Holiday Gift Guide – Review and Giveaway: Christopher Pop-In-Kins
December 8, 2008 by Deb
Filed under Giveaways, Recent Reviews, book, holiday-related product, toys
Gift Guide Categories: Gifts for Kids
Like most families, we have our holiday traditions. And they involve what most of you would consider the ‘usual’ ones – going through the Advent calendar every December, or setting out cookies and milk for Santa on Christmas Eve. But thanks to Christopher Pop-In-Kins, we have a wonderful new tradition that I know we’ll be enjoying for many years to come.
What it is:
Christopher Pop-In-Kins is the story of Santa’s “very first Children’s Elf”. It was first introduced in 1985 by Flora Johnson of Atwater, Ohio. Inspired by Flora’s children and grandchildren, Christopher Pop-In-Kins is the story of an elf that longs to visit real boys and girls. Santa grants his wish by allowing him to arrive in a child’s home just after Thanksgiving and stay until just before Christmas Eve:
Each day, Christopher hides in a different place – up out of reach, where he can see clearly. This one-of-a-kind Christmas story includes a special game of hide and seek that never grows old. Where will Christopher pop up next? In the Christmas tree? On the mantle? Above the window? Each day brings a new surprise and sense of wonder for children of all ages, and heart-warming holiday memories with each passing year. Families read together, play together, learn, laugh and share in daily holiday fun when one of Santa’s elves comes to visit for the season.
Christopher Pop-In-Kins
Christopher Pop-In-Kins
Here’s our take on it:
My girls could hardly wait to read the book once we received it. I was very impressed right away with the quality of the book – it’s hardcover and the illustrations are beautifully done. We read it several times at bedtime, and the girls immediately became extremely excited about the idea of Christopher actually hiding in our house.
I really do think that my girls believe in Christopher. From the way that they excitedly look for him every morning, to the way that they specifically make sure not to touch him, so that his magic won’t go away – they talk about him as if he’s actually really a little elf coming to peek in on them. I’m afraid to come right out and ask if they believe – because I don’t want to put the idea in their heads that he might not actually be real. I love that they are having so much fun with this.
Christopher has hidden in various places around our living room so far. Such as on top of the china cabinet:
And even in the (still undecorated) Christmas tree:
It actually was kind of nice to see something on the tree finally, lol. 
Every morning, one of the first things that the girls do is look for Christopher. And even on the one morning when (ahem) Christopher hadn’t found a new hiding spot (oops), they simply figured that he probably liked where he was sitting (on top of the entertainment center) so much that he just decided to stay there another day (phew!).
The bottom line:
I don’t know how long my girls will continue to believe in the magic of Christopher Pop-In-Kins
Where can you find it?:
You can purchase Christopher Pop-In-Kins
Would you like to try it?:
I have the opportunity to give a copy of this beautiful set of book and doll away to a lucky reader! If you would love to include Christopher Pop-In-Kins
- Enter by checking out Christopher Pop-In-Kins and leaving a comment here to tell me one of your family’s current holiday traditions. Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.
- The contest will run until Thursday, December 18th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY.Fetch. This giveaway is open to the US and Canada.
- Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If you don’t wish to leave your e-mail address, please make sure that you leave a unique name and check back with PRIZEYWinners to see if you won. If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
- If you’d like extra entries, you can:
- Subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar) or subscribe via e-mail – leave me a separate comment to let me know.
- Mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post, and leave a separate comment with the link to your post so I can find it.
- Put the button for my Holiday Gift Guide on your blog’s sidebar – the code for it is in the sidebar.
- Either Twitter about, ‘Stumble’, ‘Digg’ or ‘Kirtsy’ this post – leave me a separate comment with your username at whichever site you chose (one extra entry).
So that’s a total of 5 comments/entries if you do all of the extra entry options.
Good luck!
THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #132 as the winner:
Congratulations to Beverly M (no blog) who said, “We order chinese and watch “It’s a wonderful life”.”! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.
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a big family christmas party
we open presents on Christmas eve at home and spend Christmas day with family
I let my kids open one present on X-Mas eve
We read the story of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Eve!
we make wishes together each day on the 12 days leading up to christmas. the kids put cookies out for santa and we have a big family dinner together on christmas day! the girls would love looking for the elf. i hope this is a new tradition for us!
Our tradition is to give the kids new jammys on christmas eve and they love it! Christopher the Elf is such a cute idea!! It would be great to start this tradition my kids are still young enough to do it!!
Every Christmas my 3 grandchildren and I donate new toys to the local TV station to distribute. I believe the kids look forward to this as much as they do waiting on Santa.
I subscribed.
we make coupon bks for each others stockings for fun things in the next year:) thanks!
Our tradition is that we read the Night Before Christmas before going to bed on Christmas Eve.
A tradition that we had growing up and one that I have continued is that we open one present on Christmas eve. I remember being so excited as a child, and my kids are the same way.
We open one gift on Christmas Eve and then sit together and watch a few movies and have snacks.
We watch on christmas eve
How the grinch stole christmas
I have been doing this with my mom since I was a little girl and now I have my 2 kids and hubby that also watch it with us
we love decorating the house and yard TOGETHER
our Christmas times are sadly quiet now that the kids have moved out and across country.
I do a candy cane hunt for the kids every year and they absolutely love it! Once they find them all they hang them on the tree but they each keep one to eat.
I’m an email subscriber!
I have your button
I dugg the post (bluevioletof2)
We hide the pickle ornament, but this year we have a pink tree. Kinda easy to see…
Subscribed to your feed.
Stumbled this post.
choochoo428
My favorite Christmas tradition is the “Christmas Feast” we have on Christmas Eve, which consists of everyone’s favorite foods. We have everything from beef jerky and cheese-in-a-can to smoked oysters and caviar!
I’m subscribed to your RSS feed.
What a cute elf and he would become a tradition putting him on the book shelf or mantel every holiday. Our tradition is to buy a Nutcracker every year and we display them all over the house to celebrate the holiday. We also adopt a elderly person in the nursing home and buy presents for them.
tamben7996(at)aol(dot)com
I am a happy subscriber.
tamben7996(at)aol(dot)com
We purchase a special ornament for each of our children every year. When they are grown and have their own tree, they’ll have a nice collection of ornaments to put on their own tree.
We like to go out to a Christmas tree farm to choose and cut our tree and decorate it for the holidays.
I subscribe to your feed.
I blogged about the giveaway here: http://iloveagiveaway.blogspot.com/2008/12/one-week-until-christmaseek.html
I have your button on my blog: http://iloveagiveaway.blogspot.com
We order chinese and watch “It’s a wonderful life”.
I stumbled this post. (justaddcharm)
We go to church on Christmas Eve.
One of my family’s current holiday traditions is eating out for Christmas.
I subscribed to your feed.
One of our family traditions is all the kids getting up & singing a songs for us!
Very wonderful to hear them sing…………even if some can’t sing very well……….we listen withlove in our hearts.