Children invited to find the elves on the shelves at local libraries until Dec. 22

Santa gets pretty busy this time of year with all the Christmas preparations he has to do, so he sends his elves out to different spots to see how children are doing during the holiday season. One such spot is the Prince William Public Library System. The elves hide in different areas around the library waiting for children to find them.

“As we know, Santa doesn’t really have a whole lot of time to check up on everyone. So, once a year, his elves give some help, and they check up on children to see how they are doing and make sure they’re ready for Christmas,” said Kristen Burnham, the children’s librarian at Central Community Library in Manassas.

The elves, which are visiting every library in the county this holiday season, don’t stay in one place very long so children might find them anywhere in their local library, Burnham said. Once children find the elves, they (or their parents) are encouraged to take a selfie with the elf and post on social media with #libraryelfie.

“If you would like to see pictures that you upload or other people upload, check it out at Facebook. We also have Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram. #libraryelfie is the hashtag… just put that in and you’ll be able to see all the other pictures people have uploaded,” Burnham said.

Since the elves might be found in any section of the library, searching gives people an opportunity to find out what the libraries have to offer, Burnham said. “It’s just a fun and very unique way to explore your library and see what resources we have and also to keep in touch on social media.”

The elves will leave the libraries and head north on Dec. 22; so people need to get to their library to get their selfies with the elves soon.

Visit the Prince William Public Library System’s website at http://www.pwcgov.org/library to see all the programs the libraries have to offer.