Jennifer Smith was known to dress up every year.

When Smith worked at Dollar General she would were an elf costume every year around Christmas.

“I have 15 elf costumes,” the Sabattus woman said.

One time, while dressed as an elf, Smith used a ladder to climb on top of a large cooler at Dollar General to do some cleaning.

She would soon discover that trying to get down off the cooler was more difficult than climbing up onto it.

As her colleagues were busy laughing at her predicament, being stuck on top of a cooler donning an elf costume, they dubbed Smith as “The Elf on the Shelf.” It was a reference to the popular doll that lets parents know if their children have been naughty or nice.

She has embraced the name ever since. And for the record, on Thursday she solidified her name on Santa’s Nice List as she was busy delivering 200 homemade cupcakes to children, police officers and firefighters in the area.

“Just wanted to spread some holiday cheer,” said the owner of Lil Bit’s Creations, a home-based bakery in reference to her other nickname.

First up was Tee’s Daycare in Lewiston. Smith and her 14-year-old daughter, Adryanna Smith, met Tyler Danforth across the street in the Fraternal Order of the Eagles parking lot.

After putting on a Santa suit, Danforth was ready to roll.

Santa, Cupcake (Smith) and Eve (Smith’s daughter) walked over toward the nine children peeping out the window. “We just thought of those elf names three minutes ago,” said Smith.

Smith gave each child a cupcake as the trio shared a brief time with the children before The Elf on the Shelf and her crew were off to spread more cheer, stopping at the Auburn and Lewiston police departments and the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department.

She wanted to hand out cupcakes at the Sabattus Police Department, but they were closed, so they went to the Sabattus firefighters instead.