50 Kindness Elves Ideas
Have you heard of Kindness Elves? They are similar to Elf on the Shelf, except the elves encourage children to do acts of kindness during the Christmas season. We got our first set of Kindness Elves last year and my boys had a blast doing the activities! We did just the 12 days before Christmas, since we didn’t get our elves before then. Anna from The Imagination Tree sells them and last year she sold out very quickly. This year she has more options to choose from and hopefully a larger inventory. These are so popular!
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Each day, the elves write a message to the children asking them to an act of kindness. The children can also write messages back to the elves and put them in the mailbox that comes with the box. So cute!
Today I’m sharing 50 ideas you can do with kindness elves. You don’t have to have the elves to do these random acts of kindness, but it is a fun way to make the season meaningful for children. You can move the elves around the house with little notes for the children to find each day. It is really fun for the kids to wake up to!
Here are 50 ideas for kindness elves:
- Donate toys to a charity organization
- Send letters to soldiers overseas
- Visit a retirement home and bring homemade cards or sing carols
- Create packages to hand out to the homeless
- Pass out candy canes
- Send letters to children with long-term illnesses
- Buy gift cards for a teacher
- Bake goodies for the neighbors
- Buy the person’s order behind you at a fast food restaurant
- Sponsor a child from around the world with an organization, like Compassion.
- Bake or buy goodies for the local police officers
- Buy a gift for a child off of an Angel Tree
- Send letters to grandparents
- Clean up your sibling’s room for them
- Hug your friends
- Donate clothes to Goodwill
- Place $1 + tax into baggies and put them around the Dollar Store (I recommend putting it in a plastic baggie with a note that explains this is for someone to use!)
- Shovel snow off of your neighbor’s sidewalk
- Donate canned goods
- Pass out stickers
- Smile at everyone
- Donate old shoes to a charity
- Bring a meal to a family
- Buy the coffee order behind you in line
- Pass out encouraging notes to friends and family members
- Do yard work for a neighbor
- Bring hot chocolate to your neighbors
- Take goodies to the fire station
- Donate old books to the library or charity organization (even the doctor’s office!)
- Make a bird feeder for the birds
- Pick up trash in your neighborhood
- Deliver a surprise gift to a friend
- Donate supplies to the animal shelter
- Make Christmas crafts to give to friends
- Call a relative
- Make cards for the librarians
- Tape change to the parking meters
- Deliver coffee to your favorite teacher
- Scrape ice off of cars in a parking lot (this is for older children!)
- Write words of encouragement on sticky notes and post them around the house
- Give your parents a massage
- Compliment 5 friends
- Tell funny jokes to make people laugh
- Play a game with a sibling (without fighting!!)
- Bring flowers to a loved one
- Donate supplies to a local food bank
- Make homemade playdough and deliver it to a friend
- Hold the door open for someone
- Donate supplies to families with foster children (ask before what they need!)
- Do a chore for a sibling
Of course these are just 50 of my ideas and I’m sure you have more ideas! I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments.
I know this post seems early since we haven’t even celebrated Thanksgiving. I wanted to make sure you knew about Kindness Elves before the Christmas season and before they sell out! You can get these adorable dolls here.
Have a wonderful Christmas!
Thank you for this list!! We moved last year and I lost the stuff I had used for our Kindness elf the last few Christmases. We don’t have an official kindness elf, but one I found in a local store. A few years ago my kids had started to ask about Elf on the Shelf, but I was not interested in starting that! I found this idea instead, encouraging kindness acts. I LOVE it! My teenager now gets involved, helping me set things up the night before! So, I was super bummed to have lost the box with all my supplies in it when we moved. This list will help get me started in rebuilding our ‘idea’ box. So, thanks!