Elmo is back on the iPhone. He and his friends where added earlier this year via an app from the folks at IDEO. It was a fun bit of software for kids, and maybe during some long meetings.

The app has reappeared on my iPhone as the new version has holiday updates.

Right off, you will notice the snow and holiday lights around the boarder of Elmo’s Monster Maker opening screen. And when I say ‘you’, I mean your kids… what adult would possibly play with monsters? Someone raise their hand so I’m not the only one!

New to Elmo’s Monster Maker is holiday hats and noses. After you choose a base monster, you tap the top of the head to cycle through the hat options, then eyes and nose. You can tap on any of these areas to change again if the new nose doesn’t match the eyes chosen, etc…

When your done, your new monster is ready to entertain.

All of the monsters created like to sing and dance if you give them the option via the ‘tunes’ icon on the lower right corner of the screen. The ‘undo’ button in the upper left corner takes you back to the ‘builder’ to make a new monster.

Tapping the camera icon in the lower left corner of Elmo’s Monster Maker brings in the photographer to snap a picture of your creation.

The picture is saved to the iPhone’s Photo area so can be used for a variety of other things that you make with your photos (cards, emails, share…). One items I can’t find a setting for is the background image though.