Christmas Elf Letters: The ultimate guide

Our Christmas Elf Letters are full of magic, adventure and giggles - what a wonderful way to spend time together as a family over the festive season.

If you are new to the Elf Letter tradition, don’t worry. With a little help from our elf friends, we have put together this handy Elf Letter guide:

Who writes the Christmas Elf Letters?

Meet Pip McJingles, your very own elf penpal! Pip writes our standard edition Elf Letters, or if you ordered the personalised Elf letters, they can be signed from a Christmas Elf of your choice.

Pip McJingles is a very busy elf who works at the North Pole with Santa and all the other elves, making and wrapping presents, feeding and grooming the reindeer, harvesting candy canes, growing Christmas puddings and all sorts of other Christmassy duties! You can not imagine what Pip gets up to in December!

Every day throughout Advent, Pip will find a moment when he isn’t busy (or tucking into his favourite snack – candy canes) and write a letter to your little one.

In each letter, Pip will give them a peek into his fun filled life at the North Pole as Santa, Pip and all the other elves get everything ready for the Big Night – Christmas Eve.

With lots of magical characters and even more magical goings-on, your child will be enchanted from the very first word. The Elf Letters make a wonderful tradition, with stories and characters continuing each year.

Is there a different story every day?

Oh yes! The Elf Advent Calendar Letter set will contain 24* all-new individual stories, designed to be read in the correct order, to build a daily story of the North Pole. We create a brand new edition every year - building the perfect family tradition that can grow with your children.

(*The 12 Days of Advent Elf Letter set will contain 12 stories, selected from the set of 24.)

This is our first time ordering Elf Letters, will the story be hard to follow?

Our Christmas Elf Letters are perfect for returning readers and newbies alike.

In each edition, Pip and his friends get up to a completely new set of adventures which not only work as a standalone series but also reward readers of previous editions with returning characters and references to earlier storylines. You can begin on any edition and you can skip a year. Just don't read them in reverse.

This year will be the sixth edition of Pip’s Elf Letters. If you have been with us since the beginning, you will enjoy catching up with familiar characters but there are also many new surprises in store - we can't wait for you to meet Santa's new friend!

A new Elf Letter reader? Welcome - your little one is going to love meeting Pip and his festive friends!

What’s new for 2022?

We don’t want to give away any spoilers but let’s just say Sprout the puppy gets up to all sorts of mischief! And you definitely want to find out what happened with Santa's beard and Mrs Claus Dancing Shoes... And what the Elves get up to on Christmas Eve. There is so much to tell!

Do I need to buy a Christmas Elf to go with the letters?

No, not at all. Pip’s letters can be enjoyed without a Christmas Elf causing mischief around the house. The letters can be a really good way to get involved with the magic of Christmas Elves, without actually having an Elf in the house.

Alternatively, if you would like one of our adorable Christmas Elves to go with the Elf Letters you can - it works well either way.

Our Personalised Advent Calendar Elf Letters can be addressed from your Christmas Elf instead of Pip. This is a lovely way to combine the Christmas Elf and Elf Letter traditions, just make sure you come up with a way to explain how your elf is getting to and from the North Pole every day! (whispers: magic) If you sign your letter from your own Elf, then they do need to spend plenty of time back at the North Pole, to get up to all the mischief we talk about!

What kinds of Elf Letters are there?

We have three sets of Christmas Elf Letters to choose from:

Elf Advent Calendar Letter Standard Edition 2022:

• 24 individual Christmas Elf letters.
• Brand new stories for 2022.
• To be opened every day of advent.
• Written from Pip McJingles.

Personalised Elf Advent Calendar Letter set 2022:  

• 24 individual Christmas Elf letters addressed personally to your child.
• Letters can be personalised to your child or multiple children.
• You can choose to sign the letters from our resident Elf, Pip McJingles, or you can sign the letters from your own Elf.
• The elf letters mention your child’s name, hometown and the other people in their house throughout.
• You can also add a second elf's name (elf friend) to feature throughout the stories too!
• Brand new stories for 2022.
• To be opened every day of advent.

Personalised 12 Days of Advent Calendar Letter set 2022:

• 12 individual Christmas Elf letters addressed personally to your child.
• Letters can be personalised to your child or children.
• You can choose to sign the letters from our resident Elf, Pip McJingles, or you can sign the letters from your own Elf.
• The elf letters mention your child’s name, hometown and the other people in their house throughout.
• You can also add a second elf's name to feature throughout the stories too!
• Brand new stories for 2022.
• The 12 letters in this set have been specially selected from our full set of 24.
• Ideal if you miss the December 1 start date, want to delay your countdown to Christmas, or prefer not to send an Elf letter for every day of advent.

What does each Elf Advent Calendar Letter set contain?

A truly magical Christmas activity for the whole family, our gorgeous Advent Calendar Letter sets contain the following:

• 24 or 12 full colour fold-out Elf Letters, beautifully illustrated with original drawings and printed on high quality 120gsm paper (personalised if selected).
• 24 or 12 individual high-quality Kraft brown envelopes (dated and personalised if selected).

Our standard Elf Letter sets arrive in a lovely presentation box. Our personalised letters are made to order and are not in a box - all sets arrive discreetly in plain outer packaging.

When do I need to order my Elf Advent Calendar Letters if I want them to arrive in time?

This will depend on the type of Elf Letter you are ordering. Our Elf Advent Calendar Letters and Personalised Advent Calendar letters are dated from the 1^st December so you need to have received them by then.

Our standard Elf Letters have 2 - 3 days delivery, sometimes faster. However, our Personalised Elf Letters require 3 - 4 days to be made (Pip is a perfectionist!), plus postage time, so please bear this in mind when ordering. We will ship them as soon as we possibly can!

Our 12 Days of Advent Calendar Letters don’t have to be given to your child on a particular day so you have a bit more flexibility, however as they are personalised they also require a 3 day lead time.

What’s more, don’t forget that the lead up to Christmas is always super duper busy, so Pip’s advice is to order your Elf Advent Calendar Letters as soon as possible!

Are your letters environmentally friendly?

At Elf for Christmas we are Carbon Aware. We have carefully chosen a local print supplier, who are a Certified Carbon Capture® Company, meaning our personalised Advent Calendar Letters are carbon balanced.

What’s more, the paper we use is either FSC or PEFC accredited and sourced from managed, sustainable woodland.

I don’t think Elf Letters are my child’s thing, do you have anything else that might be suitable?

Did Rudolph have a red nose?! If you are looking for festive magic then Elf for Christmas is the place to be.

We have a range of gorgeous gifts designed to delight children of all ages, including letters from Santa, Christmas codebreaking puzzles and, of course, our cheeky award-winning Elves! Browse our range of Christmas products.

The countdown has begun! Make it a Christmas they will never forget with our Elf Advent Calendar Letters, Christmas magic all the way from the North Pole!