The elf’s goodbye letter
Three or four lines, left where the elf was sitting, saying that it is going back with Santa tonight and coming back next December. Name one thing that happened in the house this month and it stops reading like a form letter.
The short answer
The elf’s goodbye letter should be short and warm, say it is going home to the North Pole and will tell Santa about the child, promise to return next year, and leave out anything about being good. Elf Emergency writes one signed with your elf’s name, for $4.99.
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What it should say
The elf has been in the house for weeks and has, in the child’s mind, been watching all of it. The letter is worth more if it proves that.
One specific thing — the morning someone found it in the cereal, the day it got knocked off the shelf, the sibling who talked to it — does more than a paragraph of warmth.
- That it is going back tonight, with Santa
- One thing it saw in this house, named
- That it will be back next December
- Nothing about behaviour, and nothing conditional
The line to keep out
Do not make the return conditional. “I will come back if you are good” turns a goodbye into a threat left on a table on Christmas Eve, and it is the version a child remembers.
The elf leaves because Christmas is over, not because of anything the child did or did not do. Keeping that clean is what makes the goodbye warm rather than anxious.
Where to leave it
Where the elf has been sitting, with the elf gone. The empty spot is the part that does the work, and a note left anywhere else loses it.
Put it out last, after everything else, so the elf is still there at bedtime and gone by morning. If a younger child is likely to be upset, leaving a small thing beside the note — a candy cane, a drawing — softens the empty shelf considerably.
Questions
What should the elf’s goodbye letter say?
That it is going back with Santa tonight, one specific thing it saw in your house this month, and that it will be back next December. Three or four lines is enough.
When does the elf leave?
Christmas Eve, after the child is asleep, so the elf is there at bedtime and the empty spot and the note are found in the morning.
Should the letter mention being good?
No. A return that depends on behaviour turns the goodbye into a warning. The elf leaves because Christmas is over, and nothing else.
While you are here
- Elf Emergency
Forgot to move the elf, got caught, need tonight’s idea, the arrival or the goodbye: a plan for you and a note in the elf’s own hand for them, in a minute. $4.99.
- You forgot to move the elf
The elf did not move and someone is awake in ten minutes. Four explanations that work and one thirty-second setup that covers it.
- Easy elf ideas, ranked by effort
Seven elf setups that take under two minutes and need nothing you do not already own. Ranked by how tired you are.
- The note Santa leaves on Christmas Eve
What to write in a note from Santa left on Christmas Eve, where to leave it, and why the short ones work better than the long ones.
Santa knows more than you think.
Tell Santa the small things nobody else knows, and he will tell them back.