Elves in Leamington

Delivered by BID Leamington in partnership with Gibsonhaus

During Covid, all normal festive activities had to be abandoned, but in Leamington Town centre CCTV captured footage of a naughty elf who has been let loose in Leamington in the run-up to Christmas – and families were invited to discover his antics and be in with a chance of winning a prize.

In 2021, BID Leamington launched an ‘Elf Hunt’ in partnership with the creators of ‘Atmap’, where participants followed the footsteps of a cheeky elf to decipher his clues. The elf trail was followed by downloading the local events app Atmap onto a smartphone, and participants located the elf’s trail of destruction around seven Leamington shops. The app allowed people to scan a QR code in a shop, giving them a secret letter and a clue to where to find the next one. Once the codeword was revealed – participants went to the final location to pick a mystery treat and enter the prize draw where a grand prize of £100 to spend in Leamington shops could be won.

The Elf Hunt ran throughout December and coincided with Small Business Saturday, a national campaign to highlight small businesses and encourage people to use them over the Christmas period. All off-street car parks were to park in on the day (Saturday 4th December 2021), and BID Leamington’s ‘Christmas Angels’ gave away 250 ‘goody bags’ full of vouchers for town centre businesses.

View the naughty elf below.