Sunday, December 10, 2006

The Christmas Elf



I’ve been writing Christmas cards and letters, and now I must go and mark students’ work, so I really don’t have time to blog. However, it’s maybe about time I started joining in with the Christmas spirit, so – let me introduce you – briefly – to the Christmas Elf. He lives in our house at this time of year.

Every day in December, he brings little chocolate presents to the children who live here. He leaves a little note – usually a short poem, often with a little drawing - in the relevantly numbered box in this extremely bashed and scruffy Advent chimney. The note holds a clue as to the whereabouts of the chocolate. I - sorry, the Elf - bought and filled this chimney for the first time about twenty years ago.

The children still with us are now 22 and 25 and they still enjoy finding the little presents. Or to put in another way, they strongly feel that the presents should still be left. "Insist" might not be too strong a word. After all, we wouldn’t want the Elf to feel redundant, would we?

Beware, o young parents, of starting these traditions…

6 comments:

  1. I think that's gorgeous that the kids still want you to do the Elf's chocolate hunt.

    A treasure hunt component to the advent calendar is such a nice idea. I may have to borrow it for next year.

    Instead of hurriedly buying the Blinky Bill on-special calendar for $1.99, 12 days into December.

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  2. I like that treasure hunt idea too. I'll have to wait until the FB is older but I think we might nab it.

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  3. Love your little Christmas Elf.
    What a nice story!

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  4. What a lovely tradition:)

    Have a wonderful Christmas!

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  5. I love the elf! And we do have oystercatchers in oz - the Pied, which is black and white like the European one; and the Sooty, which is all black, funnily enough. Trust me, the bird nerd, to know about these things ;) I still like the idea of running clams though!

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  6. Anonymous10:29 pm

    The Christmas Elf?! I love the Christmas Elf. Was the Christmas Elf on a Chocolate Hunt? We love Chocolate Hunts! Send us your Chocolate Hunt experiences. ChocolateHunt.com

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