Pole and tells Santa everything he thinks is necessary. Here comes the criteria of each family, there are people who use this to guide the behavior of the children and others who only make the Elf tell his boss the tastes of each family: interests, hobbies, age, favorite activities … as you are seeing each one can model the history of his Elf as he wants.
Literally translated as “the Elf on the Shelf”, its origin comes from a book published in 2005 called The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition. After the publication of this book that told the story of these mischievous, snitching beings who work for Santa Claus, the Elf on the Shelf became an American Christmas tradition.
By this point in the post, you may be wondering what’s so funny about it. Well, every night our mischievous Elf changes location, hides and gets into mischief.
How to start? How do you explain it to children?
The Christmas Elf usually comes from December 1st and stays until Christmas Day, although as this story is told by you and your family, your Elf can arrive whenever he/she wants. In our house he appears the day we put up the Christmas tree, but I know of cases of Elves who visit their children even on their birthday.
Our Christmas Elf has some rules that you must follow, here we leave you a sample that you can print, but of course you are free to put the ones you want:
- You have to give me a name.
- You can’t touch me. If you touch me unintentionally, I will lose my magic powers, you have to sing a carol for my powers to return.
- You can’t tell your friends I’m at your house. Because not every child has a naughty Elf and we don’t want them to be sad.
The Elf comes with a Certificate of Adoption, where we must put his name to be the Elf who visits us every Christmas. In addition, we can include a letter to the person who is going to receive the Elf, where we praise all his good things and remember those that can be improved.
You have all kinds of documents on the net: welcome letter, Elf rules, farewell letters, even a lot of accessories to dress up your Elf.
A daily commitment that pays off.
Now let’s talk about the fun stuff, at least for the kids, because I warn that for parents it’s a commitment every night. Since every day you will have to think about and execute a new prank of your Elf, it is important that your visit is not too early, lest the Elf ends up back at the North Pole earlier than planned. I assure you that the effort is worth it, it’s great to see their little faces every morning, that childish innocence that makes you full of illusion while looking around the house for the mischief that your Elf will have done today.
Where can I buy one?
By express request of our readers, we leave below several links where you can get an elf like the ones you see in the pictures:
To say goodbye I leave you with some ideas:
