15 Clever Ways to Move Your Elf on a Shelf

After you’ve moved the Elf from the dining room light fixture to the kitchen windowsill to the fireplace mantel to the Christmas tree, you may find yourself pulling your hair out for more ideas that will keep your kids engaged (and their behavior in-line). After all, this time of year, it isn’t enough for you to work all day, then come home and produce a healthy meal to share as a family… You also have to be creative stage manager for a doll!

We’re here to help! Here’s a list of ideas that will hopefully get you through Christmas day, and we all will have survived another year of the Elf.

15.  Sitting at the family computer typing up “SANTA:  Daily Status Report on ______ and _______”  (Fill in your children’s names.)

14.  Perched on top of the washing machine, with a long piece of toilet tissue hanging down on which you’ve written “## More Days ’til Santa!” (time for the kids to help with laundry)

13.  Diving into the cereal box on the breakfast table… only legs sticking out.

12.  Hanging upside-down out of the refrigerator door’s ice dispenser.

11.  Dancing with Barbie on the kitchen counter.

10.  Falling face first into a bag of the kids’ favorite snacks.

9.  Holding on to the PlayStation/Xbox/Nintendo Wii game controller, with a small bowl of popcorn to the side.

8.  Ziplining on a candy cane down the stairwell. (Run fishing line from upstairs to downstairs to act as the zip line. )

7.  Climbing up the Christmas tree on a ladder made of every action figure doll your kids own.

6.  Huddling under a festive red hand towel in the freezer, on top of the ice cream.

5.  Sleeping late in a “bed” of a long box of facial tissue, with a “pillow” and “blanket” each made from a few sheets of the tissue.

4.  Soaking in a “bubble bath”, made in the kids’ bathroom sink from 3 bags worth of mini marshmallows.

3.  Doing bench presses, with a barbell made from a toothpick, with one mini marshmallow stuck to each end.

2.  Holding on to a coffee cup under the spout of the coffee maker.

1.  Fishing for Goldfish. For this setup: pour blue toilet bowl cleaner into kids’ bathroom toilet. Drop in a hand-full of Goldfish crackers. Place Elf on top of the toilet tank with candy cane “fishing pole” and string down into water. (Do this one right before you wake up your kids as the toilet bowl cleaner will dissolve the crackers quickly.)

Parents, if you’ve had a particularly long day, you can always just forget to move the Elf. Tell your kids that he only moves if they’ve been good the day before – so if he hasn’t moved, they must have done something naughty. Tell them to try harder today and give yourself a break.

BONUS:  If you need MORE ideas iheartnaptime.com has some ridiculously clever ideas, as well!

Happy Elfing!