Mum-of-three fills entire shower cubicle with fake snow in commitment to Elf on the Shelf prank

A DEDICATED mum-of-three filled almost her entire shower cubicle with thousands of pieces of polystyrene “snow” for an Elf on the Shelf prank.

Louise Jones took her commitment to the tradition to a whole new level on Thursday in an effort to surprise her three children Alex, 13, Harry, 10, and Emily, 9.

The 42-year-old payroll manager captured a video showing the youngsters looking ecstatic after finding the mischievous elves had taken over the bathroom.

Video shows the trio peering into the corner shower as two elves hang around inside above two thirds of the shower full of polystyrene balls.

The height of the fake snow sits above the height of the children for the epic set-up.

The kids give a quick countdown of “three, two, one, go” before pulling the doors open, allowing a wave of the fake snow to pour out onto the floor.

The children laugh in delight and jump around in the elves’ snow as it covers most of the bathroom before the clip ends.

Louise, from Oswestry, Shropshire, ended up spending around two hours clearing up after the prank.

She posted the clip on Facebook later on that day, writing: “The children loved this one, I’m hoping our elves have given other elves some of their ideas to bring back to other people’s homes, and our elves have learned to be better behaved.

“Life is so busy and Christmas is my time to make the memories that the children will keep with them forever.”

The post has received more than 2,000 likes and over 1,300 comments from parents who praised Louise’s commitment.

Heather Wasson said: “Okay, best parent award, hands down, goes to you. This is so awesome, I give you kudos – that clean up had to be brutal.”

Ashlie Bradford said: “I’m all about kids having fun, getting dirty and making messes and memories but you’re a way cooler mum than me. I absolutely love this, though.”

Gemm Patterson said: “OMG, I couldn’t think of anything worse than cleaning all that up.”

And Amy Boulton added: “That’s true elf dedication.”

Speaking today, Louise said: “It’s one of those things we do each year, but every year it gets bigger. This is our ninth year and it can get really difficult to come up with something new.

“The Elf on the Shelf – it’s all year round they talk about it. They say, ‘What if the elf did this?’, and then I have to say, ‘This is July, darling’.

“We were in Lapland last year and were hoping for some snow, which we unfortunately didn’t get, so I brought some back.

“I used bean bag filling for the shower, 16 cubic feet of it. It didn’t take that long though.

“We closed the shower and then put the balls into the top – they came out a lot quicker than they did putting it in. It took around two hours to clean up afterwards.”

Louise added: “They were ecstatic [upon discovering the prank]. They looked back at me like ‘Can we actually open the door?’ I really don’t like mess, so they needed that reassurance!

“I think December is the month for the children – it’s the perfect month for memories. Yes, I’m crazy but it’s worth it.”

The Elf on the Shelf tradition was inspired by the 2005 Christmas book The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition, wherein an elf watches his young owners during the day and then reports back to Santa at night.

Since its rising popularity, parents from all across the world now participate in the elves’ amusing pranks.