Teaching Grace Through an Elf

I totally caved. I couldn't resist getting an Elf on the Shelf for my kids.

James and I had been feeling really conflicted about how to deal with Josiah's questions about Santa.

I didn't like lying to him, but I didn't hate it either! I didn't' grow up believing in Santa and I'm having so much fun with the magic and joy he brings my kids. I wasn't ready to let him go yet, but I also had a great desire to bring Jesus back into the focal point.

Enter….Buddy the Elf (don't be jealous of our huge amount of creativity in choosing names)

After reading this blog post about the topic I was so determined to let my children love the magic of Christmas and love the joy that Jesus brought when he was born.

So Santa wrote a letter to the kids explaining why he gives gifts (because Jesus was the ultimate Christmas gift) and why he has so much love for children (because he has Jesus in his heart).
The letter also talks about Buddy, who can be naughty. But because of the grace that was shown to us by Jesus, we too should show Buddy grace when he does silly things!

This was the first morning with Buddy, who had gotten into the hot chocolate mix and ate nearly all of it. The boys couldn't stop looking at him. Look at that concentration on their faces!
They laughed and giggled. We cleaned up the mess together and told Buddy that we forgave him for his sill behavior. We told him we understood that he just wanted to be part of our family and we should have included him last night when we drank hot chocolate without him.

This has been so much fun! And each day when we put Buddy back on the fireplace mantel (so he can watch ways we show each other love and grace though out the day) we tell Buddy something that we love about Jesus, so he can go back to the North Pole and tell Santa something new about Jesus. We decided to nix the "Naughty or Nice" list. Santa thinks all children are wonderful and wants to bless them all.

This has been a great parenting tool, and a fun one!

Last night's was the best.

All the guys were escaping to trap Buddy before he made a mess of the playroom.

So what are some of the ways that you try to incorporate Jesus back into Christmas?
I'd love to hear your ideas!!!