Every parent can attest to how chaotic the lead-up to Christmas is.
Claire Henderson’s worries are confined to buying presents and shopping for holiday food, as well as preparing for her big day.
To entertain her three children, the mother of three comes up every night with an elaborate prank.
Festive family: Claire Henderson and her children Remi, Harley, Jaeden
Hot spot: A volcano in the lounge with ‘lava’ on the floor made up using festive red-foil
Miss Henderson pulled off another of her pranks. The elves were seen positioning themselves around a block of kitchen that was blocked by red string.
The Elf On The Shelf tradition includes the routine.
The game originated in America. Parents play a trick on their children by leaving a doll-elf near the scene of the prank so that the child thinks the toy did the joking.
Miss Henderson is now in her forties and has taken Miss Henderson’s pranks even further.
That’s a wrap! Another one of Miss Henderson’s clever hijinks is the Christmas wrapping paper.
Elves in the bathtub: After one more Miss Henderson’s pranks, Grub is in the tub.
The administration worker who lives with her partner – the children’s father – in Worsley, Greater Manchester, has already wrapped the car in cling film, filled the bath with popcorn and turned the living room into an erupting volcano, complete with red-foil lava.
She has also built a giant gingerbread house complete with life-size figures, covered the kitchen in wrapping paper and cut up what appeared to be wads of £50 and £20 notes.
‘My friends say I’m insane, but I just love coming up with something bigger and better each year,’ she said yesterday – after dressing up the elves as characters from the Wizard of Oz and posing them following a yellow brick road across the front room.
Plastic Fantastic: A family car covered in cling film and a host of mischievous Elfs sat inside.
Miss Henderson also dyed the dog of the family in another of her holiday pranks
Miss Henderson created a mess of spaghetti to honor Elf’s Christmas film, in which Will Ferrell’s Buddy loves the dish.
Miss Henderson is known for her pranks that include a waterfall of popcorn falling to the ground, carrying with it elves.
“I love to make crafts and have made many things over the years, so every Christmas I see more and more Elfs getting into mischief.”
Miss Henderson searches January’s sales to find cut-price props for next year’s stunts. She also draws inspiration from movies.
Jaeden (13 years old) has been a wise man to his mother’s night-time pranks for a long time. Harley (8 years old) still believes in magic from the Elf.
Remi (a young child of two) is still discovering them for the first time this Christmas.