Magic by Morning Tonight

Tangled in the Lights

Making a heart out of Christmas lights went great right up to the last loop, where your elf got tangled.

A 5-minute idea for The Elf on the Shelf® or any elf doll.

  • Arrival
  • 5 min
  • No mess
  • Easy
  • Ages 4–7, Ages 8+

What you need

  • a string of Christmas lights

How to set it up

  1. Pull a few feet of an unplugged string of Christmas lights free and lay them on a table in a big heart shape.
  2. Heap the rest of the strand at the bottom point of the heart, and tuck the plug under the heap.
  3. Sit your elf in the heap and loop the strand loosely around it a few times, as if it got tangled finishing the heart.

Safety check

Keep the lights unplugged with the plug tucked away, and put them away after breakfast. With a baby or toddler, use a table they can't reach. How we check

An elf doll sitting in a loose heap of unplugged Christmas lights, a few loops around its body, inside a big heart laid out on a table with the same strand.

Note from your elf: I made you a welcome-back heart! Then I got a little tangled. Worth it!

AI illustration of Moss, our own elf. Yours will look a little different.

Written with AI · Checked against our safety list · How we check

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