Knowledge Crate Review: Elf

What you guys want to know. . . because as a customer these are the things I want to know. 

Was it worth it? The cost.

Clearly it was worth the price. It would cost about 3x the amount to create this yourself. Whether or not you bought the kit last year and had repeats. 

Was it worth it? The value. 

I definitely think the value was there. Like I said at the top $2 per day for your almost month of elves. The value is there. With the Knowledge Crate I have found it is always there. I of course added to this pulling from the Christmas Traditions Crate and a few cheap additions. But that is on me. I overdo everything.

Were there repeats? If there were, did they make sense? Was this year better?

(9) Repeats from the year before:

Complement – this makes sense, this is a card I would use when I don’t have time to act on what the elf leaves out that day. This is a fine repeat.

Favorite Book – Again, this works for when you don’t have much time the next day, you can always find time to read a book. This repeat makes sense to me for any new customer. A good Favorite book card works every year. 

Toy Donation – This works for some people, I don’t think this works for everyone. It is a nice thought though. I know this is a season for giving. We donate toys when we go through them periodically, not just one random toy in December. I recently donated/rehomed quite a few toys. This happened in January when I had time to fully go through and clean out the toys. Not a fan of this one.

Clay Ornament – I really love this clay ornament and it is a good repeat. Having an ornament made by your kid every year would be fun to look back on. 

Snow – This repeat is fine. Kids love sensory stuff. 

Elf Letters – This repeat is actually necessary. I think it is nice to have the arrival and departure elf letters every single year. I love that they tailor them for if you have a single or multiple kids and if you are new to elf or had an elf before. 

Disconnect to reconnect – I could take or leave this. I’m not mad about the screens. Don’t mind it because it might be great for other people. I used it to introduce sensory bins. We have a pretty strict screen policy in our house. We do a max of 1 hour or 1 Disney movie. A few days a week we don’t even turn on the tv. Aryi rarely does games and when he does it is like Duo ABC and I don’t count that because it is educational. I also don’t count face time because we have family we don’t get to see in person. 

Reindeer food – This is a MUST repeat. You gotta feed the reindeer on Christmas Eve. 

Legos (exact same set) – This made me a little sad. A different lego set would be fine, but we still have the one from last year. 

(3) Kind of repeated (like the general idea) but a little different from the year before:

I like all of these repeats because it is good to bake, have a movie and game night, and a scavenger hunt every year. I am glad they changed it up though and hope next year it is changed up in a new way. 

Baking in Progress (changed from donuts to cookies) 

Game night (game changed) 

Movie Night (hot coco changed to popcorn) 

Scavenger Hunt (has a Christmas tree toy) 

(10) New:

Grow a Christmas Tree – This just didn’t work for us. I don’t have a green thumb and it was kind of sad. (But that is my fault not theirs.) It may have been fun for some people. 

Logic puzzle – I didn’t like this particularly for Aryi just because there is no way a 3 year old would get it. However, this may have been cool for an older kid. 

Scratch Art – Aryi loved this. This was a cool activity. 

Balloon Animals – I would say this was probably the biggest hit in our home. Aryi loves balloons and he LOVED them. Carried them around for days. 

Pop Christmas Tree – This was cute. 

Penguin Slime – This was also a big hit. Slime is always going to be a big hit. 

Naughty List – Personally I don’t think I would ever use this. My mom traumatized us with coal on top of our presents for just being kids when we were super young. We thought Santa hated us. I understand that for other people this might be useful. 

Tied up in Lights – This was super cute. 

Paint by Stickers – This was a great add in. Who doesn’t love stickers?

Hug a Reindeer Kit – I think this was my favorite. Aryi looked so cute snuggling with his reindeer every night to grow the Christmas Magic. 

I think there were a few extra cards. I didn’t use them, but it was thoughtful. It also feels like I missed a few. I didn’t follow this exactly and did my own thing for a few days. 

Will I be buying this again next year if they make it?

Definitely. I would hope though that non-consumables that we can put in our Christmas storage and pull out next year are not repeated. I thought there was a nice balance and believe that would continue. 

Was last year’s better?

Sorry, but yes. It was definitely better for us. I remember Aryi loving the race car day and the Bowling day was a ball! I also LOVED the little marshmallow mug. That was Amazing!! Last year just hit a little harder for us specifically.