Handmade Christmas Elf {Christmas Tradition Series}

We got to meet the amazing Ashely from Mommy by day… Crafter by night and now we just love her. As I’ve been following her blog I have been in awe of all the amazing things she can whip up. So happy she could stop by today and share with you on our site!

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Hey Crafting Chicks Readers!

My name is Ashley! I blog over at Mommy by day… Crafter by night. I met the Crafting Chicks at SNAP a couple years ago and I think they are all just darling! I was so happy when they asked if I would come over and share one of our family’s traditions with you all!

I have two girls that are 3 and 4… Ever since they were tiny I thought it would be fun to start a Christmas Elf tradition. After a couple of years of thinking about it and browsing Pinterest, I came across lots and lots of ideas for Elf on a Shelf, but at the same time it kind of overwhelmed me! I knew that it was just not realistic for our family to have an elf that did something spectacular every. single. day. We needed an elf that was a little more low-key. I also wanted our elf to be unique and one of a kind. So after a little chat with Santa, he and I made a plan. Since I love to sew, Santa agreed that I could take part in the construction of our family’s special Elf and then he would just sprinkle a bit of Christmas magic on her so she would come to life and carry out our tradition.

Meet Evie… Our Christmas Elf. My girls just love her!

You can read more details about how I made her here.

This is how our Christmas Elf tradition works at our house….

Evie comes to live with us every Christmas season and her job is to watch the kids and make sure they are being nice to each other and helping out at home. She watches all day and then at night time after they fall asleep she flies with pixie dust (my girls added the pixie dust part because how else would you fly of course? 😉 to see Santa and tells him whether the girls have been naughty or nice. After a quick chat with Santa, she flies back to our house and chooses a new place to sit each day. Sometimes she does neat things like building things with blocks or toys, but mostly she just sits somewhere new for the girls to hunt and find her the next morning.

 At our house the girls are allowed to touch our elf unlike the regular tradition that states if the kids touch their elf, the magic goes away. We started out with the “no touching” rule in the beginning but after about 5 minutes both girls were in tears after confessing that they had both touched her when I wasn’t looking (Evie is just so huggable that they can’t help themselves). So that evening I had a consult with Santa and he used a more heavy duty magic that can withstand little hands touching Evie. Problem/ tears solved! 😉

We really like to focus the good behavior that our kids are doing so when they do something really nice we always make it a point to say something like “I bet Evie is going to tell Santa how nice you are being to your sister!” and occasionally when they are being a little on the naughty side it’s nice to be able to say “Uh-oh… Evie is watching you right now… I wonder what she is going to tell Santa tonight?” -which usually stops bad behavior in its tracks! 😉

Whether you do the traditional Elf on a Shelf or a modified version to fit your family, I think it is definitely a tradition that makes fun memories of the holiday season! I know it is doing just that in our home! 🙂

Thanks so much for having me! Feel free to stop by and say hi anytime!

xoxo, Ashley