Need creative ideas for giving cash to kids

[ncbyrne]

My DGDs (11+15) will be coming to my house on Christmas afternoon. I am giving my DGDs (11 + 15) cash, but don't want to just put cash or a check in an envelope and I want to make it a fun afternoon. I will wrap written clues that will contain puzzles/quizzes/ (word search, crossword, jigsaw, mirrored images etc.). After they solve them, they will have to follow directions (scavenger hunt style) to find a whole bunch of small bills, even coins.
Here are the ideas I have so far, but need several more.....
- $ coin frozen into a large block, then wrapped like a present and stored in garage freezer.
- $ paper bill folding teensy and stuffed into carefully opened walnut halves that have been glue back together. They will be placed in a large bowl filled with regular nuts with a nut cracker to find them.
- $ wrapped in a small box, then a little bigger, then bigger, etc.
- $ wrapped in a small box using heavy brown paper. They have to wear oven mitts to open the box.
- $ paper bill sandwiched between two small blocks of wood that have been screwed together. They will need to open with a screwdriver.
Can you help me think of more ways to "hide" the $ or ideas on presentations, etc...

 

[Kellydelly]

I would just get a cute mug or something like that and put the cash inside it, or get a pretty trinket box, since they are girls.

 

[pixie921]

My son loves Hershey bars, so one year my mother in law bought about six and then taped them together with the bills between them. He was happy enough about the chocolate bars, but then was ecstatic to find the bills inside.

 

[carj]

One of the kids that my son is friends with, always gives a can of Coke, or whatever, wrapped in dollar bills. They put 10 one dollar bills in a row and tape them together, then wrap around the can. It is always a big hit because the money just keeps unrolling. Even if it is not that much money, it makes a big impression because it unrolls.

 

[prncess674]

My DGDs (11+15) will be coming to my house on Christmas afternoon. I am giving my DGDs (11 + 15) cash,

15 year olds can be notoriously anti social at family gatherings. I think I would stick with only one of your ideas. Hunting for $1 dollar bills can get aggravating and they may not find it very amusing. You even talk about hiding change? These are kids with Ipods, cell phones and designer clothes, they may not be amused by hunting for quarters and dollars, maybe if she were 6 yrs old.

How much total are you planning on hiding/scavenging?

 

[mom2d&b]

Tape the bills together, end to end. Empty a box of kleenex and then attach the bills to the last tissue and restuff the box.

Put cash in a CD case. We do this with gift cards. The teens are always so positive they know they are getting a CD. HA HA, they are wrong

 

[robb01]

My son loves Hershey bars, so one year my mother in law bought about six and then taped them together with the bills between them. He was happy enough about the chocolate bars, but then was ecstatic to find the bills inside.

Thats a good idea, it appeals to the chocoholic in all of us

 

[a1tinkfans]

Tape the bills together, end to end. Empty a box of kleenex and then attach the bills to the last tissue and restuff the box.

Put cash in a CD case. We do this with gift cards. The teens are always so positive they know they are getting a CD. HA HA, they are wrong

I did the Kleenex one with 50 Singles once. Kid LOVED it, Me, not so much, lol!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

 

[Nie0214]

15 year olds can be notoriously anti social at family gatherings. I think I would stick with only one of your ideas. Hunting for $1 dollar bills can get aggravating and they may not find it very amusing. You even talk about hiding change? These are kids with Ipods, cell phones and designer clothes, they may not be amused by hunting for quarters and dollars, maybe if she were 6 yrs old.

How much total are you planning on hiding/scavenging?

I kind of agree. If they were both 6-10ish, I think it would be okay, but a 15 year old is a moody teenager and probably wouldn't be amused.

 

[angeleigh]

My DGDs (11+15) will be coming to my house on Christmas afternoon. I am giving my DGDs (11 + 15) cash, but don't want to just put cash or a check in an envelope and I want to make it a fun afternoon. I will wrap written clues that will contain puzzles/quizzes/ (word search, crossword, jigsaw, mirrored images etc.). After they solve them, they will have to follow directions (scavenger hunt style) to find a whole bunch of small bills, even coins.
Here are the ideas I have so far, but need several more.....
- $ coin frozen into a large block, then wrapped like a present and stored in garage freezer.
- $ paper bill folding teensy and stuffed into carefully opened walnut halves that have been glue back together. They will be placed in a large bowl filled with regular nuts with a nut cracker to find them.
- $ wrapped in a small box, then a little bigger, then bigger, etc.
- $ wrapped in a small box using heavy brown paper. They have to wear oven mitts to open the box.
- $ paper bill sandwiched between two small blocks of wood that have been screwed together. They will need to open with a screwdriver.
Can you help me think of more ways to "hide" the $ or ideas on presentations, etc...

My dd made my dad a bank and one year he filled it with dimes for her for her birthday. This year he filled it with quarters but someone stole it a couple of weeks before her birthday. So this year he taped 25 one dollar bills end to end and slipped them into a toilet paper roll and wrapped it. She loved it.

 

[angeleigh]

15 year olds can be notoriously anti social at family gatherings. I think I would stick with only one of your ideas. Hunting for $1 dollar bills can get aggravating and they may not find it very amusing. You even talk about hiding change? These are kids with Ipods, cell phones and designer clothes, they may not be amused by hunting for quarters and dollars, maybe if she were 6 yrs old.

How much total are you planning on hiding/scavenging?

I have to disagree with this. My 16 yo dd who has all of the above things would absolutely love this. I may actually do something like this for her because she has only asked for one thing so far.

 

[prncess674]

I have to disagree with this. My 16 yo dd who has all of the above things would absolutely love this. I may actually do something like this for her because she has only asked for one thing so far.

only the OP know's her DGD. Determine if this is something she would really get into for the evening. Also to the OP, how much time are YOU willing to watch the DGD hunting for quarters and dollars. I love my 16 year old DGD, but I know her well enough that I would lose ANY cool points I had currently built up making her search my house for quarters. Kids want attention and I don't need to spend 45 minutes to an hour of our Christmas Eve party watching her hunt for quarters. She gets her $50 gift card to "cool clothing store" of her choosing and I go back to my guests. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

You can make a salad with the bills, a salad bowl and tongs...

And or you can buy them a book. Put the money in the middle of the book. Make sure that you tell them they need to read the book to "get the full experience and Christmas present they deserve". If a child makes it half way through the book chances are they will finish it.

Also you can make a money tree...

 

[IluvKingLouis]

There's a Scandinavian tradition of putting candies into a Xmas tree ornament. We improvised when I was growing up. We'd take empty toilet paper rolls (after all the papper is gone), and wrap in Christmas wrapping papper so that the paper extends past the roll. Hide goodies in the roll then tie the ends with ribbons and stick into the tree. I suppose you could hide some bills in there.

We also would glue ribbon so these rolls could be hung.

 

[nena]

My dad always gives us a $100 bill. Eac year he tries different ways to hide our present. Here are some of his hidding ideas:

in a pack of gum
in a mini stocking
in a tin of mints
around a lipgloss/chapstick
rolled up and tied with a red ribbon to the tree as an ornament
around a pen
inside mittens/socks

 

[Aunt Flancy]

One year my Sister gave her son his cash gift in all $2 bills.

 

[lovebugsmom]

I have a friend who once was given a loaf of bread with money between each slice. She still talks about if 15 years later as one of the best ways she has been given cash.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

I'm planning on giving my DD14 a money tree. We are going to fold the dollar bills oragimi style (found doing google search) and hand them from a little Christmas tree. She seems to think money grows on trees anyway...

 

[Disneycrazymom]

Thanks for the fun ideas! We have done cash for our college age niece and nephew and it is always good to do it a fun way. Another one we have done is a basket of "college food" with the cash taped to the bottom.

 

[mickeylove2]

When my brothers were teenagers they had those cell phones that you had to buy cards to add minutes to, and so what I did for Christmas that year was take a huge tv box, I think it was like a 36 inch tv, and I taped 1 card to the bottom of it and then I filled it with packing peanuts, then I added a smaller box and did the same thing, then a smaller box etc, I think I had 4 or 5 boxes each. Each box was wrapped with a bow on top so they opened the huge box had to dig around in the peanuts and found another box, unwrapped that one, then they didn't even realize that there were cards taped to each bottom until we were all sitting there laughing at them and they figured out that there was more to it than just a bunch of boxes with1 card, so they had to dig through to the bottom of each box, there were peanuts EVERYWHERE, it was priceless.