• 60 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Elf Writing Prompts

A bench in the workshop, a first day in a big hat, a toy that misbehaves, a letter to post.

Elf Writing Prompts

Show all 60
  1. The workshop elves sing while they work, and one elf cannot hold a tune. Write what the others do about it.Angle: kind, not cruel. Which job turns out to need exactly his voice?
  2. Write a letter from a workshop elf to a child who asked how the toys are made.Angle: answer truthfully about one toy only, start to finish, with one secret left out.
  3. An elf writes to the head of the workshop to ask for a window by her bench. Write the letter.Angle: two reasons, one promise, and what she thinks she would see through it.

Next step Write a letter to a real personBuild an elf character

All 60 prompts

In the workshop 15

  • An elf in the workshop tests every toy before it is wrapped. Write her report on one afternoon's toys. Angle: three passed, one failed and one she kept playing with past the bell.
  • Compare two elves who share a workbench: one fast and messy, one slow and neat. Angle: show each through one toy. Whose would you rather unwrap?
  • Describe the elves' workshop at the busiest hour of the year, using sound before sight. Angle: hammers, a kettle, sleigh bells being tuned, someone counting out loud. Which sound never stops?
  • The elf workshop has a rule nobody remembers the reason for. Write the rule and the story behind it. Angle: no whistling after dark, say, or left boots only on Tuesdays. Make up why.
  • If I were an elf, my workbench would look like this. Describe everything on it. Angle: tools, a half-finished toy, a mug, and one thing that is not supposed to be there.
  • If I were an elf, the toy I would most like to make is this one. Explain how it is built. Angle: four steps, and the one step you would never let anyone else do.
  • If I were an elf, this is the job I would ask for in the workshop. Write the job and why you would be good at it. Angle: painter, tester, wrapper, sweeper, or the one who winds every clock. Pick one and defend it.
  • It is midnight in the elves' workshop and one lamp is still on. Tell who is under it and what they are finishing. First line: Everyone else had gone to bed an hour ago, and the bear still had no ears.
  • Letter the sign that hangs over the elves' workshop door, then the three smaller signs the elves added under it. Angle: the big one is official. The small ones are true.
  • List ten sounds, smells and colors an elf would miss about the workshop if she moved away. Angle: be exact. Not paint, but which paint. Not noise, but whose hammer.
  • The oldest elf in the workshop shows a tool to the youngest, who already has a better idea. Write the scene. Angle: who listens to whom? End with the tool changed a little.
  • Show the elf workshop on the day after the big night, when every bench is bare. First line: You could hear a ribbon drop.
  • Spend a day at one workbench as the elf who paints only the eyes on toys. First line: Two dots and a curve, four hundred times before lunch, and no two the same.
  • The workshop elves sing while they work, and one elf cannot hold a tune. Write what the others do about it. Angle: kind, not cruel. Which job turns out to need exactly his voice?
  • Write the lunch break in the elves' workshop on the day the cocoa runs out. Angle: who notices first, who has a secret supply, and what gets drunk instead?

An elf's first day 15

  • A new elf gets lost in the workshop on the first day and finds a room no one mentioned. Describe what is inside. Angle: nothing scary. Rows of something, kept for a reason. What, and why?
  • A new elf is asked to test the bounce of forty rubber balls on the first day. Write the afternoon. Angle: where do the balls end up, and who brings the last one back?
  • A new elf is handed a hat two sizes too big on the first day. Tell the day from under the brim. Angle: what can be seen, what gets bumped into, and who trades hats at the end.
  • A new elf is trusted with one small job on the first day: sorting buttons. Write how it goes. Angle: by color, by size, by number of holes? The elf invents a fourth way.
  • Draft the welcome speech the head elf gives to the new elves, and what one new elf is thinking during it. Angle: put the thoughts in between the lines of the speech.
  • The elf who has worked in the workshop longest remembers her own first day. Tell it in her voice. First line: We had candles then, and one saw between nine of us.
  • Give the tour a new elf gets on the first morning, as told by a guide who is in a hurry. Angle: six rooms in six sentences, and one door the guide walks straight past.
  • If I were an elf on my first day, this is what I would be most nervous about. Write what happens when it comes up. Angle: the tools, the speed, the hat, or being asked to sing in front of everyone.
  • If I were an elf starting work tomorrow, here is what I would pack in my bag tonight. Write the list. Angle: five things. One is for luck and one is to share.
  • On an elf's first day, everyone else already knows where to sit at lunch. Write where the new elf ends up. Angle: the table by the window or the bench by the stove. Who slides over?
  • On the first day a new elf asks the question every elf asked once. Write the question and three different answers. Angle: the answers come from the oldest elf, the cook and the elf at the next bench.
  • Tell the first day of an elf who arrives in the middle of July, when nobody in the workshop is in a hurry. Angle: long lunches, open windows, one toy a day. What does the elf expect, and what is there?
  • Two elves start on the same day, and only one of them has made a toy before. Write their morning. Angle: who helps whom by the end of it? It may not be who you think.
  • Write a diary entry for the night after an elf's first day. First line: I broke nothing important today.
  • Write an elf's first day at the workshop, from the door to the first mistake. First line: Nobody had told me the door was that small or the room that big.

The toy that went wrong 15

  • A music box an elf made plays its tune far too slowly. Describe the tune and who it is perfect for. Angle: someone falling asleep, someone learning to dance, someone in no hurry.
  • A toy an elf could not fix is wrapped anyway, with a note. Write the note, and the reply that comes in January. Angle: the child liked it for the very thing that was wrong.
  • A wind-up toy an elf made walks off the workbench and keeps going. Follow it until it runs down. Angle: under the door, past the kitchen, out into the snow. Who comes after it with the key?
  • An elf builds a toy train that will only run backward. Write what the elf does next. Angle: fix it, hide it, or decide that backward is the point?
  • An elf mixes up two sets of plans and builds a rocking horse with a boat's sail. Write its first test. Angle: does it rock, does it sail, and what does the tester write on the form?
  • An elf sews a teddy bear with one arm longer than the other. Write the tag the elf ties to its wrist. Angle: turn the mistake into the reason this bear is the right one for someone.
  • An elf's toy drum makes no sound at all. Decide who might want a silent drum, and write the gift tag. Angle: a parent, a baker who sleeps by day, a very shy drummer.
  • Be the toy that went wrong: write as a kite that an elf made too heavy to fly. First line: I was built for wind, and I have the weight of a dinner plate.
  • Describe the cupboard in the workshop where the elves keep the toys that went wrong. Angle: three toys, three faults. Which one do the elves play with when nobody is looking?
  • If I were an elf and my toy came out wrong, this is what I would do. Write it honestly. Angle: tell someone, start again or wrap it quickly? Say what you would be thinking.
  • If I were an elf, the mistake I would be proudest of is this one. Tell how it turned into something good. Angle: a wrong color, a part left over, a toy that does a thing nobody planned.
  • Tell the story of a jack-in-the-box an elf made that refuses to pop up. First line: I turned the handle. The music played. The lid stayed shut.
  • Two elves each think the other one put the wheels on the toy wagon. Write the talk when it will not roll. Angle: the wagon has no wheels. Who says so first, and who laughs first?
  • Write an elf's repair notes for a doll's house whose doors all open the wrong way. Angle: number the notes. Note four should be crossed out.
  • Write the apology an elf makes to a toy robot whose head was put on backward. First line: I am sorry. You can see where you have been, at least.

An elf's letter 15

  • A child has asked the elves for something that cannot be made in a workshop. Write the elf's kind reply. Angle: a snow day, a longer summer, a dog who listens. What can the elf send instead?
  • An elf answers a letter that says only: Are you real? Write the reply. Angle: no proof allowed. Only details that someone who was there would know.
  • An elf on a day off writes to a friend who is still at work in the workshop. First line: You will not believe how quiet it is when nobody is hammering.
  • An elf was not supposed to read the note a child left beside the cookies. Write the note and the elf's answer. Angle: the note asks one question. The answer has to fit on the back of it.
  • An elf writes the yearly letter that is pinned to the workshop wall: what went well and what to do better. Angle: three of each, and thanks to one elf for one small thing.
  • An elf writes to the head of the workshop to ask for a window by her bench. Write the letter. Angle: two reasons, one promise, and what she thinks she would see through it.
  • An elf's letter to another elf is slipped into a toy's box by mistake. Write it, and what the child writes back. Angle: it was about lunch. The child has opinions about lunch.
  • If I were an elf, I would leave this note on my workbench for the elf on the night shift. Angle: what is finished, what is still wet, and what not to touch on any account.
  • If I were an elf, I would send this letter home after my first week in the workshop. First line: Dear all, I have paint in my ears and I have never been so happy.
  • Two elves in one workshop are too shy to talk, so they leave each other letters in a toolbox. Write three. Angle: the first is about a borrowed hammer. The third is not about tools at all.
  • Write a letter from a workshop elf to a child who asked how the toys are made. Angle: answer truthfully about one toy only, start to finish, with one secret left out.
  • Write a letter from an elf to next year's new elves, with five things nobody will tell them. Angle: where the warm bench is, which glue sticks to fingers, who to ask.
  • Write a letter of complaint from an elf to the reindeer about hoofprints on the workshop floor. First line: To whom it may concern, and you know which of you it concerns.
  • Write an elf's letter to her grandmother, who was a workshop elf long before her. Angle: what has changed, what has not, and one question about the old days.
  • Write the letter an elf sends with a toy that took three tries to get right. Angle: tell the child about tries one and two. Keep it short enough for a gift tag.

How it works

These elf writing prompts belong to the workshop elf of the old Christmas story, the one with a hammer, a paint pot and a deadline. Every elf, toy and mishap in them is for the writer to invent.

Read the full guide

If I were an elf writing prompt

Nine prompts open with those five words and put the writer straight at the bench: the job to ask for, what the workbench would look like, what to pack the night before starting, the mistake to be proudest of. The opening is already written, which gets a slow starter moving.

When the toy goes wrong

A train that runs only backward, a kite too heavy to fly, a drum with no sound. Few of the fifteen ask for the toy to be mended. More ask who a faulty toy might suit, or let the toy speak for itself.

  • Give your elf one tool and one habit before you begin. The rest follows.

Questions and answers

What is a good elf writing prompt?

One that hands the elf a job. Spend a day at one workbench as the elf who paints only the eyes on toys. Or draft the welcome speech the head elf gives, with a new elf's thoughts between the lines.

Are there If I were an elf writing prompts for kids?

Yes, nine, spread through the four groups. Two of them: If I were an elf on my first day, this is what I would be most nervous about. If I were an elf and my toy came out wrong, this is what I would do.

How do you write a letter from an elf?

Decide who it is to, then give the elf one piece of real news: a toy that took three tries, hoofprints on the floor, a quiet day off. Fifteen prompts are letters, to children, to other elves and home.

More tools

Show 8 more

Browse Writing Prompts