The Ultimate Guide to the Kindness Elves!

Here’s the ultimate guide to the Kindness Elves and how to use them in your home or classroom this December (and year round!) to encourage empathy, compassion and kindness character development in kids.

As you know, I have passionately shared about the Kindness Elves for many years here on The Imagination Tree since I first came up with the idea for this gorgeous new tradition back in 2013!

I now have a brand new store site called The Imagination Tree Store where you can buy the Kindness Elves sets, accessories kit, story book and eResources to use in your own home and school! All of these are so useful in carrying out the tradition as easily as possible, but you could collect them slowly over time too.

If you want to get started then I suggest grabbing a BUNDLE deal as they combine all of the necessary parts of the Kindness Elves tradition rolled into one super bargain price!

Over the years we have had a constant stream of WONDERFUL, positive feedback about the simple yet powerful effect that these little elves have had on your own children or those in your care and that you love to spread the news about them with everyone who is looking for a great new tradition to adopt!

So if you’re just getting started with the Kindness Elves or already an firm fan, here’s the ultimate guide to using them in your home or classroom, to give ideas and magical ways to spread that kindness!

Step 1.

Order your Kindness Elves! Well, this seems simple but of course you need to give those magical friends time to fly around the world to find your homes! We deliver worldwide.

If you order during this coming week we have lots of Black Friday perks for you, including a free colouring book for those who order today until Tuesday 26th! And more sweet offers being added later this week nearer to Thanksgiving too.

If you are doing the Kindness Elves tradition near Christmas then be sure to also order our 12 Days of Christmas Kindness eBook too as it is full of suggestions plus acts of kindness cards ready to print and go!

Step 2.

Read your children The Story of the Kindness Elves book to set the scene, explain who they are and then talk about how amazing it would be if they come to visit your home one day!

Step 3.

Welcome the Kindness Elves and introduce them with a little hand written note! We do include one of these in the accessories kit, but you can also just write your own!

Remind the children that the Kindness Elves only visit homes where children are so kind and can help them in their kindness missions, and this will be a great encouragement to them!

Step 4.

Discuss with your child what acts of kindness you could do together with the Kindness Elves. At this stage I always think it is useful for you to check your own diary and see what events are coming up eg if theres a singalong at the local care home next Saturday then choose THAT day to write your kindness suggestion from the Kindness Elves to “go and visit the elderly at the care home!”

It is as simple as checking what’s on locally and planning ahead a little so that you can combine activities and make it a little easier for yourself at this busy time of year!

Make a list of your child’s ideas, no matter how fun or silly they may be and try to suggest as many as you can of these from the elves in the coming week or two.

Step 5:

Set out the Kindness Elves alongside a heart shaped act of kindness suggestion card, ready for the kids to find the next morning or after school time. Maybe set them alongside the items needed to complete the act of kindness eg a suggestion to bake cookies for the neighbours next to a mixing bowl and ingredients. Use the Acts of Kindness Cards included in the accessories kit and the 12 Days of Christmas eBook to really save time!

Step 6:

Help your child to complete the act of kindness!

Praise them for their efforts and talk about what a big difference it will make to someone else.

Here’s a photo of my daughter who decided to ask her friends to donate their shoes for charity at her “kindness birthday party” one year! This picture fills me with a lot of joy at the memory of that sweet idea she had.

Step 7:

Set out a mini postcard from the Kindness Elves, next to them, which thanks the children for their kind deed. Encourage them to stick this into the Little Book of Big Kindnesses as a memory keepsake! You’ll find a huge set of mini post-cards and also the keepsake book as part of our fabulous Accessories Pack!

Step 8:

Repeat this daily for the 12 Days of Christmas Kindness (which we run from December 13th-24th.)

We do this period of time as it is shorter, more achievable and allows other holiday busyness to also be happening at the same time! We used to run this tradition for the entire advent period and it was easy to find it tiring.

This way works a lot better but you can, of course, try any method that suits you!

We also run kindness campaigns at other times of year too, not just Christmas.

Step 9:

On Christmas Eve, have your Kindness Elves leave a goodbye note and perhaps a pari of Christmas pyjamas or a storybook as a goodbye gift!

The note can say that they have loved visiting and will certainly be back soon, maybe in the Spring. Encourage them to keep being kind and to show others how to do it!

In the Classroom:

If you are a teacher continue this tradition on a weekly basis in your classroom by using the Kind Classroom eTeaching materials . The elves love to join you at school, watch how wonderfully kind the children are and suggest simple daily kindnesses they can show to each other and to school staff.

We have had AMAZING feedback from teachers telling us that their classes have been transformed by the little visitors and say they now stay all year around!! Many schools have adopted it as a whole school positive teaching system too, with wonderful results.

In the Summer:

We run a wonderful Camp Kindness activity based summer program idea for you to use in the school holidays to encourage your kids to show acts of kindness over a 6 week period!

We suggest doing this in groups, with friends or just in your own family too. It’s a lovely combination of crafts, busy activities and acts of kindness suggestions that keeps kids occupied in that long summer break and helps the focus always come back to caring for others as a priority.

Some kids doing the Camp Kindness program even made the news in the US one year! It’s quite the phenomenon and another great way to use the Kindness Elves all year around!

We LOVE to hear form you and have collected some wonderful quotes from parents, grandparents and teachers over the years! Pleas add yours, which we will gladly share, by emailing, commenting or messaging us on Instagram!

Share your kindness wins with other parents and teachers on our social media accounts, using hashtag #thekindnesselves