I’m not sure if this is the correct forum for this. Mods, please excuse and correct my error if I guessed wrong.
I’m 67 so I’ve seen a Christmas or two. I remember the fun we had when my uncle received a gag gift from my mom. Even though it happened more than 50 years ago, it’s a memory that stands out because it was so fun.
In short; mom had convinced Uncle Bobby to help her play a gag on a different Uncle. She got him to help her fill a very large box with wrapped small boxes of junk like rocks, and old keys and a brick or two, to make it heavy. She told Bobby that there wouldn’t be a real gift in the box, but unbeknownst to him, she placed his real gift in the box. Watching him go through all those boxes that he’d purposely over taped trying to find his real gift was hilarious.
So, I’d like some ideas, if you have them please, for some fun ways of “delivering the gift.” My grandkids are between 11 and 5 years old. I’m hoping that it will be so fun that they will always remember old grandma and how fun I was.
One thing a friend did with his kid was got him the toy he really wanted. He caaaarefully opened the box so it would look new, took the toy out and put an old paperback in it, and wrapped that. Apparently it was a total WTF moment for the kid but he did eventually got the toy as the last present in a non-descript cardboard box.
The scavenger hunt type searches are always fun. The initial present or even a card has a riddle in it that leads the gift recipient to another location in or around the house. They find another box/note/card with another riddle that leads them to another location. Final location has the final/actual gift.
My crazy BIL asked my daughter, then about 12 years old, what she wanted for Christmas, and she said mittens or a muffler. When she opened a large box, it was the old muffler from the used car he was working on. She was like “Huh?” until she realized the connection. At least there was a ten-dollar bill taped to the bottom of the muffler.
This one sounds to me like a way to just really disappoint a kid so the grownups can get a good laugh at their expense until the kid “eventually” gets the actual present.
Agreed!
(I used to put a lot of coins in a little treasure chest and bury it in the backyard and give the kid a treasure map to go dig it up. Doesn’t sound like that’s what the OP is looking for, though.)
I had two co-workers, we’ll call them Charlie and Mary. Mary’s birthday was coming up, and a few folks were planning a get together for dinner or drinks, or something. On the day, Charlie asked Mary for a favor; he said he had a friend with a birthday coming up, so when Mary went out for lunch would she pick up a card for him to give to his friend? She did. That evening, he gave her back the card at her birthday party.
OP, decide on a gift. When your daughter (or is it your son) is out shopping with the grandkids, ask them to pick up the gift for you. Tell them it’s for someone else’s kids; a very good friend of yours. Wrap it and place it under the tree for your grandkids. Hilarity ensues.
As a former teacher, I confirm that playing tricks on kids is not fun for the child.
However a treasure hunt with a guaranteed prize is just the thing!
I had an aunt that had an ALF (from the TV show) Christmas tree ornament. It was her favorite ornament. One year when we had Christmas at her house, the ALF ornament mysteriously disappeared. Nobody would fess up to taking it. Boy was she upset and pissed off.
Her birthday is New Year’s Eve. I forget who actually stole the ornament but we boxed it up as a birthday present in a series of six or so progressively larger boxes. She was so happy when she got all the way to the end and got her ALF back!
If the gift consists of one very large piece and a lot of smaller accessories, try gift wrapping all the accessories separately, and put the big main part, unwrapped, hidden underneath the entire pile of gifts for everyone, to be gradually revealed as other presents get opened. Odds are one or more of the accessory pieces will be opened up before the big part is eventually revealed from under the pile. I recall one Xmas when I was 5 or 6 not understanding the full meaning of the toy I’d just unwrapped as part of a bigger whole, but that just added to the fun.
I think this might work best when you’ve got someone presiding over the present opening. In my family, it was usually the senior adult dictating who got to open a present next; there was no free-for-all where everybody dives in.
This doesn’t directly address the OP’s question but it’s my most memorable story of someone opening a gift.
When I was a kid and throughout my 20s there was a gag gift that was passed around my family. If you got it you held onto it for a year and then gave it to someone else. One year it didn’t show up. Nobody was quite sure who had received it last. Nobody claimed to have it. We talked about it every so often for the next decade but then it receded from memory.
My parents celebrated a big anniversary this year and there were to be no gifts, which everyone honored. While cutting the cake one of my brothers produced a wrapped box and said “I know you said ‘no gifts’ but we think you’ll enjoy this.” “We” (my other brothers and sisters) all looked at each other in confusion because “we” knew nothing about a gift. The long-missing gag gift was in the box. He had planned the moment over twenty years ago and hid the gift away, waiting until he was sure that everyone had completely forgotten about it.
There’s an interesting story of how Grace Kelly and Alec Guinness traded a Native American tomahawk a few times over the course of 26 years. Each would surreptitiously hide it in the other’s hotel room or luggage, but they never spoke about it.
I know this won’t help you, but it fits the gag gift scenario.
Many years ago my family would draw names at Christmas for gift giving. We would set a dollar amount limit and then solicit ideas from the giftee.
One Christmas I drew my brother’s name. He wanted lug wrenches for each of his 3 vehicles. The wrenches cost about $20 each, and our limit was $40.
So I wrapped 3 identical packages, numbered 1, 2, & 3. The first two contained the lug wrenches. The third contained a bright pink cardboard sign - to be stowed in the third vehicle’s trunk - that read “Need a lug wrench.”
Depending on the age, younger ones will probably like the box in a box in a box.
My middle brother, 1.5 years older than I, had to unwrap an inordinate amount of wrappings to finally get to a jack knife. It was a ton of fun. When it was my turn soon after, I knew I got the same thing and just ripped through it.
There’s a family story about when my sister (the oldest kid) was just old enough to start understanding what Christmas was all about. A big package arrived from Grandma and Grandpa, which my sister immediately figured was presents. My mom didn’t want to let her open everything right away, of course, but didn’t want to be constantly pestered either. So mom offered a compromise: They’d open the mailing package, but then the wrapped presents inside would go under the tree until Christmas morning.
Imagine the fun when my mom discovered her dad, instead of using packing peanuts or some such thing, had used all sorts of wrapped candies to fill in the empty parts of the larger package box.
We’ve done that for gifts too big and obvious to put under the tree. Takes lots of prep, but well worth it.
We usually put gifts in boxes from somewhere else, and do the box within box within box thing. And my wife sometimes put noisemakers in boxes with jigsaw puzzles to hide the noise of the pieces moving.