4 years ago Eddie the Elf came to stay with us every December, arriving on 1st December with his Elf door magically arriving bearing gifts for the children. Of course, those are their advent calendars coming all the way from the North Pole and then the excitement of Christmas really begins.
It’s that first weekend in December we put up the tree and the decorations and throughout the month Eddie gets up to little adventures, sets up games for the kids and generally makes their days start with a smile.
He may bring treats for them, letters from Santa, reminders about behaviour if needed and praise when warranted. He also does silly things such as having snowball fights with the kid’s toys, sledging down the stairs, having toilet roll wars with the other toys and he has even wrapped the Christmas tree in wrapping paper.
When he leaves the kids get sad, so to combat this he leaves the kids a Christmas Eve box each.
This distracts from his disappearance and saves the tears which are still always close. Eddie leaves at some point on Christmas eve so he can get back to the North Pole to help Santa, usually, he has gone before the children wake up as let’s face it, it’s far easier that way.
This year I’ve (I mean Eddie) helped to prepare the Christmas Eve boxes with the aid of Poundtoy.com. Here they have loads of toys and gifts from as little as £1 so you can get items for the kids for their stockings or even Chrismas Eve boxes.
They also have bigger gifts with greats savings too.
This year the children have these Christmas eve boxes for Eddie to leave with them on Christmas eve – all items can be found on the Poundtoy.com website:
Christmas Eve boxes for children – what’s inside ours:
Emmy’s Christmas Eve Box
Crystal growing kit
Make your own bouncy ball kit
Squishy Unicorn
Dot to Dot book
Unicorn window art
Colour your own unicorn mug
Harry’s Christmas Eve Box
Crystal growing kit
Make your own bouncy ball kit
Animal Planet sticker book
Colour your own jungle mug
Minions Top Trumps
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The actual Christmas eve boxes are also from the same site. All I need to get for their boxes now are some new PJ’s – they always have new PJ’s in their Christmas Eve boxes and some chocolate coins, hot chocolate and usually a family movie to enjoy together.
The items received above are great value and there is lots of choice on the site, in fact, I had trouble choosing what to add to their boxes – I never spend a lot on these boxes as they are more a token gift before the main event of Christmas day which is expensive enough.
For us the Christmas Eve boxes mark a day of unwinding from all the chaos, the school activities, busy weekends of Christmas events.
The day starts with finding their boxes, followed by baths for all and jumping into our new PJ’s (Paul and I usually have new ones too). We then sit down together to do the crafts or activities in their boxes, have a tidy up of the house so it is ready for Christmas morning and we settle down with a takeaway, hot chocolate and a family movie. We leave this as a quiet day as Christmas day is full of excitement and often a little chaotic, this way they are relaxed and hopefully they get to bed at a decent hour ready for Santas arrival.
Also from this website, I got these for the children’s stockings and I have to admit to wanting both myself, I know the kids will love them both.
Do your children receive Christmas Eve boxes? I’d love to hear all about them.
Disclaimer: I was given a £50 voucher to spend at Poundtoys.com in exchange for this post. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
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Clare
Hi, I'm Clare (Emmy's Mummy). A former Nanny and Mother of 2 - Emmy (born February 2010) and Harry (born October 2012). We are Essex based and share our adventures and misadventures of a busy crazy life.
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These look like fun boxes to receive! We have Christmas Eve stockings here, which normally include pjs, bath bombs, chocolates and a book or DVD. Our elf goes home that night, so this does soften the blow!
These look like fun boxes to receive! We have Christmas Eve stockings here, which normally include pjs, bath bombs, chocolates and a book or DVD. Our elf goes home that night, so this does soften the blow!