Everyone's Favorite ElfYourself App Is Officially Back For The 2022 Holiday Season

A silly holiday tradition is back and it's better than ever. The popular ElfYourself app has officially returned this year to help us show off our holiday spirit as dancing elves, or just imagine ourselves as one of Santa’s little helpers.

Developed in 2006, the ElfYourself app allows you to transform your photos into elves and star them in holiday-themed celebration videos that you can share with friends and family. There are a few ways to create your elf’s face: upload from Instagram, Facebook, directly from your phone or computer, or just take a new one! From there you can customize your elf the way you want.

You can use the app to create up to five elves, then bring them to life with AR projections of them in different locations. You can even create a virtual elf-themed Christmas card with a personalized greeting. But the most hilarious and popular feature is the 25+ dances you can choose for your elves.

Since its creation, more than 2 billion elves have been created! Now that’s a lot of helpers! And users can also share their elves on TikTok using the hashtag #ElfYourselfChallenge and #ElfYourselfDanceChallenges. The ElfYourself is free to use, but it does have ads and in-app purchases if you’d like to participate.

You can download the ElfYourself app on iOS or Android. From there, open the app and link your Facebook account if you use Facebook photos to create your elves. Or take or choose a photo to use to create your elf by tapping the Take Photo or Camera Roll.

From there, follow the onscreen prompts to make sure your picture is applied correctly to your elf. Then tap the Add Greeting button to create your virtual Christmas card or Let’s Dance button create a video of your elf dancing along to a song.

The app’s return was met with excitement from users who enjoyed the app in its hayday. Thomas Mustac, 26, tells Romper he used to use the app in grammar school. “It's always a fun way to keep things festive and surprise your friends with some silly social media surprise content,” Mustac says. “Personally we used it in computer class in grammar school and it was definitely the easiest A+ I got for being creative.”