Christmas Elf Tradition
Make this holiday tradition with your kids a bit more fun with this cute "Hello from your Elf" Letter. Add your choice of personalization. They'll make the experience fun and you'll have a wonderful keepsake for years to come.
It's almost that time of year again. The time of year when we are filled with excitement, busyness, lots of parties and lots and lots of delicious, fattening food. It's also a time when our Elves come out to keep an eye on our kids. I've noticed over the years that the elf has two camps – those that do it begrudgingly and those that truly have fun creating elf antics in their home. For me, I love coming up with new and fun things for our elf to do. Yes, I'm the mom who printed a calendar and jotted down a few ideas so that nights wouldn't be stressful with what the heck is the elf going to do next? Even with a list of ideas, some nights it is still a pain. Sure. But lots of things in parenting can be a bit of a pain. My children's delight every morning makes it totally worth it.
I believe part of the joy of Christmas is making memories with our families. For my kids, I hope that when they look back on the Decembers that Ramone visited, they will remember how much fun they had looking for him each day. The tradition of the Christmas Elves goes back a long time and I hope when my kids become parents they will keep the tradition alive with their own kids. Do you know the history of Christmas Elves?
Elves are present in Germanic, British and Scandinavian folklore in which they are often referred as light elves (good) or dark gnome like elves (bad). In pagan times, Elves were believed to guard homes against evil. If you were good, the elves would be good to you, but if you were bad, they would play tricks on you. To keep the elves well fed, happy and out of mischief, people left a bowl of porridge on the doorstep at night.
In Iceland the Yule Lads visit homes each day to leave presents and play tricks on children between December 12 and 24. In the Netherlands, Father Christmas’s side kick is called Zwarte Piet (Black Peter), in Germany Knecht Ruprecht. In certain regions of France, Père Fouettard (the literal and rather scary translation is “Whipping Father”) accompanies Santa Claus, distributing coal to naughty children. One of the main Christmas characters in Denmark is a mischievous elf named Nisse. Christmas is a time when Nisse can have his fun. Nisse is said to live in the lofts of old farmhouses and he enjoys to play jokes.
Already associated with story telling and magic, elves began to be associated with Christmas in the mid – 1800s, when they became Santa’s helpers. Christmas celebrations were gathering popularity and Scandinavian writers penned the elves’ role as we know it today: good hearted fairy like helpers of Santa Claus that are sometimes mischievous.
Folklore tells that elves make sudden appearances in families in the run up to Christmas. They keep an eye on children, check who’s naughty and who’s nice and report their findings back to Santa. In different countries, Santa’s helpers go by different names, but the traditions retain many similarities – mainly centered around encouraging children to be on their best behavior. And I mean really what parent doesn’t want some help with that? Thank you Ramone!