Christmas elf voice message: let your elf speak
Many families keep a Christmas elf who watches over the house until Christmas Eve and leaves notes for the children. A short voice message from the elf, saying the child’s name, makes the tradition feel even more magical.
This guide shows how to write elf messages, choose a high, cheerful voice and voice a whole season of messages with the free SuperClonica engine. The Elf on the Shelf is a trademark of its owner; SuperClonica is not affiliated with it.
Messages for the whole season
Plan a few kinds of messages: a hello when the elf arrives, short daily notes about what the elf saw, a reminder before a busy day, and a goodbye on Christmas Eve. Keep each one to two or three sentences, use the child’s name and mention something real, such as “Mia, I saw you share your crayons today!” Short, warm and specific works best.
Choose an elf voice
A high, bouncy voice sounds most like an elf. Valera the Gummy Bear is high and cartoonish and free to use; Little Boy is a high child voice that speaks calmly, for a gentle elf. Hear each one free on its page with a line of 30 to 100 characters, no account needed. Most catalog voices were made from Russian recordings and keep a slight accent in other languages, which for a visitor from the North Pole rarely matters.
Say the child’s name right
Type the name the way it sounds if the voice reads it wrongly, for example “Zoey” instead of “Zoë”, and listen before you play it to your child. Add an exclamation mark for a happy tone and a full stop for a short pause.
Voice a whole season offline
Write every message in its own text file, install the free engine with python -m pip install superclonica-cpu and run, for example, superclonica --text-file elf.txt --voice elf.json --lang en --speed 1.1 --normalize --output elf.wav. A slightly faster speed such as 1.1 makes the elf sound lively. Use the same voice file and seed for every message so the elf always sounds the same, then send the files as voice messages or play them from a hidden speaker.
Other languages and the family’s own touch
The engine speaks 31 languages, so the elf can speak to grandchildren abroad in their language; Chinese is not supported yet. The Santa guide has more festive voices, from Santa to Mrs. Claus, if the elf wants to bring a message from the boss.