Starting at about 7 and ending at about 10, I snooped at all of my presents. My mother would hide them in the same place each year: the back of her walk-in closet. I’d go inside when she wasn’t home and my father was still sleeping/in the shower, and hold each present up to the light, pushing down the paper so I could see the writing on the box more easily. I’d continue to do this with every present until I had exhausted the supply and realized that I probably should have waited and been surprised. My mother never found out that I was doing this, but the next year continuing to this day (I’m 18), she would hide all of my presents at my grandmother’s house (half an hour away). I asked her this year why she continues to do it, and she replied, “You’re a little old to be snooping around for gifts, aren’t you?” :rolleyes:
My 11-year old daughter wants to snoop, but hasn’t. I’ve told her any present she finds, she doesn’t get. Would I go through with that? Probaby not…
I used to snoop around the tree come Christmas Eve. It was part of the fun. We were the see-through-the-wrapping and tape-cutting (find where the wrapping paper meets its other end and has been taped together, very smoothly cut it, peek, then use the same kind of type to cover up the job) types.
But one year -I suppose I was 8- my brother and I (who shared a room, complete with a bunk) just couldn’t wait and wanted to peek while gifts were still being wrapped. We got caught, sent back to our rooms, but we did not give up. We were repeat offenders of peeking that night. But one time we opened the door just a peek and saw a very um, frustrated, father sitting on the steps of the stares looking right at us. So we got an angry lecture about not peeking, do as I say, and threats of being locked inside our rooms during the night from then on.
Eventually the novelty started to fade away for my older brother and sister, and it started to get less fun for my younger and I. I did it last year, if being downstairs at 9 (everyone else basically asleep, being nearly grown up) and glancing through counts. For the nostalgia of it only, though.
My sister was the biggest snoop. And she’d usually cajole one of the rest of us to help. Then she’d ask if you wanted to know what you were getting. I don’t remember ever saying yes.
Her worst offenses were usually committed in the wee hours on Christmas morning. She’d sneak downstairs and check out what was in everyone’s stocking. Since there were four girls all about the same age, and no boys, Mom usually gave us all the same stuff, in different flavors. For example, a necklace, but all with different color stones.
Katie would compare all four, then change what was in everyone’s stocking so that she had what she thought was her favorite out of all of the possible choices, then repack the stockings and go wake everyone up.
Mom has a bad memory, so she often didn’t catch the switcheroo. And Katie was one hell of a conniver–she never let on to what she’d done. (She’s confessed to the extent of her sins since hitting adulthood.)
However, one Christmas morning, Mom caught her but good, over–of all things–She-Ra action figures. She’d put one in each stocking, but didn’t want to give any one daughter She-Ra herself, because she’d figured there would be fights. So Mom put She-Ra in her own stocking, so no one would “own” her, and gave us all various sidekicks.
Katie swapped her doll for She-Ra, stuck the one she’d been given in Mom’s stocking, and She-Ra in her own, and woke us all up. All hell broke loose when Mom figured out what had happened. My mom and dad were furious. I remember a lot of unpleasant yelling that Christmas morning. Ugh. I think that must’ve reformed her.
My brother and I were deterred from snooping when my mom told us that if she found out we snooped, she was taking all of the gifts back to the store and we’d get nothing for Christmas. And we knew she’d do it too!
We were pretty good kids though. I don’t know about my brother, but I never had the urge to do that anyway. One year my brother accidentally found something when he and I were playing hide and seek and was terrified Mum would find out. He didn’t tell her he had found it until after Christmas because he was afraid she’d take everything back!
I was a shaker. I loved looking under the tree and trying to figure out what everything was. My mum loved it when I’d try to guess. She was a pretty good disguiser and I hardly ever knew what it was. One year I did guess one thing after a week of being stumped and she kept telling me I was wrong and not to be so cocky about it. I was right. She was just mad that I had guessed correctly for once!
One year my cousin’s babysitter had the bright idea of taking my cousin and unwrapping all the gifts and wrapping them up again while her mum was out. My aunt found out. That babysitter didn’t last long!
I’ve always liked surprises, so for as long as I can remember, I’ve avoided looking for my presents even when I knew I could find them. (I wasn’t like this as a really small child, but as an older child and as an adult.) My wife, on the other hand, not only doesn’t want her presents to be a surprise, but also can’t usually keep secrets about presents that she’s giving. (“I’m getting you a pair of pants, do you want the black or the blue?”) Which is what made this one year such a big surprise.
We had just moved in to a different apartment, and despite our best efforts, still had boxes everywhere, and were still unpacking. Because of this, there was really no closet that went unopened, and there wasn’t a lot of room to start with. However, this particular year in question, she gave me a new CD player. (My first - this was many years ago.) I asked how she had manged to keep it hidden.
“Oh, I just left it unwrapped and stacked it with the other boxes in the bedroom.”
I never noticed it.
I was something of a snooper. To be honest, I don’t like surprises, even the good kind. I like to know what my reaction is supposed to be beforehand (that sounds bad, doesn’t it?). Now that I’m an adult, I don’t get any of the good stuff (toys and pets) so peeking seems pretty pointless.
StG
I never even really considered snooping, I knew all the presents were sitting in my dads closet. But that was also the closet where my Dad kept his guns. It was impressed on me so hard growing up that you never never never go near that closet, it just kind of became a void for me mentally. If something was in that closet then it simply was unreachable and I never thought about it again.
I snooped once when I was a kid. For me, too, it took something away from the fun on Christmas morning. My desire to be surprised is stronger than my curiosity so I don’t snoop now even though I know where my husband stores my gifts before wrapping.
Inspecting wrapped gifts, however, is standard practice in our house. Squeezing and gentle shaking are ok, but no tape lifting is allowed. Some gifts are purposely left pretty obvious while others are disguised as cleverly as possible. Makes the anticipation as delicious as the actual gift opening.
One time an undercover cop was telling me about how they bug houses. (This story will eventually get to something related to this thread - I promise.) While a suspected drug dealer was out of his house, eating at a restaurant with his family, a team of officers picked the lock on his house and start installing listening devices, tapping his phone, etc. They got a call that drug dealer was on his way home, so they were all rushing to finish everything up and get out of there when the officer that was working in the attic stepped between the rafters and broke through the plasterboard ceiling!
Oh shit! What’ll we do? They had finished installing the bugs but they didn’t have time to fix the hole - they just had to leave it that way. They were pretty sure the guy would know he was under surveillance.
So what did they hear on one of the first phone calls they intercepted?
Drug dealer: “My damn kids have been snooping around looking for their Christmas presents. One of 'em was looking in the attic and broke through the damn ceiling!”
(Miss steps up to the podium)
Ahem. My name is MissTake and I am a snooper.
It began very benignly. A peek in the closet. A quick rifling through bags hidden in the back.
But I could not satiate my pressie jones.
When I was 8, I started unwrapping pressies. I had 2 hours from the time I came home from school until my mom did. I used them well.
My parents tried to subvert my addiction by putting tags on the wrong packages, buy putting NO tags and color coding the packages. But I learned their evil tricks. OHHH yeah. I learned them!
Then when I was 10 I came across a box. I can still picture it. White paper with santa and his reindeer. It was actually a box tilted within another box. VERY heavy. Made cool noises. I HAD to know!
I slowly peeled back the tape, carefully lifted the paper…
ROLLER SKATES!!! OH HOW COOL!!!
I got them, still in x-mas wrapping paper, for my birthday 5 months later.
Sadly, I have passed my addiction to LilMiss. She tries, OH how she tries. I told her “Do NOT look in my closet”. Of course she did. When she realized there was nothing in there but unpacked moving boxes she was pissed. She stomped downstairs and very accusingly glared at me. She forgot that technically ALL closets in this house are mine.
All of her pressies are in HER closet, unwrapped, behind her toy box. She never goes in there.
Does that make me evil?
I only remember snooping one year. My mom has all of our gifts, unwrapped IIRC, in a big box in the attic. The attic wasn’t necessarily off limits, but since there was really no reason for us to be up there, she thought it was okay. I went up there one day, and saw a big box, and looked in it and saw all kinds of cool toys and stuff. I went down, and asked my brother and sister if they wanted to see, and my brother came up with me, and we looked through everything.
I’m still not sure how she found out, but she did, and managed to take every gift that was for my brother and me back and exchange it, while my sister still got all of her original gifts. I was disappointed, because I really wanted some of the original things. I learned my lesson that year, and never snooped again.
I’m a snoop. I searched everywhere, and often found my Christmas stuff. I even figured out the combination to the lock on my Dad’s footlocker – got quite an education out of that.
I also routinely played with the guns once I figured out how to unlock the cabinet. That glass front was a real mistake – it made the ‘treats’ inside absolutely irresistable. Teaching kids gun safety must work, at least I survived.
Better yet, put a cheap, thin glass vase (like from the Dollar store) in the shoebox. With a rock in it.
Yes. And that’s a good thing.
[sub]bwahahaha, that’s perfect…[/sub]
My mother is the snoop in our family. My dad hides her Christmas presents at the funeral home where he works, and then somehow smuggles them back to our house-he’s got hiding places she doesn’t even know about.
I’ve been tempted, but I never really have snooped. I did one year, and found out my sister had gotten me one of those big gaudy hair clips with the glittery shoelaces at her Secret Santa shop at school. I told my mom about it, saying, “What do I do? It’s so ugly!” I never snooped again, because I just felt soooo guilty over it-she got it for me knowing I liked hair things (I believe she was all of seven at the time), and I just felt so bad.
Then we solved the problem-we took it apart and used the individual laces as hair ribbons. Hell, I feel bad now just thinking about it. I think my sister overheard and cried about it. 
Another time, I was looking for something in my mom’s closet and found these teddy bears she was making for us. (Those pre-printed materials you get at fabric stores, then just stuff and sew). She told me they were for a cousin.
Other than that, I haven’t.
We (seven siblings and I) snooped every year. Never actually opened anything though. Just weighed and prodded and shook the packages. We got very good at telling which ones were clothes!
I don’t have that problem any more. The second a present comes in the house, it’s open.
I never snooped much at Christmas. My sister doesn’t either, she thinks it ruins the surprise. But my parents never hid any of the presents in the house, anyway…they kept them at my grandma’s house or somewhere else. (my birthday, on the other hand…but that’s another story) In recent years, my mom has taken to locking the presents in her car trunk.
But my brother is horrible. He can’t keep his hands off anything wrapped. He picks up the packages and shakes them and tries to look through the paper. It was amazing how one year, our cat managed to rip every single present in the most convenient spot to look at the packaging! My parents are considering putting all of his presents out in a big pile, unwrapped, with a big sign that says “These are Michael’s” next year. Saves on wrapping paper, y’know.
Anyway, one year, my sister got some kind of mechanical kit deal. I’ve never seen my brother look more crestfallen…for, you see, my parents hadn’t put names on the packages, but names in a vain attempt to keep us from shaking the presents. My brother had “accidently” ripped several of the packages and was utterly convinced that the kit was his. He bounced around for days, excited that he would be getting this really spiffy kit. But on Christmas day, he picked up the package, ready to open it…when my mom took it out of his hands and gave it to my sister, saying that it was hers. My darling brother dearest had the nerve to argue that it was a boy’s toy, so clearly it couldn’t belong to our sister! The next year, my parents didn’t put out presents until Christmas Eve.
You don’t get toys? What kind of Christmas are you celebrating at your house? I always asks for something that can be consided a pointless toy.
I do not snoop. I conduct a seasonal guerrilla campaign against the evil tyranny that is gift-wrapped ignorance.
#1 tip for getting into that packaging without leaving telltale rips in the wrapping paper: Use a scalpel or similar sharp cutting implement. They are ideal for festive gift reconnaissance missions.
Carefully cut the sticky tape with the scalpel, then gently move the now unstuck wrapping paper out of the way and examine the gift. If it’s a CD, computer game, video or DVD it may be a good idea to test it for ahem a few minutes - If it’s a box of candy, sample some.
After conducting a thorough examination you should re-wrap the gift, taking care to line up the fresh sticky tape with the original that you cut with the scalpel. Hey presto! It will look as though it was untouched.