Just like the whole concept of Santa - some are all about Santa, some are against Santa and some fall somewhere in-between.... my goal is not to get into a deep theological discussion on Elves and Santa and all those other made up characters that come around on different holidays throughout the year. To be honest I love holidays and the fun fictional characters that come along... but for me... it is important to make sure that my child understands that they are a fun part of the holiday...a fairy tale feature that allows us to pretend and be creative... while still not loosing sight of the real meaning of the holiday. And lastly it is a priority for me to be honest with my child... I don't want to tell her something is real and then later tell her it is not real.... do we have conversations about Santa - yes! But I try my best to never talk about him as a real person that watches to see if you are good.... That is my personal conviction! Not one that I expect others to fall in line with.
More than anything I want my child to know that she is getting gifts because God is good to us! And he is gracious! Not because she has earned it, because if I am honest - I haven't earned any of the good gifts that God has blessed me with - it is God's grace and goodness that he lavishes his love upon us. That to me is what I want to be promoting to my child. In the same way I want her to be a giving person, knowing that we give not because people deserve gifts but because whatever we do for others, we do unto the Lord. I want my child to be giving.
So with that being said - I wanted to come up with a way to stay true to my convictions while also enjoying the fun and creativity of the Christmas elves. So after doing some research I found some information about a few alternatives such as the Kindness Elves and one I learned about just tonight which was the Shepherd Adventure and Wondering Wisemen.
So I decided to marry two ideas into a fun new tradition called Elfina's advent adventures.... so as in years past we have turned over a Christmas tree to find out what we would be doing that day, now this year instead of having the adventures on the paper trees lined up on the wall I am going to have Elphina doing something fun as a clue to what we will be doing as our advent adventure for that day.
I will be posting daily through Christmas about Elfina's adventures.... I hope you will follow along with us and share your advent activities or your favorite Elf activities and maybe I can use your ideas to help create an awesome Advent Adventure for Ella and her new friend Elfina.
