So What is The Elf on the Shelf? The Latest Christmas Tradition to Spring from The States.

I first saw the words, 'Elf on the Shelf' when an ex-school chum, fellow mum was discussing Christmas traditions. The Elf on the Shelf describes itself as a tradition, but it's still a budding one, especially in the UK where I hadn't heard of it at all. All good traditions have to start somewhere though, and whilst I recognise the sneakiness of trying to sell a specific toy and book set (£29.99 on Amazon), the Elf on the Shelf concept in itself is pretty magical, and can be done super cheap (I picked up an elf in Card Factory for 99p today).

Our son has just turned six, so I fear this game might only work for him this year, so I plan to make the most of it.

As the rules go, the Elf appears the day after Thanksgiving, and watches on behalf of Santa for naughty or nice behaviour, reporting back to the North Pole each night. In the morning the Elf is back, in a new mystery location within your home. The fun comes from finding comical or clever situations for Elf to be found in each morning. As the UK is a good couple of years behind on this, there's already a wealth of ideas online thanks to America's Mummy Bloggers sharing their creativity and Elf gimmick ideas.

So, anyone else fancy giving the Elf entrance this Christmas 2013? Let me know on Twitter, I'm @rudedoodle. Click the link to my Instagram beside my blog header to follow me and watch where I place our Elf every morning.