24 Easy Elf on the Shelf Ideas for Home (With Cheat Sheet) (2024)

If you are familiar with the Elf on the Shelf tradition, you already know that elf on the shelf ideas play a huge role in how much fun kids get to have with their scout elf. But with all the preparations involved in the buildup to Christmas, coming up with ideas can get really tasking. Your ideas do not have to be too demanding. If you foresee a busy Christmas for yourself and your family, you can work with these 24 easy elf on the shelf ideas for your home this Christmas. Just print out this Elf on the Sheld Cheat Sheet and have fun with your scout elf without overstretching yourself.

1. Elf on the Shelf

This idea is as easy as placing the scout elf where it belongs – on the shelf!

2. Bathing Elf

Place your elf in a small bowl. Then cover the elf in marshmallows up to the shoulder region, leaving the head uncovered. The marshmallows will serve as the lather of your bathing elf. You may even place a small rubber duck on the marshmallows. When done with the small bowl, place it in your bathtub.

3. Ball-Throwing Elf

You can leave your elf out beside your Christmas tree with a bauble in its hand and baubles all over the floor. This is pretty easy to pull off, and you most probably wouldn’t have to get any extra material.

4. Have Your Elf Sitting on a Gift Box

A gift from Santa? You can have the elf sit on a gift box. On one hand, the sight of a gift from Santa will make the kids joyful. But on the other hand, they cannot touch the elf, so the gift remains where it is.

5. The Conductor Elf

Were they singing Christmas carols? Get all the different dolls and action figures you have in the house. Then line them up in front of the elf as if they are choirs standing before a conductor.

6. Oral Hygiene Elf

Before you start munching on all the candy canes and sweets you can, the scout elf is here to remind you about dental care. Surround the elf with toothbrushes, toothpastes, and a few other oral hygiene products.

7. Friendly Neighborhood Elf

How about an elf with spiderman powers? Wear a little mask on your scout elf, then attach it to a wall like it’s crawling. You may also make it hang down from a white thread or string like spiderman hangs from webs.

8. Fencing Elf

You can do this with 2 elves or with 1 elf and another doll. Make tiny fencing blades for the 2 elves or for the elf and the doll. Then make it look like they are fencing.

9. Trimming the Tree

Give your elf a tiny pair of scissors, then place it around the thickest foliage of the Christmas tree.

10. The Elf Is a Daredevil

Have your elf hang from the Christmas lights on your tree.

11. Covered in Some Snow

Create some fake snow using baking soda and cornflour. Sprinkle some of it on the elf, making it seem like the elf returned from the North Pole covered in some snow.

12. Laying in the Freezer?

Place the elf in any of your cooling machines (refrigerator or freezer). For an individual used to the subzero temperatures of the North Pole, your freezer will surely feel like home.

13. Snow Globe Elf

Here’s another idea that involves snow. But this time, instead of sprinkling snow on the elf, place it in a snow globe with some snow.

14. Laidback Elf

Sometimes, the elf has to take a break from scouting. Build it a lounge chair or a hammock where it can lay back and chill.

15. More Elves?

If the elf ever feels like it needs more eyes for effective scouting, take it to the photocopier and let it make copies of itself.

16. Elf in an Unnatural Habitat

Elves live at the North Pole where it is cold year-round. So, they probably never get to go to beaches and lay on the sand. But what if your elf on the shelf was laying on the beach taking the sun in?

17. The Tree Topper

If you have your tree up by this time, you can dress your elf like an angel and place it at the top of the tree like a tree topper. You do not necessarily have to dress the elf as an angel for this; you could place it on the tree in its usual attire.

18. Is That You Picasso?

If you are looking to encourage your kids to take part in fun artistic activities like painting, try this out. With a painting brush in its hands, place your elf beside a portrait of itself.

19. Time to Read

You can have your elf in a reading position by placing a book in front of it. This can also be a way to get your kids to read some easy Christmas short stories.

When doing this, avoid using the Elf on the Shelf book.

20. The Tissue Box Is Cozy

Placing the elf in awkward places is perhaps one of the most common types of elf on the shelf home ideas. This awkward spot idea basically involves putting your elf to sleep in a box.

21. I’ve Got My Elf Stuck In a Cookie Jar

Well, this one is pretty straightforward. Place your elf in the cookie jar and cover it up, making it seem like the elf fell into the jar and got trapped while trying to get a cookie.

22. TP’d the Tree

The elf is probably the last person you would expect to cover the Christmas tree in toilet paper. But what if everyone woke up to a tree covered in toilet paper with the elf standing at the crime scene while holding damning evidence?

23. Wrapping Gifts

Christmas is only a few days away, and the gifts aren’t wrapped yet. But everyone wakes up to the elf wrapping gifts, and this reminds them to do the same.

24. A Familiar Spot

On the day when the elf is to return to the North Pole, let it sit in a familiar spot – the shelf. Beside it, place a goodbye gift.