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Parenting

02nd Nov 2021

We love this mum’s 5-minute hack for making your Elf on the Shelf moveable

Trine Jensen-Burke

How to DIY your Elf on the Shelf moveable

T minus 28 days.

That’s right, guys – just 28 more days until ‘Oh my God I forgot to move the Elf’ season commences.

Hard to believe, as it feels like just days since I sent the little guy off to the North Pole last time.

Sigh.

However, as we start to plan this year’s Elf antics, I just wanted to share this easy DIY hack I came across recently, which makes your Elf’s floppy limbs movable. Now, this might not seem like a ‘hack’ as such, but moveable arms and legs means your Elf can hang onto things, grab things and hold things – meaning you are suddenly armed with far more things for him to get up to come December.

And the best part? All you need is some paper clips and a needle.

Over on the blog Whisky + Sunshine, crafty mum Jana explains what you need to do to get your Elf some movable limbs – and the good news is that even for those of us definitively lacking in the DIY skills department, we can manage this one.

How to:

Use your scissors to carefully cut the string holding the Elf’s hands together. Don’t worry, we’ll make them connectable at the end of the process.

Next, take one of the paper clips and wiggle it between the stitches in the mitten on the Elf’s hand.

Push the paperclip all the way down into the Elf on the Shelf’s arm and use the mitten to push it in so that you can’t see the end.

Now you can make your Elf’s arms bend to any position you wish!

Repeat for legs and voila – your Elf can now grab, hold and hang on!