Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas

We have had our Elf on the Shelf Buddy for nine years now, and being a food blogger many of his antics have incorporated food, so I thought it was about time to share my elf food ideas. I have always enjoyed setting up our Elf in cute and funny situations for my two kids, and some of my Elf on the Shelf ideas were even featured in the Sunday Mirror in 2022. So put your feet up with a hot cup of cocoa, get cosy and have a browse of my 35 elf food ideas below. I hope you find some inspiration!

But first…

Making your Elf Posable

The first thing I did when I first bought our elf was to insert wire into his limbs so I could pose him better. This isn’t a necessity, it just makes for better poses, like your elf will be able to hold things more easily and do things like cheekily cover his mouth. You can watch a video on how to insert wire and make your elf posable and decide if you want to do that or not. If you do want to go ahead with doing this, here is the wire I used.

I also use these sticky velcro dots for our Elf’s hands in order to have him hold his hands together when necessary. Those just stick on and they will need replacing from time to time, but there are loads in each pack so you’ll have plenty of back ups.

FREE Elf on the Shelf Planner

Get super organised and plan your Elf’s antics throughout December with my Elf activity planner. You can download it and print it out for FREE here. Just make sure you hide it from the kids!

Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas Effort Scale

As I have so many Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas to share, I thought it would be best to group them into difficulty categories, starting with the easiest first:

• Almost no effort
• Quick & easy
• A little more effort
• Most time consuming

Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas | Almost No Effort

1. Elf on the Shelf eating chocolate

All you need is a cake bar (this was a Cadbury Mini Roll) or chocolate bar, then sit your elf on a shelf where you keep your snacks and leave the cupboard door open for the kids to find.

2. Elf fries some eggs

With a some fried egg sweets, you can do this easy Elf on the Shelf food idea two ways:

1. If you have a toddler or preschooler who has a play kitchen, you can use a frying pan and turner from there and position your elf with them on its stove top.
2. If you don’t have a play kitchen at home, use your kitchen stove with your smallest frying pan and a turner.

If you can’t find a bag of fried egg sweets, no problem, just buy a bag of Haribo Starmix and pick them out.

3. Elf makes popcorn

Just add a couple of packets of popcorn to your microwave and then sit your elf in the middle and leave the door open, or ajar.

4. Naughty elf does a poop

Some of my kids favourite elf antics have been the rudest ones like this! All you need is a short tumbler and a chocolate chip, plus your elf! Our elf can cover his mouth cheekily like that because we made him posable, see here how to do that too. You of course don’t need to do that, it just makes it that little bit more fun!

5. Elf enjoying some cream cookies

One of the easiest ones to do, you just need a biscuit like Oreo’s, bourbons or custard creams and not be afraid to let your elf get his face a bit messy!

6. Naughty elf makes a mess with the ketchup

This is another Elf on the Shelf food idea that you only need one other item for, and it’s super budget friendly as it’s one that everyone has in their cupboards - ketchup! With this one though, you will want to do the squirt that morning not the night before. That’s because 1) you don’t want the ketchup staining the grouting and 2) the ketchup will have run off the tiles by the morning!

7. Elf on the Shelf food idea: cookie jar raid

Another budget friendly and super easy one, you can just use your regular cookie jar or biscuit tin and your elf can be helping himself to any biscuits that are in there.

8. Elf snack cupboard raid

Elves are always hungry didn’t you know?! And they have such a sweet tooth! Just use whatever cans or food tubs you have in your cupboards and make a tower so your elf can reach up to your snacks! Then prop him up at the top by having him lean over a box. Just make sure whichever day you do this, the tower won’t be in your way!

9. Elf makes christmas cookies

This time of year you can always find lovely Christmas cookies in garden centres and department stores. Although not a budget friendly one, it’s a lovely way to surprise the kids with Christmas cookies if you were planning on buying them anyway. You don’t need a Elf on the Shelf baking kit, but it’s extra effective if you do have it!

Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas | Quick & Easy

10. Toasty Elf on the Shelf

So simple yet so funny! Be sure to leave a note saying something like “It’s cold outside but I’m feeling all warm and toasty!” I always have thin card and I usually use that whenever I need to write a note from our elf, Buddy. And I like to make his handwriting old fashioned and swirly for extra effect, and so the kids don’t realise it’s mine! It’s fine to set this up the night before, nothing will happen to the toast.

11. Naughty elf grates Mr Potato!

Poor Mr Potato! You’ll just need a packet of crisps and a decent size potato. Grate the bottom of a large potato, stopping mid-grate so some of the potato is stuck in the grates. Then using a black marker, draw on a scared face. It’s fine to set this up the night before nothing will happen to it overnight. To position your elf, you can wedge them standing up between the wall and the grater or a food jar like I did here. Otherwise like the grating carrot idea further down, lay the grater flat and have them straddle the top of it and leaning against the wall.

12. Elf bakes some banana bread

Such a silly elf! For this you’ll need a fresh, large unsliced bakery loaf of bread. Then you’ll need three smallish bananas. Push them through the loaf at random, gently and carefully, trying not to break up the loaf while you are doing it. Leave a note saying something like “I baked you some banana bread”.

13. Elf bakes a sponge cake

Just dig out an unused cleaning sponge and top with cake sprinkles, leaving a note saying something like “I baked you a sponge cake”.

14. Elf on the Shelf food idea: Caterpillar ride

This one is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers. You will need:

• 5 apples
• some self adhesive googly eyes or ones without a sticky back and some decent glue
• a straw you can cut in half
• 2 mini marshmallows
• a marker pen

To make its head, cut a straw in half then carefully push them into the apple top. Then push the marshmallows onto the tops of the straws. Add the googly eyes on and draw a little mouth. Then position the rest of the apples in a winding way behind the head apple. Carefully sit your elf on the apple behind the head.

15. Hey smartie pants!

Simple yet effective, just dot your kids (clean!) pants with smarties and leave a note saying something like “morning smartie pants!”.

16. Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas: Gingerbread House

Another simple one, just get your ground ginger out the cupboard and place three slices of toast around it like two walls and a ceiling. Leave a note saying something like “do you like my gingerbread house?”.

17. Elf plays Tic Tac Toe with Marshmallows

You will need some mini marshmallows for this and some thin card or some paper. Cut it into a square. Then use a marker and a ruler to draw the tic tac toe grid. Use food icing pens to draw naughts and crosses on the marshmallows, three of each. If you think your child will not grab and eat these and that you’ll have time to tell them not to, you can use felt tips instead.

18. Elf & friends ride banana cars

Another simple and budget friendly one, especially if you always have bananas to hand and clementines or plums. Just wedge the bananas between four clementines (two each side) or plums and then carefully add your elf and his friends on.

19. Toasting Marshmallows

For this one, first add a marshmallow to a skewer and then toast it over a gas hob. Alternatively do it in your air fryer. Then position your elf sitting on something next to a flameless battery tea light or candle, and holding the marshmallow on the skewer. You’ll need to allow the marshmallow to rest on the tea light or candle holder.

20. Elf on the Shelf Food Idea: Pop It Bread

Using skittles, make rows equal rows of them in a slice of bread and sit it next to your elf. Have your elf hold one of your childs pop it’s too. Depending on the colours of your childs pop it, you can try to match the colours with skittles as best you can. I did this one the night before and the skittles did go a bit funny for some reason, as you can see in the picture, but the kids didn’t notice. If you have time to do it in the morning before the kids get up, I’d recommend doing that.

21. Naughty elf makes homemade lemonade!

Probably one of my son’s favourites, he thought it was so funny. For this you will need some shot glasses, I used disposable ones from Amazon as I don’t drink shots ever! You’ll also need some yellow food colouring, and just mix that in a jug with water until you achieve a realistic urine colour. Sit your elf on one of the full shot glasses. Then make a little sign saying something like ‘Get your free lemonade here’. Our elf can cover his mouth cheekily because we have made him posable.

22. Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas: Reindeer Poop

This is an easy one if you already have some kind of reindeer toy. I have used Nesquik chocolate cereal but you could also use chocolate covered raisins or peanuts or even just chocolate chips. Fill a bowl with them and then leave a little pile behind the reindeers bottom. Then just pop on a sign that says something like “free reindeer poop!”.

Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas | A Little More Effort

23. Elf gets naughty with Cheerios

This one will go down a storm if you have kids that are school age. All you need is a box of Cheerios. Spell out the word above and then lie your elf on its tummy and add one Cheerio to its bottom! Tee-hee-hee!

24. Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas: Funny fruit faces

I only used clementines here but you can use any fruit you have. Just arrange them nicely in a fruit bowl and then draw different funny faces on them with a sharpie.

25. Naughty Elf grates Mr Carrot

Similar to the grating potato one, this is another one my kids absolutely loved. Just carefully grate a large carrot, stopping about half way through. Stop mid-grate so the carrot is half stuck in the grater still, allowing it to hold its position standing up. Carefully tip the grater onto its side. Pull out the grated carrot a little onto the chopping board if needed.

Marker pens won’t work on a carrot, so to make the face you’ll need some black paper (or white paper you’ve coloured black with felt tip). Cut out eyes, a shocked mouth and eyebrows. Then very carefully stick them onto the carrot with glue. If the carrot comes away from the grater at this point, don’t worry you’ll be able to stick it back into the grates. Then just pop your elf sitting on the top of the grater and leaning on the wall behind.

26. Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas: Grinch Pee

My son thought this was brilliant when he was young. He even tried a sip and was absolutely repulsed and would say for years that he once drunk Grinch pee! All you need is a milk bottle with some milk still in it, then add in some green food colouring. Replace the lid and shake it up carefully to mix. Then remove the milk bottle label and using a sharpie, draw a Grinch face as best you can and label it ‘Grinch Pee’. You can add an extra note if you like, my son must’ve not been on his best behaviour around that time as I also wrote “for naughty kids - be nice!”.

Then pop the bottle in the fridge along with your elf. Ours was wearing special boots with suckers that allowed him to stand (from an older version of this set), but you can of course just have him sitting next to the bottle.

If your kids are struggling to find your elf the next morning, just ask them to get out the milk for you and they’ll find them soon enough!

27. Cheeky Elf Pea Play

I mean, who doesn’t have a bag of peas in the freezer?! This one is budget friendly but writing out “Oops I pea’d myself” is a little time consuming. And be sure to sit your elf on a pile of peas too! Again, my elf can cover his mouth like that because we made him posable.

28. Egg-cellent faces

All you need for this one is eggs and a sharpie! You don’t need and egg cabinet to make this work, having eggs sitting in the egg box they come in will work even, just leave the top up.

Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas | Most time consuming (but worth it!)

29. Do you wanna build a snowman?

This cute marshmallow snowman idea can be executed one of two ways:

1. You can either leave out the individual items needed to make them with a note from your elf asking if they want to build a snowman, and then have the kids make them with a little help or
2. You could make them the day before and leave out alongside your elf with a note that says ‘I bought you back some snowmen”

What you will need for this Elf on the Shelf Food Idea:

• white, regular marshmallows (three per snowman)
• pretzel sticks, snapped into roughly ½ inch pieces
• strawberry sweet laces
• edible icing pens
• icing sugar - mix up just a little with water to stick the marshmallows together to make the snowmen’s bodies. In the video I used a chocolate writer to do this, as I had one to hand.

Watch the video above to see just how to build them!

30. Buddy the Elf Spaghetti Breakfast

If your kids love the movie Elf, then this is one you simply must do! The night before just cook up some spaghetti and rinse it under cold water to cool. Then toss it in olive oil (so it doesn’t stick together) and some maple syrup. Then add it to a plate or pasta bowl and dot around colourful sweets like skittles, jelly tots and dolly mixtures. Leave out the bottle of maple syrup along with your elf and either a printed picture of the Elf movie or the DVD if you are old skool like us and have a copy!

31. Elf on the Shelf Food Ideas: Rainbow Magic

This one is truly magical! You will need a side plate and at least one big bag of skittles. Then working your way around the outer edge of the plate, place skittles of the same colour in twos until you have a full circle of skittles. Then leave a sign saying “Rainbow magic. Just add warm water”.

Then in the morning help your child fill a small jug with warm tap water and pour it slowly into the centre of the plate, until the water reaches about half way up the skittles. Then stand back and watch the magic happen! The rainbow stripes won’t last perfectly like that, after a couple minutes they will start to merge into one so make sure everyone is there and watching when the water is being poured.

32. Rudolph Hot Chocolate

This is such a cute one for little hot chocolate fans. If you have more than one child you will need to make one cup for each. To do this Elf on the Shelf food idea, you will need:

• Hot chocolate powder
• a glass mug or cup per child
• Large self adhesive googly eyes
• a brown or black pipe cleaner, from a crafts set (more if making for more kids)
• a red pom pom, also from a crafts set (per child)

Then your kids can look forward to having a festive hot chocolate later that day!

33. Candy Cane Elf Magic

For this magical Elf on the Shelf Food Idea you will need:

• A pack of candy canes
• Cake sprinkles that are the same colours as your candy canes, put into a mini bowl
• White sugar in a small bowl
• And a patient child as the magic takes 24 hours to work!

Then the night before add some white sugar to a small bowl and the sprinkles to a mini bowl. Leave a note saying something like “Elf Magic. Sow these seeds and see what grows. Takes 1 sleep!”.

Then the next morning have your kids add the sprinkles to the bowl with the white sugar to ‘sow the seeds’. Then that night you’ll need to either remove the sprinkles from the white sugar, or if they’ve mixed them in, replace the white sugar in the bowl and stick the candy canes upright in it, ready for the kids to discover the next morning. See their surprise at what has grown!

34. Guess the poop!

This is one school age children will love! Choose foods that look like they could come from festive and really any other characters your kids are fond of. Add those to cupcake cases. Then using some thin card or paper, cut into small pieces and write on who that poop belongs to for each one. Leave those piece of paper turned over in front of the cupcake case it refers too. Write a note that says something like “Guess the poop! Taste and guess who it belongs too, then turn over the paper to see if you’re right!”

You don’t have to use the same foods or characters poop as I did but here’s my list if you need some inspo:

• Snowman -white mini marshmallows
• Reindeer - chocolate chips
• Elf - white & red smarties
• Grinch - green skittles
• Santa - red jelly beans
• Mrs Claus - dried cranberries
• Tooth fairy - cake sprinkles
• Pikachu - yellow skittles

35. Elf Munch

I make this no-bake Elf Munch every year because we all love it and it’s so quick and easy to make. It also doubles for a great Elf on the Shelf food idea. Just leave out all the ingredients and the printed festively designed recipe as if your elf has brought it all back from the North Pole, and have your kids make it that day! You don’t have to have the Elf on the Shelf baking set of course, but if you do have it, use it. Find the full recipe and the printable version here >

Thanks for reading, I hope I have inspired you! Good luck with your Elf adventures this Christmas.

You might like some of my other Christmas recipes:

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