Portable North Pole – Do Good Elf

Despite being the biggest fan of Christmas and creating lovely little traditions to celebrate the festive period, I never succumbed to a certain Elf on a ledge.
If I’m entirely honest, it’s because I am far too lazy to think of 24 new and unique scenarios to play out. 

I have that much going on in the run up to Christmas, I don’t need to add 24 more items to my ‘To Do’ list.

Over the past three years though, I have used Portable North Pole to create personalised videos for Aoife. Just to let her know where she stands with the big man himself.

One year, when her behaviour was particularly ‘challenging’ she found herself,briefly, on the ‘undecided’ list.

I felt terrible when she realised what Santa was saying.
She looked like her heart had been ripped out BUT her behaviour improved and the next video confirmed she was indeed on the Nice List.

Peaks and troughs.

This year, we were asked to take in some visitors on behalf of old Saint Nick and the Portable North Pole.

Buddy and Holly the Do Good Elves.

The baby Do Good Elves are sent from Santa’s Village to live with a child who’s job it is to make sure that they grow up to be a good elf and a valuable part of Santa’s team.

The child looks after their elf and teaches it the difference between naughty and nice.
Throughout the course of the month your child tracks their new elf’s journey in the passport provided and Santa checks in with personalised videos.

The Do-Good Elves are really cute, they have a plastic face but soft body that can be moved into different positions. Their clothes can be removed and washed (always handy).

They come with a small passport for your child record their adventures together and a code to access four videos from Santa that you can personalise for your child.

The Do- Good Elf is a lovely idea and slightly less hard work than other elves on the scene.
It is a little time consuming personalising the videos, you need to have photos of your child and their elf for example.

Once the video is done it really is magical. Their faces when they realise Santa knows their names!
You can also access a number of the other free videos on the website.

As I mentioned, I have used Portable North Pole for a few years.
There have been some changes this year though.

Previously, whenever you created a video for your child an email was sent addressed to them. It explained Santa had recorded a message and they could click a link to receive it.

This doesn’t happen now. Instead you receive an email saying the video is ready and if you access the video via the website it’s all a bit ‘behind the scenes’. You need to make sure the video is ready to play in full screen mode so they can’t see that you’ve made it.

Viewing via the app is a lot better as you can store the videos to the ‘Kids Corner’ section and they can’t accidentally stumble behind the curtain.
There isn’t the magical anticipation as there was before though.

At £20 the Do-Good Elf isn’t cheap. S/he comes with a passport and the code to unlock four personalised videos.
If you want to use the reaction cam, download the video or access the Big Book video you need to purchase the Magic Pass as well. It would be a nice touch to include this with the Elf.

The Do-Good Elf is about encouraging your child to consider their behaviour as there are little elves (and a fat man in a red suit) watching. However, there is nothing to say that they can’t get up to mischief on occasion! Your child can just tell them that playing cards and drinking all night is not good elf behaviour!

The Do-Good Elf can be purchased from John Lewis, it really is a good quality little thing. My two are smitten with theirs.

Seth takes Buddy everywhere. Under Seth’s guidance he might not grow up to be Santa’s Elf material but he will be well loved.

Why not head over to Portable North Pole to see what magical videos you can make for the believers, big or small, in your life.

Those in power at Santa’s Village (Santa?) have given me the chance to spread some festive joy.

You will receive 20% off a Magic Pass if you enter the code PNP7BLG20 at the checkout or click this link. 

This will unlock all of the premium videos, calls from Santa,  the reaction cam and enable the downloading of videos. With the magic pass you can make unlimited videos for unlimited recipients until November 2018.

I am still a big fan of Portable North Pole.
Watching them take care of their Elves and teaching them to be good melts my heat.
It really is lovely seeing their faces light up when Santa acknowledges them by name and they really do want to get on that Nice list.

Who doesn’t??

You can find the Portable North Pole website here
PNP Santa can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.