With December fast approaching excitement is brewing for our 3rd annual visit from the Kindness Elves. They arrive on the 13th December and stay until Christmas Eve and each morning they suggest a small act of kindness to help bring some Christmas cheer to those around us. Last year we were so busy having fun with the kindness elves we didn’t get round to sharing our adventures in a blog post. So here are a few highlights for you which included taking some toys and books to the Children’s Hospital and making cards and biscuits for people:
One suggestion from the Kindness Elves was to ”thank the lunch ladies at school for doing a great job”. After school our conversation went something like this
E – ”I did say Thank you for making dinner for us every day to one lady”.
Me – ”What did she say?”
E – ”She didn’t say anything, she didn’t hear me”.
Me – ”Oh well, it was lovely that you said thank you and perhaps another kid will have heard you and it will inspire them to say thanks”
(”Make a Christmas card for the postman”, ”read a story to someone”, ”Make some biscuits to give to a friend)
Another suggestion was simply ”Give someone a lovely compliment today”. E thought for a minute then said ‘‘Daddy your shoes are so cool. Mummy you do lots of nice things. I will have a think about who has nice hair…”.
Our favourite activity was ”leave some coins by a fountain with a note that says ”make a wish”. We went to Gloucester Cathedral and left some coppers in an eggbox and sat on a bench nearby to see what happened. E was thrilled to see children run up to the box, read the message and throw a coin into the water. This is definitely an activity we’ll repeat this year (while trying to stop L from diving into the water!)
The Kindness Elves were created by parent blogger Anna at The Imagination Tree. Many families have now adopted this lovely tradition and share their kindness activities inspiration on-line (search #thekindnesselves on Instagram for a flurry of ideas). We bought our kindness elves from The Imagination Tree shop, complete with a little house box and it’s been the best investment. I can’t wait for their visit this year and remain hopeful that a 1.5 year old trying to get in on the action will enhance the experience for E.
(hmmm, note to self – plan a few solo activities for E minus baby brother).
[…] spread the cost by starting early and make sure I had time and energy for the 12 days of December when the kindness elves come to stay. So most presents have been purchased and stashed including the bits and pieces for the boys […]