Elf Mates® activities can turn an ordinary afternoon into a chance to create, share and practise kindness. These year-round friends from the Santaverse® can join children for imaginative play, thoughtful family projects and everyday adventures, whatever the weather or season.
Each Elf Mate has a special talent and a kindness mission of their own. Elf Mates Chef™ inspires children to share food and prepare thoughtful treats. Elf Mates Toy Maker™ encourages creativity, making and giving. Elf Mates Cobbler™ helps children think about comfort, journeys and ways to support others.
What activities can children do with Elf Mates? Children can cook and share simple snacks, make gifts, invent toys, sort items for donation, plan family outings and create their own imaginative adventures. Because Elf Mates are made for hands-on play, they can take part in activities throughout the year.
What Are Elf Mates?
Elf Mates are Santa’s Champions of Kindness, huggable friends from the Arctic forest who encourage children to care, create and give throughout the year. Each character arrives with a special poem that inspires a thoughtful good deed.
Unlike Scout Elf™ helpers, who visit families as part of The Elf on the Shelf® Christmas tradition, Elf Mates can stay with children all year. They can be touched, cuddled and included in play, making them natural companions for weekends, quieter afternoons, family trips and those familiar moments when someone announces, “I’m bored.”
Their kindness missions also give playtime a little more purpose. Children are not simply filling time. They are exploring how creativity can help someone else, how belongings can be shared and how small thoughtful actions can brighten another person’s day.
Creative Elf Mates Activities to Try Together
Choose an activity inspired by your child’s Elf Mate, or mix ideas from all three Champions of Kindness.
Share and care
Activities with Elf Mates Chef
Elf Mates Chef encourages children to stir up kindness through food, sharing and thoughtful homemade surprises. These activities can help children understand where food comes from, why waste matters and how something simple can show another person that they are cared for.
1. Create a Family Recipe Card
Choose a favourite family recipe and write or draw the steps together. Children can decorate the card, add a picture of Elf Mates Chef and record why the recipe is special to the family.
2. Prepare a Snack to Share
Make a simple fruit plate, sandwich selection or batch of homemade treats for a friend, neighbour or relative. Talk about how sharing food can help people feel welcome and included.
3. Plan a No-Waste Meal
Look through the fridge and pantry for ingredients that need to be used. Work together to plan a meal or snack around what is already available instead of buying something new.
4. Design a North Pole Café
Create a pretend menu filled with imaginative drinks and dishes. Children might invent a peppermint snowstorm smoothie, a cocoa cloud or a colourful fruit platter fit for Santa’s workshop.
Adult supervision: An adult should supervise all food preparation and any activity involving knives, appliances, heat or hot surfaces. Check allergies and dietary requirements before preparing or sharing food.
Make and imagine
Activities with Elf Mates Toy Maker
Elf Mates Toy Maker brings kindness to life through creativity. Their mission encourages children to invent, make and give, while also thinking about how toys they have outgrown could bring happiness to someone new.
1. Invent a New Toy or Game
Ask children to design a toy that has never existed before. They can draw it, name it and explain how it works. Older children could also write instructions for a new board game or outdoor challenge.
2. Make a Thoughtful Gift
Create a card, friendship bracelet, bookmark or painted pebble for someone special. The gift does not need to be elaborate. The thought and time behind it are what make it meaningful.
3. Give a Toy a New Adventure
Invite children to sort through toys, books and games they no longer use. Choose clean, complete items in good condition that could be donated for another child to enjoy.
4. Build an Imaginative Hideaway
Use cushions, sheets and cardboard boxes to create a fort, workshop or tiny Santaverse hideaway. Elf Mates Toy Maker can join the adventure as chief designer and official idea tester.
Choose age-appropriate craft materials and supervise scissors, glue and small pieces. Keep plastic bags, cords and unsuitable packaging away from younger children.
Notice and help
Activities with Elf Mates Cobbler
Elf Mates Cobbler encourages children to step into kindness by noticing what other people may need. Their mission connects naturally with clothing, comfort, journeys and practical acts of care.
1. Pack for a Family Adventure
Ask children to help pack a ready-for-anything bag for a park visit, road trip or family outing. Depending on the weather, it might include water, sunscreen, a hat, a jumper or a raincoat.
2. Take a Gratitude Walk
Head out for a neighbourhood walk, visit a local park or explore a family-friendly trail. Take turns naming something you appreciate whenever you pass a bench, tree, sign or other agreed landmark.
3. Sort Clothes and Shoes for Donation
Look through outgrown clothes, shoes and accessories together. Set aside clean items in good condition and explain how donating them can help another family.
4. Design an Adventure Outfit
Draw an outfit for a trip to the beach, bush, city or snowy mountains. Children can think about what clothing would keep their character comfortable and safe in each setting.
Ways to Include Elf Mates in Everyday Family Life
Elf Mates activities do not need complicated materials or hours of planning. An Elf Mate can join the school run, sit beside the picnic rug, travel on a family road trip or help choose the next rainy-day craft.
Children might photograph their Elf Mate during an outing, draw a page for an adventure journal or choose one kind action to complete before the end of the day. The aim is not to create another task for parents. It is to give children a familiar character who can make ordinary moments feel more playful and purposeful.
Keep Elf Mates clean and secure while travelling, and place them away from roads, deep water, open flames, hot cooking equipment, sharp objects and other hazardous areas.
Small Acts of Kindness Inspired by Elf Mates
- Make a card for a friend, teacher or family member.
- Help tidy a shared room without being asked.
- Choose a toy, book or item of clothing to donate.
- Prepare a snack or glass of water for someone else.
- Invite another child to join a game.
- Write down one thing each family member is grateful for.
Families can choose one idea at a time or create their own weekly Elf Mates kindness challenge. Keeping the actions small and achievable helps kindness feel like part of everyday life rather than a one-off event.
Make Creativity and Kindness Part of Every Season
Elf Mates Chef, Toy Maker and Cobbler each bring a different kind of inspiration to family play. One activity might involve sharing a snack, another could become a handmade gift, while the next encourages children to notice what someone else may need.
Together, these Elf Mates activities can help transform ordinary afternoons into moments of imagination, generosity and connection, with ideas that work throughout the Australian year.
Families can also explore the wider Santaverse characters or discover more official Elf Ideas for the Christmas season.
Frequently Asked Questions About Elf Mates
Can children touch and play with Elf Mates?
Yes. Elf Mates are huggable companions designed for hands-on, imaginative play. Children can hold them, cuddle them and include them in family activities throughout the year.
Can Elf Mates stay with families all year?
Yes. Elf Mates are year-round Champions of Kindness. They do not need to leave when the Christmas season ends and can continue joining everyday play, outings and acts of kindness.
What is the difference between an Elf Mate and a Scout Elf?
Scout Elves visit families during the Christmas season as part of The Elf on the Shelf tradition and fly to the North Pole each night. Elf Mates are huggable, year-round companions who encourage creativity, generosity and thoughtful good deeds.