I have always loved the idea of the Elf on the Shelf family Christmas tradition. If you don’t know about Elf on the Shelf, he’s a long lanky toy elf who always finds a mischievous thing to do each night when the kids are in bed. Well, our family has a bit of a crazy side and that family tradition just seems sooo fun! But my Catholic side never wanted to make an elf a big deal. Sure elves are cute, but I try not to make Santa, or his elves a focus at Christmas time. So while I loved the idea of Elf on the Shelf I didn’t like the toy being used for this fun tradition!
So Yes I “Baptized” the Elf on the Shelf idea!
Meet Mr. E. Shelf’s replacements:
Balthazar, Melchior, Caspar, and their camel!

Now these three little guys are a handful! They are on the search for Jesus!

They may be small but they are on the go! Over the last few weeks they have been hunting high and low for Baby Jesus! They have managed to get themselves into few odd spots! But we know that they won’t find Jesus until the Epiphany!
After our kids get up each morning, they try to find the Three Wisemen. Most days it’s easy, but some days the kids have to search for awhile!
The only rule we made was that the three wise men have to find the Infant Jesus that belongs to their Nativity set. That’s just to make it more interesting, since we have many nativity sets around the house. Now their special set remained hidden in my bedroom until Christmas, but they are searching and will continue to search until the Epiphany!
These three wise men and Nativity sets are from Playmobil. (sold separately – I sound like a commercial) I liked these Wisemen because they are poseable.  I do wish they were more poseable but these work fine. Because they are poseable it makes them more able to appear to be doing curtain actions.
Our family has been enjoying this new tradition and we are ALL excited to share some of the photos of the places our three little amigos have searched of the Infant Jesus! So for the next week I will be posting some of the places they have searched and the adventures that have found them!I hope you enjoy seeing their adventures as much as we did!
~Jen-Marie

You can buy these Playmobil sets on Amazon, but they are cheaper during the “off season”.
Ebay may be cheaper, too.

Searching for Jesus ~ Day 1
On the first day of searching (sounds like the beginning to a song) Balthazar and Melchior team up to look into a candle. Good thing it was unlit or Melchior may have singed his beard! Caspar and the camel are spectating or are they being “back-seat searchers”!

Searching for Jesus ~ Day 2
After scaling my tall basket the search came to a sad end as they peered into the basket and found NOTHING!!! So sad. They are off to a bad start!
Searching for Jesus ~ Day 3
Now on this morning we weren’t sure if they are looking for Jesus or a free snack! They were caught breaking into my “make-shift” cake cover. I guess that left-over St. Lucy’s day cake looked good! 😉

Searching for Jesus ~ Day 4
Maybe they really are hungry, because at day 4 they were searching in the toaster!!
There are plenty of free crumbs in there! Hope they clean it before they leave!
Okay these guys are off to a bad start, let’s see if they get any better tomorrow!
See ya then…..

Bloggers, make plans to join us next year!
I hope to host a link-up! Blessings!

Update:
I was asked the question as to why the Wisemen aren’t following a star…
That is a fair question, so I thought I’d tell you all what I responded:
When we first started this tradition, we thought about having the Wisemen follow a star, but it was hard to have them stay in a path. If they stayed in a path, it was hard to come up with places for them to search, while on that path. Plus the kids knew where they were going to be and the Wisemen seemed to be boring. So we changed our idea a bit: Now the Wisemen jump around the house and the kids enjoyed searching for them each morning.
So we decided to played on the Bible quote: “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to adore him.”  – After reading that I figured the Wisemen were a little lost at some point even with the star to guide them. We told our kids that our house is like the city of Bethlehem and the Wisemen are searching Bethlehem for Jesus. It’s not 100% like the Bible, but we found it more interesting and fun this way.
Also I wanted to let you all know:
We originally were only going to do this from Christmas to the Epiphany, but the kids, my husband, and I were having so much fun with our new tradition that we stated it even before Christmas day. So that is why there are more than 12 days worth of pictures!

13 Comments

  1. I LOVE this idea! When I was young our tree was put up on Christmas Eve and was left up until the Epiphany. We would 'march' the Wisemen from there place away from the the Holy Family until they reached them.

  2. This is so cute…great idea! I hadn't seen the Playmobil wisemen so they are now in my cart to order for next year. Thanks, Jennifer:)

  3. Hi Jennifer…love the thee Kings. I was trying to come up with my own Catholic version of Elf on the Shelf….it may still happen yet!:)

  6. This idea is awesome!!! I love it!!! Thanks for sharing at my Our Favorite Things Link Party. We are certainly doing this next year.

  7. You amaze me, Jennifer – I never could have come up with such a great idea!

  8. Oh yeah, I got caught up in your post and forgot that I came by to give you two awards 🙂 They are at my site. Pardon the teasing – I know you have a good sense of humor so I didn't think you'd mind :)Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

  9. Wow! What an awesome idea! I was thinking about how to make elf on the shelf relevant to us, but didn't hunk of anything! Thanks!!

  10. LOVE LOVE this! We'll be doing this next year!!! 🙂

  11. Oh, wow! Thanks so much every one! I hope you all enjoy this as much as we are enjoying it! Blessings to you all! And may you have a wonderful new year! ~And Mary, I'll pop-over when I find a minute! Thanks so much! You are always so sweet! And I'm glad you see you're back! 😉 ♥♥♥

  12. This is great! Thought E. Shelf was cute, but something was missing and never used it. GREAT great GREAT idea!

  13. So excited, our three wise Men are going to start their journey tonight, the kids will be so surprised to see them in the morning. We have decided to make their journey happen during advent, not totally accurate but we are really trying to get the focus away from elves and more onto Jesus! Thanks for such a lovely idea!

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