Christmas is a time to celebrate treasured family traditions, as well as create new ones as your family grows. While there are plenty of fun Christmas activities for kids, there's nothing else quite like Elf on the Shelf. As excited as kids get about the annual Christmas tradition, some adults get just as excited by — and amazingly creative with — their elaborate Elf on the Shelf ideas and Elf on the Shelf accessories. Luckily, it's 2021, and that means everyone's creative ideas can be shared on Instagram to make the rest of our lives much easier.
If you're not familiar with the interesting history of Elf on the Shelf, in short, the concept originally stemmed from the book Elf on the Shelf by Carol Aebersold and Chanda Bell. The storybook comes with an elf doll, which you name as a family. Meant to encourage kids to behave leading up to Christmas so they can stay on Santa's "nice list," the story goes that elves are Santa's scouts, reporting back to the North Pole each night while everyone is asleep. This is where the fun comes into play, because elves love to get up to all sorts of trouble. They never return to the same spot twice, and their favorite game is hide-and-seek, meaning it's up to you to come up with new and exciting scenarios for your Elf on the Shelf each morning. (Of course, if the kids ask, you're just as surprised as they are.)
While seeing your kids' reactions is worth it, it's not always easy coming up with ideas for what to do with your Elf on a Shelf (especially if you waited until the last minute). That's why we're sharing some of the best original Elf on the Shelf ideas from Instagram for you to recreate at home.
