It’s that time of year again…

In 2013 an American craze swept through the UK. The Elf on the Shelf story book and plastic elf doll appeared in shops everywhere and suddenly the nation’s parents and carers were catapulted into a nightly frenzy of coming up with weird and wonderful things to do with their elves in order to bring the magic of Christmas into their homes.

At the time my eldest daughter was 4 and had started school that year and all her friends seemed to be talking about their elves, but we had enough Christmas cheer in our house, so I got away without buying a doll.

The following year, as Christmas approached, I knew what was to follow, as parent friends of mine began to worry about the imminent arrival of their elves. I decided that as I didn’t really like the face of the official Elf on the Shelf that I would make my daughter an elf and that’s exactly what I did…

Elvis and his golden reindeer, Christmas 2014

Elvis, pulled by golden reindeer, arrived through a magic door above the picture rail and each night he got up to more and more elaborate activities, including games of hide and seek with other toys, a pampering session in the bathroom, zip-lining down the stairs into the dining room and many more.

He was so beloved and nine years on, even though our eldest has grown-up and no longer thinks he’s magic, he still returns and brings Christmas joy with him. He’s now accompanied by two more elves too, made by me when our two other little ones had their first Christmasses back in 2016 and 2020. These two elves, Ronnie and Gem, still hold their magic for my little one and littlest one and so the nightly dread of coming up with exciting activities continues.

From left to right, Gem, Elvis and Ronnie (short for Veronica) arrived back with us this Christmas

Since making our family elves I haven’t created any others, until now…

…back in July members of the Hornsea Collective mentioned a Christmas Elf Trail and after sharing a picture of my three handcrafted elves and saying that I’d be happy to create an elf for the trail, other creators came forward and said they would make an elf in their artistic style too! And so, I got my craft on and made an elf.

The elf I created for the Hornsea Collective Elf Trail

This then led to a commission for another elf which was needed to encourage a little girl to give up her dummy! After that the elf-making bug struck and I made three more elves especially for Christmas markets I was attending.