I LOVE the idea of creating whimsy and memories into a child’s life, but I have a huge aversion to having a month full of “it’s all about me” mindset. That just breeds bratty, entitled children. So my intention was to create cards where at least part of the month the focus was on “others” and doing something nice for them. OK, with that said, I want to share another warning I have with the Elf on the Shelf movement. Young moms today are already burdened and barely find time to sit down. So when you add the “pressure” to keep up every day with another activity that just triggers guilt if you can’t keep up. So PLEASE be nice to yourself, your children won’t die if you can’t do something elaborate every day. No pressure, just have fun building memories!
Card 1: You probably will be baking cookies sometime in the month. Think ahead and save that card for the day before you’ll make cookies.
Card 2: Give your kids some paper and markers and let them make a card for someone in the military. Here is where you can find the address to send it to.
Card 3: Give your kids a small chore and then go to the store to buy a couple of canned goods that they can drop in a food drive box or the church food pantry. This takes a little time but teaches A LOT!
Card 4: This card will take a little planning ahead but it’s a great way for your child to get the message that there are kids who receive very little for Christmas. It doesn’t have to be a big gift but something to get the message across.
You can download the calendar HERE and the printable cards HERE
You can also grab this Elf on the Shelf idea page to help you organize your month. It can be found in my Buffalo Check Planner here.
I hope you enjoy these and build lots of wonderful memories with your children.
Thanks for sharing, The cards look wonderful. I will pin in my board. Have a nice day.
Cute cards 🙂 We never got into the Elf on a Shelf, but know lots of people who have! Pinned this to share with our friends and family!
I’ve been so sad that we missed this fun when my kids were little, but as I was looking over your lovely printables I realized we can still do this even though they’re “grown” … so… we’re in! Thanks for the inspiration!
This is GREAT!! This will be our first year doing Elf on the Shelf and I'm so excited to do it with my kids. This will be so helpful! Thank you for sharing!
Hey Barb! It's Deonna again! I would love for you to link this up at http://www.thechildatheartblog.com/2013/11/the-me…. My sister in law LOVES doing fun Elf on the Shelf stuff and I will have to send her here for these cards!
Just adorable! Great idea! Thanks for the free printables!I found you on Super Saturday Show & Tell.http://www.excuseourmess.com
I love your printables. Very creative and pretty. I'll bookmark for future reference. Found you via SITSGirls. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
I LOVE this! I have refused to give in to the Elf of the Shelf because I have felt that it focused too much on Santa and "me me me". There is already too much commercialism placed on Christmas and not enough focus on Christ and serving others. I just might give in and get an Elf with these cards. Thank you so much for taking the time to make these!
I love this! We originally got the elf to encourage better behavior after a particularly difficult time with my son behavior-wise and we have struggled to do some creative things with our elf, these cards will be a huge help! Thanks so much!
What a brilliant idea! I will be sharing on my blog this week with a link back to this post, of course! I'm also pinning to my Christmas board 🙂
Barb, I'd love for you to share these on my blog. Elf party linked on my sidebar. ~Diana
Love these! Featured them at Project Inspire{d}… thanks so much for joining the party! Happy Holidays!
I saw your post on the holiday link party! Very cute
So adorable! Thank you! 🙂
These are so cute. THANK YOU so much for your time and creative energy..
Love these cards. Such a great idea to use with the Elf and I especially love the Christian aspect to some of the cards. The grammar nazi in me is coming out, sorry. I noticed a spelling mistake – the word caught. Thanks for putting these together.
Thank you Jill for your nice words and for catching an error. I corrected that last year on the download but didn't change it on my page. So…. I just did that now. I NEED the grammar nazi's ( the nice ones like you) to help me out. 🙂 Have a great Christmas!
These are great cards. I might a have to use a couple of them.
Thanks Ashley! Have a great week. Barb
Love these cards. Such a great idea to use with the Elf and I especially love the Christian aspect to some of the cards. The grammar nazi in me is coming out, sorry. I noticed a spelling mistake – the word caught. Thanks for putting these together.
Thank you for pointing that out, I appreciate it. I corrected that one on the actual download page. Have a wonderful weekend.
Thank you for the ideas. I am always looking for something new to do since my kids are getting older.
JEM
Ps I found you via Inspire Me Monday Link party
Thanks for stopping by Janelle!
Those are adorable. I’m always on the look out for printable elf ideas that I can pull out whenever I’m in a slump (or too tired and in a hurry). Pinned it!
Thanks for sharing with us at the #HomeMattersParty link party.
Thanks for hosting Alayna! So glad you liked them. Have a Merry Christmas!
I love the cards! When I click the link to download, I can only download the calendar. Am I missing something?
Maria, so glad you like the cards. I’m not sure why you can’t download them but use this link and you shouldn’t have any issues. https://app.box.com/s/jomz1ccxqrxpmtcctpca Let me know if you still can’t get them. Have a Merry Christmas!
Cute cards!Thank you for linking up with us at #HomeMattersParty .See you again next week.
Thanks you. Thanks for hosting!
The cards look great. I particularly love the jokes.
Thank you for sharing at The Really Crafty Link party. Pinned.