Merida Jingle Bells: The Elf on the Shelf that Teaches Little Ones About Jesus

Merida Jingle Bells: The Elf on the Shelf that teachers little ones about Jesus

 

Let me begin by saying I love Christmas. Actually, I love all things Christmas. The songs, the decorations, the happiness children get, and the TRUE meaning of Christmas, Jesus. (I will get to the Jesus part in just a minute). So, when the Elf on the Shelf first came out I loved it and couldn’t wait until I had a child so I could do the cool things with the elf. When you have kids your perspective changes slightly. When I had my first child I started looking up creative and fun things to do with our future elf. The more things I saw, the more I disliked the elf. My mind works differently than most but all I thought was this just seems like a lot more work for moms and dads to do. They have to think ahead of time what to do each day and think about what materials they will use. They also have to set it up and clean it up every single day. I also didn’t like how the elf was there to encourage the children to be good, yet it was destroying the house and making huge messes. I kept thinking it was sending mixed signals to children. Like parents were saying, “Hey kids this elf that is rolling the bathroom and acting crazy and bad is here from the North Pole to make sure you behave.” I also knew my child would take one look at that and think well the elf can do it, then so can I. I wanted so badly to still use the elf and I was determined to use the elf in a positive way so I came up with an elf that teaches children about Jesus!! So, I started the elf that teaches Jesus last year and posted some ideas on social media and got a lot of positive feedback. I had some other moms ask me to write a blog and share my ideas, so here is one idea below. Each day the elf brought a note with her and had a bible verse also written on it.

 

1.      Nativity Scene

·         I brought my elf out the day after Thanksgiving because my husband insists that we cannot put our tree up until then. I decided to put the elf out with the elf on the shelf book, the nativity scene, and a note from the elf. The note said for the elf to read the Elf on the Shelf book first and then read the REAL Christmas story in the bible. The reason I had her read the book first was so that she could name the elf and know not to touch the elf! I had her read the Bible last so that we could discuss after reading it in her children's bible.

·         Bible Verse: Luke 2