Another holiday tokens are Santa’s and Granpa Frost’s little helpers – elves. They come in many forms and there are several traditions involving these sweet loving creatures.
Gnomes took over my bullet journal last year…
Perhaps the most known tradition in the USA is elf on the shelf – the elf-doll itself can be kinda creepy (at least to a European) but the idea is fun so we adapted it with our little elves:).
Our little elves were writing a letter to Granpa Frost when they gave the kids this task – and they usually bring special glitter gel pens or something similar into the truck.
They are made of wood and yarn and they come alive at night in December and hide and do stuff. But they also fill our advent calendar truck.
Our elves on the advent truck, ready for the night adventures…
Kindness elves are another version of “elf on the shelf” – when I saw them on some mommy blog, I was surprised that they are actually pretty much the same as our elves (that we’ve had for years) – another proof that good ideas come about at the same time in different parts of the world. The idea is that elves give kids fun tasks to do for others (like bake cookies etc…) I never considered “baking cookies” to be a kind act – for us it was always fun but you can look at it that way.
A Scandinavian-style gnome with a “happy hat” (I wrote a word or two about what I’m happy about each day) and trackers by its side – from my bujo
In Scandinavia (especially in Sweden and Norway) they have a couple of different breeds of gnomes and elves: Jultomten /Julenisse (Christmas edition or the Santa himself) and Gardstomtar / Hagenisse (garden gnomes), Husnisse (house elf), Fjøsnisse (barn gnomes) and Nissar in general (small gnome-like helpers). There are many traditions involving feeding the elves (i.e. man puts a plate of porridge with a big blob of butter for the barn elves) and them bringing luck or presents.
Handmade gnomes we made for our kids’ school fair (where they raise money for kids in need).
Tomtar (that is plural of Tomten or Tomte) is a Swedish variation that is active all year round but has a special meaning during Christmas time /solstice. In Finnish, it is called Tonttu and in Norway Nisse. They are solitary, mischievous domestic spirits and bring gifts on Christmas eve (and they look pretty much like the one in my bullet journal above).
Little winter elves made from pegs and felt.
And in our family? We have a LOT of elves, all kinds of elves because my middle child loooooves elves! All kinds of elves, gnomes and alike! She likes anything that has elves or gnomes on it, she likes clothes that look like an elf would want to wear them, she likes red and she likes toadstools and woods. It is very easy to please her:).
My elf-loving daughter in her elf-clothes (handmade by elf-loving mama;)
So I made her a hat from wool felt, heart-shaped hand warmers and faux fur leg warmers (patterns from an old Ottobre magazine) and a coat that is made from cooked wool and fleece, decorated with toadstools. She wore it literally every day! Who says elves don’t exist? Look closer!
Our little elf hiding in the Christmas tree (when the task was to decorate the tree…)
It’s a series of numbered little gifts that starts on the first of December and lasts until Christmas (the last one is on the 24th). The idea is that it will ease the waiting until Christmas for kids but you can make an advent calendar for adults as well (I made one for my alpha male at the end of this video). There are many variations – most include chocolate candies or knick-knacks. Sometimes the numbers are randomly placed so every day you have to find the right number first. (Some kids really like that and it’s the best part of the whole experience and some kids (mine for example) want to have numbers in the correct order – whatever floats your/their boat;)).
We have an advent calendar truck with 24 little drawers that I bought before I even had kids! I never go out to buy just one not-essential thing (I don’t enjoy shopping – well, this is an understatement – I usually hate it:D – if it’s not books – I love books and I like shopping for books as well;). But I digress – back to the calendar – it’s all made of wood and was surprisingly cheap because it was bought at the end of the holidays when stores are trying to get rid of such things;).
Our advent calendar is a wooden truck with 24 small drawers
Anyway, this was the one thing I went out to buy specifically, I drove to the store just for this – my alpha male thought I was crazy – we really don’t need that and he’d never go out to the store for something like that. But when I saw it in the advertisement I knew our future kids will love it;). And they sure do! *My alpha male (their dad;) now agrees that it was one of the best purchases ever. The only downside is that now we never make our own advent calendar because we have this one and they love it so much, they are very attached to it and don’t want to change a single thing about any tradition (who would’ve thought)… so we rock this bad boy every year. And the elves who fill it up need to think of very tiny gifts each year so that they fit into this x cm ( x ”) drawers (which is not an easy task, believe me!
Where this tradition comes from
A German publisher in the 19th century got the idea of the advent calendar and the first one consisted only of poems and pictures (traditionally manger scene). Nowadays there are many modern variations and most include chocolate candy – usually it’s the cheapest and worst chocolate you can imagine (*we did tests at my old job at the Faculty of nutrition and the calendars and chocolate figurines like Santas and Easter bunnies have the most poison in the chocolate; probably that’s also why they taste the worst) – so if you have the time I think it’s better to make or buy a »refillable« advent calendar and fill it with stuff your kids will really enjoy (and could be better for them;) or just break their favourite chocolate into pieces and wrap them individually – if you are artistically inclined and/or have time on your hands, you can decorate each piece as well to make it really pretty.
How to use it
Elves brought something to write to grandpa Frost…
Each day elves (or their substitute – whoever is filling this thing up in your world;)) bring a small gift into the partition with that day’s number on it. Some advent calendars are prefilled – obviously, all commercially bought calendars are prefilled and of course, you can fill it all up in advance. But I have figured out (through trial and error:D) that that might not be the best idea – especially for the little kids… They will have a really hard time not to look into other drawers or not to eat all the candy and even if that is not an issue (it wasn’t for our girls), it can still very quickly happen that the calendar will be tipped over, fall down and all the gifts will fall out and the surprise will be ruined. So in our household, the elves fill the calendar each night – if the kids prepare the calendar (put it onto the clean table – mamma, you see why this would be a good idea;) and put the elves on it). At night the elves fill the drawer with the gift and hide. In the morning kids open the drawer, get the gift, find the elves and in the afternoon we do what the gift usually suggest (our gifts are usually not candy because kids are very disappointed when they get candy – I know they are strange – I have no idea where they got that from:D)
How to adapt it so it’s more fun
As I have stated before, our kids don’t like to get candies or knick-knacks – they are always kinda disappointed if the elves put something »normal« into the calendar. They like the unusual stuff much better – so our elves try to make it more interesting:
Balloon on a string – a very simple but even more fun – science experiment!
Scientific experiments: one year the elves brought instruction and materials for making a science experiment every day – that was a hit!!! They really loved that and we still do some of them every year… Like the balloon on the string and the parachuter.
Culture events etc… (tickets for stuff): this one is suitable for younger and older kids – depending on what events you choose. For younger kids, puppet theatre or an animated movie and similar could be a very good choice and for older kids, concert and movie tickets could be very appreciated. Most kids regardless of age would probably not mind a ZOO ticket or even some »winter wonderland« or ice-skating ticket. A Christmas ballet is appropriate for a wide age group and very popular with many young »wanna-be-a-princess« girls. There are many many events happening in the winter holidays (on the normal year, that is;) so look around). In this situation, when many events are closed, there are still some things that are allowed sometimes – like a play with a certain number of people or something that is happening outside.
A museum we usually go to on our day of culture (3rd of December)
Family activities are very suitable for families with babies where going out to events is very difficult (and an even in itself:D) and could be the only available option this year – given the current situation. But have no fear – we’ve done that many years (I’ve had 3 babies;) and these activities are our kids’ favourites (along with science experiments). There are many things that elves can give that brings kids joy and quality family time:
recipes for cookies, bread, hot chocolate, pie, caramelized apples,…
instructions for origami ornaments or origami papers
instructions for lego ornaments
instructions for paper snowflakes
Instruction for paper snowflake are a good gift that can fit into any sized pocket:)
I have a big fat list of ideas for little gifts (what to put in it) on my Slovenian blog but if anybody is interested, I can write it here as well.
How to make it
A video tutorial on how to make a mini paper advent calendar with pockets is already on my channel.
I am also about to release a class on how to make a real art journal with kids that will be available on Skillshare shortly. And if you make your art journal that has 24 pages, you can use it as an advent calendar. I got the idea when I was making an “artsy advent calendar” one year and painted a small bubble every day (that you can see here in this post as well).
My version of “artsy” advent calendar… It was so much fun!
You could also make one from toilet tubes, small boxes, tiny buckets, envelopes, mini paper bags etc… Whatever small that you could gather 24 of;). Pinterest is full of wonderful crafts as you probably already know and advent calendars are no exception there;).
There are some wonderfully artistic renditions with transparent paper that are lit with candles from the backside that are used in Waldorf schools and remind one of stained glass.
*Adapting it for non-Catholics
If you don’t like the thought of counting down to Christmas because you don’t celebrate it or because you don’t like the fuss around it, you can still use the calendar to count down to something that you do celebrate. You could also decorate it to suit your celebration. Don’t worry, it’s a man-made tradition, you are allowed to “steal” it;).
*We sometimes extended our advent calendar to 31. of December because that’s the day that our kids get the presents from the almighty Grandpa Frost (more on that in the future;).
Very Arty Fairy 