I know! Today is Thanksgiving and here I am breaking out all the Christmas talk. I realize that is disrespecting the bird but I am going to eat that bird later and so, as my good friend Joey says, the bird’s feelings are a moo point. It’s like a cow’s opinion. It just doesn’t matter. It’s moo.
But I also know that Thanksgiving means it’s almost time for a certain little elf to make an appearance and I wanted to share with y’all something our family is doing this year that I think you might enjoy.
We don’t do Elf on the Shelf in our house for a few reasons, the main one simply being that we do not place a lot of emphasis on Santa Clause as part of our Christmas celebrations. I have some friends who are so amazing at coming up with creative antics for their “Elf on the Shelf” and I love laughing at all of their shenanigans as I scroll through my instagram feed. I have fond memories of my own childhood Christmases with Santa so please know that I am in no way judging if this is a part of your family traditions, just sharing our approach.
For us, we didn’t include Santa in our celebrations at all until last year, when Scarlette came home from preschool and asked if Santa could visit. We decided to modify our original plans a little bit and have Santa Clause bring one present.
We really emphasize that Santa does not bring gifts based on behavior but as a symbol of the first gift in the Christmas story; the John 3:16 gift, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” This is still a bit confusing for her because every Christmas movie/book ever talks about Santa’s list so we told her that each family gets to decide how many presents Santa brings and why he will bring them. She wanted to visit Santa this year so when we did we had him reiterate that for us 😉
So as much as I liked the idea of being creative and adding some cheer to our holidays with the elf, I thought that it might confuse her a bit. And then my friend NJ told me about the Star from Afar game and Y’ALL. It is so great! It’s such a good fit for our family.
The Christmas Star from Afar is a game based on the Christmas story and I love it so much. Ever since we got it I have been that girl who keeps excitedly telling all my friends about it. I think it is such a wonderful way to have a tradition that is creative and fun, like the Elf on the Shelf, but that helps children connect with the true meaning of Christmas through the telling of the Christmas story.
The game includes a sweet wooden nativity set. Every day leading up to Christmas you hide the Christmas star in a new place. Then, your little ones search for the star and when they find it they move the three wise men to wherever the star is, just like how the star led the wise men to Bethlehem in the Christmas story.
On Christmas morning, you put the star over the nativity and place baby Jesus in the manger for the wise men to find.
Scarlette was so excited to open this and read the book that comes along with it. She has begged me to find the star since it showed up on our doorstep so I hid it this morning and she had so much fun looking for it and moving the wise men.
And since I love this so much AND it is Thanksgiving, I am sharing discount code + giving one away! Just enter using the giveaway widget below!
(1) The Christmas Star from Afar Game
You can find Star from Afar at Hallmark or you can use the code FOLLOWTHESTAR on their website at starfromafar.com to take 10% off! (Good through 12/25/16)
Wishing you and yours a happy Thanksgiving!
(Disclosure: The Star from Afar was sent to us c/o because my friend NJ is friends with the creator but I wasn’t paid to promote this, I genuinely just love it and have been telling everyone about it.)
