One thing I hear a lot is that we have a lot of traditions. It is true. We really do and never is that more true than at Christmas time. I thought it would be fun to do a series of posts about our family holiday traditions and the reasons behind them.
First up:
The Letter to Santa.
While I was pregnant with Abi I was in a Target in Utah with my sister. We saw these really cute Christmas mailboxes and both picked one up.
It has been with us ever since.
Every year on Thanksgiving we write our letters to Santa.
At first I would write them for Abi writing down what I thought she would want, then as she got older she told me what to write. This year she drew pictures of her top 'wants' and then had me draw the others.
I wrote one for Maddy and myself and Doug wrote one as well.
The reasoning behind writing them on Thanksgiving is so that I can pick up things for Doug at Black Friday sales if any of his wishes are in the ads. It force him to sit down and write something down for me.
This goes for the kids as well although I already know what Abi wants most of the time.
We then put all our letters in the 'magic mailbox' knowing that at some point the elf that is assigned to us, Elvin, will retrieve them for Santa.
I'll come back to Elvin in a moment.
Here is Abi's list this year. The yellow paper contains her top three wishes and are the ones she drew. The other page I drew. I think her drawings are way better than mine!
So, what are those top three wishes pictured? #1- a moon dough farm (check) #2- a zhu zhu pet (check) and #3- a Polly Pocket roller coaster (close enough)
Okay, so back to Elvin. Elvin, to the best of my knowledge, was invented by my sister Steph. She used him when her daughters were younger and I adopted him.
Elvin is a cute little elf that, in my imagination, wears striped green pants and looks something like this.... (I hope it's okay to use this picture I found on google images. If anyone knows if it's not, let me know.)
Every year, Elvin is the one that magically retrieves our letters to Santa and in their place he leaves a little gift. Every year prior to this one he has left Abi one of those cute Christmas themed Kelly dolls (Barbie's little sister) but this year I didn't see them anywhere so he got her something I knew she wanted..
a Dora sticker and coloring book
Maddy also got a little gift which she immediately loved
Elvin's job is to show up occasionally to make sure everyone is on their best behavior and demonstrating Christmas spirit!
We love Elvin!!
Do you have a family elf?
What is your tradition for writing letters to Santa?
