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12 Free Printable Elf on the Shelf Letters

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 for instant download—enjoy!

Download my 12 free printable Elf on the Shelf letters!

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!

pinnable graphic that says 12 free elf on the shelf letter printables including screenshots of some of the printables

Elf on the shelf arrival letter

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 🙂

graphic with screenshots of printable elf on the shelf arrival letters
graphic with screenshots of printable elf on the shelf arrival letters
graphic with screenshots of printable elf on the shelf arrival letters

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!

Free printable blank Elf on the Shelf arrival letters

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!

graphic with screenshots of printable elf on the shelf letters
graphic with screenshots of printable elf on the shelf letters
graphic with screenshots of printable elf arrival letters

Download the letters here!

Want to download all of the letters? I use Grow by Mediavine to deliver most of my exclusive freebies. Signing up below will unlock a Dropbox folder with all of the elf arrival letter files for instant download. You’ll also get access to my other Christmas-themed printables.

Here is a link to the Dropbox folder with all of the files!

blurry christmas lights with text that says free Christmas printables!

Pin my 12 free Elf on the Shelf letters!

pinnable graphic with text that says 12 free elf on the shelf printables including screenshots of some printables

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