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It’s Elf on the Shelf season! This is our first year doing it, so I had to put together a few arrival letters. I am sharing 12 free printable elf on the shelf letters enjoy!
Hey all! If you’re reading this, I am guessing you are a parent or some sort of caretaker. I’m a parent, too—of an almost-four-year-old, and we’re finally introducing Elf on the Shelf this year! I am really excited about it because I think she will love it.
We don’t plan on doing crazy Elf traps every night, but she loves hunts and finding things. So we’ll probably at least hide our elf each night. The Elf on the Shelf website also has a section for hiding ideas—including 5-minute ideas!
I also have coordinating free printable Elf on the Shelf goodbye letters you can download!
But the first step in your elf journey is to prepare for your Elf’s arrival. That’s where my 12 free printable Elf on the Shelf arrival letters come in! The arrival letters does a few things, especially if this is your first year doing the elf.
First, it explains what the elf is. It’s one of Santa’s elves sent to your home for the month leading up to Christmas. Second, it explains that the elf is reporting back to Santa about whether or not you’re making good choices.
Most of the letters I’ve seen have verbiage like, “I’m watching you so you better be good because I’ll tell Santa if you’re not.” I toned that down a bit for mine and talked about making good choices. (This is also language we picked up from school, so it echos that.)
The letters also have a bit about how the elf gets into trouble every night, so you might have to figure out where he is every morning. I kept this simple in case you just want to throw your elf in a drawer 🙂
For more holiday posts and projects, check out my 6 Free Snowflake SVGs, my DIY Wood Bead Ornaments, my 21 DIY Clear Christmas Ornament Ideas, and my 35 Free December Computer Backgrounds!
There are 12 printable letters but only 6 designs. That’s because I did a version of each letter that had my text, as well as a version that you can print and write in yourself. Whatever you want!
You’ll see screen captures of the letters throughout this post. Oh—and some are more of a letter format, while a few are shorter poems. I had some fun with this one!
Pin my 12 free Elf on the Shelf letters!
Printable version coming soon
A downloadable printable version of these designs is coming soon. There is no file to download yet, and there is no email signup required. Until the files are ready, use the descriptions and images in this post as a guide to recreate the design on US Letter or A4 paper.