A Day in the Life: What Elf Does at the North Pole

Everyone knows what their Elf gets up to when they visit them in December. Christmas Elves spend their days keeping an eye on children for Santa, spreading kindness and fun while thinking up new ways to get into mischief. But what do Elves do for the rest of the year? What he does when he’s back at the magical North Pole with Santa has always remained a bit of a mystery to some.

Well, you need to wonder no more. Elf for Christmas can exclusively reveal exactly what Elves do on a typical day at the North Pole.

We spoke to one of our very good friends, Pip McJingles, to find out what he and his little Elf pals get up to when they aren’t visiting children around the world.

So what do Elves do? Pip has shared his Day In The Life diary with us. Read on to find out just what Elf gets up to at the North Pole!

A Day in the Life of an Elf:

6:30am – Wakey wakey

We Elves like to get up bright and early, so I set my alarm to go off at 6:30am every day. I jump out of bed, do 10 jumpy-stretches, wash my face and brush my teeth until they’re shiny bright. Then I put on my Elf dungarees ready for work. It’s always really cold here at the North Pole, so I make sure to put double underpants on and a nice thick vest too. 

7:00am – Brekkie time

All the Elves head down to the dining room for a lovely big bowl of warm porridge. We take turns making it because there are so many of us and it’s quite a big job to feed us all! If it’s my turn to make it, I like to stir a little swirl of blueberry jam into it and finish it off with some sprinkles. I put extra sprinkles on for Mrs Claus and take her a big mug of hot chocolate too because I love her. 

8:00am – Time for a little play

Once all the breakfast bowls, spoons and cups have been washed and put away, we usually have time for a little play in the snow before we start work. We all really love building snowmen and having fun snowball fights, so we sometimes do that. A few of us will take the reindeer out for a quick fly, just to give them a bit of exercise. That’s always loads of fun – they like to practise their special tricks, like loop-the-loops and barrel rolls. We have to hold on to our little Elf hats when they do that! 

9:00am – To the workshop

We never stop thinking about Christmas here at the North Pole. What else would Elves do? Every day we’re busy making new toys for Santa to deliver to all the girls and boys around the world. Elves are born to make toys and we all absolutely love our jobs. 

Some days I might be putting the stuffing in teddy bears, another day I’ll be fixing the wheels on to toy cars, and other days I’ll be putting the tings into bells and the toots into horns for children’s bikes. There’s always something different to do! 

12:30pm – Lunchabubbles

We all stop for lunch in the middle of the day. Mrs Claus is in charge of the kitchen, but we all take turns helping her make the food. She likes to make sure we eat lots of healthy food with plenty of vitamins in so we stay fit and strong. But she also knows how much we all love a sweet treat too, so we’ll finish off our lunch with a tasty pudding, like a candy cane cupcake, a gingerbread snowman, or a Christmas cookie. Yummy! 

1:30pm – Back to work!

After lunch there are lots of important jobs to get done. You asked what do Elves do at the North Pole? It’s more like what don’t Elves do at the North Pole! The reindeer need to be taken out again for their afternoon fly (there are always lots of volunteers for that job), the ribbons and bows need to be kept neat and tidy on their shelves, the Christmas baubles and fairy lights need polishing to keep them sparkly, Santa’s beard needs brushing and trimming to keep him neat, the Elves’ uniforms need washing - and there’s always time for a light dusting of snow! 

Phew! After all that work, we’re always ready for our dinner! 

4:30pm – Time to eat again

After having a big meal at lunch time, we like to keep it light for our evening meal. So we’ll usually just have something like some yummy tomato soup to start with, a roast dinner with all the trimmings for main course, some Christmas cake for pudding, then a little bit of cheese to finish off. And of course a hot chocolate with marshmallows to cleanse the palate when we’re finished. We don’t like to overdo it. 

If we’re still peckish later on, we might have a little snack at supper time too. Maybe just another bowl of porridge or two to keep us going until morning. 

7:00pm – Nighty night

By 7pm we’re all snoozy sleepy. After a lovely warm bath, we put on our Elf pyjamas, do our little Elf stretches, then it’s straight to bed for a good night’s sleep, dreaming about all the fun we’ll have making toys tomorrow. 

And that’s pretty much it! Now you know what Elves do every day. It’s a happy little life for us here at the North Pole and we all love living here with Santa, Mrs Claus and all our Elf friends. But what we really look forward to is coming to see our human friends every year in December, when we get to stay with little children all around the world! We hope our human pals look forward to seeing us too! 

If you’ve enjoyed reading about a day in the life of an Elf with Pip McJingles, you’ll love his Advent Letters! Pip writes a new letter every day in December leading right up to Christmas Eve. He’ll tell you all about what he and his magical pals are getting up to at the North Pole to make sure Santa is all ready for the most important night of the year. Find out more about Pip’s Advent Letters here. 

You can also sign up to receive our free emails from Santa himself throughout December. Find out more here.