A New Christmas Tradition

When I was little girl I was fascinated by Santa's elves.  My cousins and I spent hours looking outside at night trying to catch a glimpse of the little guys every December.  Every moving tree branch, changing shadows captured our imaginations.  During the day they would hide, we thought, but at night, under the cover of darkness, we thought they might just be a little less careful.  Maybe then we could see them, we thought.

So we watched and watched, but those Elves were just so sneaky!  We rarely captured a glimpse of them, but we knew they were around.  When we woke up in the morning they would often have left us little treats in the windowsill. 

Last year the elves brought Lu treats just like they brought me treats when I was little.  There was a problem though.  The whole tradition was all about getting and not enough about giving.  When Lu declared "Tell the elves I like chocolate"  after they had bought her a nice pair of socks I decided that things would have to change.

So this year we've decided to change things a little bit.  We had a nice discussion about how the elves were so nice to bring us things, and that they must be VERY VERY tired running around checking up on all of the kids.  So Lucia came up with making the elves a little bed so that they could take a little rest.

We filled a check book box with stuffing, rolled up felt into a pillow, and covered it all with a little blanket that Lu embroidered herself. Lu asked me to make a simple pair of slippers. 

Then Lu grabbed a table and a chair from her dollhouse and put a chocolate chip out for a snack.

 

The elves rewarded Lu's generosity with a little Christmas growing Santa (the kind that you put in water and it grows larger) so I think they must have really liked Lu's bed set up.

In the end we were all happy.  I think I like this twist on an old family tradition even better than the original.  What do you think?