Ghosts of Christmas Past (9)

Elf pattern (place on fold)

I keep an envelope marked "Christmas Elf" in one of our boxes of Christmas decorations. It holds a half-elf, cut from an old Christmas card. I'm saving him because he stirs good memories of a Christmas in the past.

Here's his little story. One year, the kids were out of school for Christmas but still had a few more days to wait before The Day. They were bored stiff and terribly nervous, shall we say?! "There's nothing to do!" they whined.

After Christmas at our house, we were going to drive out to Kansas for Christmas with my parents, and I was busy trying to get ready for all of that. I certainly didn't feel that I had "nothing to do," but it was clear that the kids were suffering.

I had seen an elf "wreath" in a magazine article about Christmas crafts. I think it was supposed to be made from felt, but I decided we could make one from paper. I sketched out the half-elf (above) on the back of an old Christmas card (stiff paper), cut it out, and set the kids down at the kitchen table.

Keely was old enough to use scissors well, so she traced the outline on folded sheets of paper and made about 20 of the little fellows. Isaac helped color them, and they drew their faces and other details with markers.

Then we cut a big ring of poster board, and the kids glued their elves shoulder to shoulder, with their heads to the center and feet to the outside, all around the outside edge of the ring. I don't think they bothered interlocking their arms, but perhaps it could be done. We attached a ribbon to hang it up.

It made a cute bit of kid art that they were proud of. We took the elf wreath to Kansas and gave it to Grandma and Grandpa Hill, and they hung it up until it finally got too bedraggled to preserve any longer.

Every time I see this little elf pattern, I meditate again on the eager anticipation of Christmas by children and the joy of spending time over the holidays with loved ones.