Disney Trip Christmas Surprise?!?

[olivekeeper]

We are surprising our children with a Christmas trip! We leave the 21st and head home the 29th. On the 21st they will open a box with all kinds of goodies in it including shirts for all 4 of them that say, "I'm going to Walt Disney World!" this will be our daughters first trip she is 2. Our boys are 4,8, and 12. I can't wait to tell the oldest that he can eat whatever he wants since we got the deluxe dining! He will be so excited to not have to eat off the kids menu! I must admit I might cry seeing my princess meet a real Disney Princess! 14 days baby!!!!!!!

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

I am surprising my DD's (20 and 22) on Christmas day that we are going back to DW for their spring break.

Last year my DH and DD's surprised me on Christmas day. The only think I wanted was to take DD's to Disney for their college spring break. I thought we weren't going. But on Christmas Day after we had opened all the gifts they went and got one more for me. When I opened it it was a picture of DD's sitting on Santa's lap. They were holding a sign that said "We are going to Disney!!". I LOVED it. They were so excited to surprise me.

So for the last few months I've been telling DH that I want to go back to DW with the girls again. My oldest DD will be graduating in May and will start working full-time. I thought it would fun to go one last time before she starts working. But we have told the girls that it's just not in the cards for us to go back this year.

What they don't know is that we ARE going. I went to the mall yesterday to have MY picture taken with Santa. I made a sign that said "We're going BACK to Disney World!!". I CANNOT wait to surprise them. It's getting really hard for me to keep this secret.

THAT is AWESOME What a fantastic idea your dd's had with the photo with santa!!! Fantastic!

And two great stories that your family will always look back on. :O) enjoy the surprising!

 

[Oliquig]

We're suprising my niece on Christmas Day, but the trip isn't until the end of January. We are doing the box of ballons, by way of a scavenger hunt.

 

[got2travel]

Love the picture with Santa idea

 

[dotcomguy]

We leave on 12/14 and return 12/25. We never tell our girls (6, 4, 3, and 18mo) ahead of time. I can't stand days of questions like "How many more days?"

On 12/14 we'll put them in the car at 4am, drive to the airport. Once there the conversation will go something like this:
Girls: Are we going to the airport?
Me: As a matter of fact we are.
Girls: Can we go on a plane?
Me: Sure!
Girls: Can we go to Disney World?
Me: That sounds like a great idea! Let's go to Disney World!
Incessant creaming begins. Hopefully TSA is not concerned.

This is our 5th December trip and its played out like that every time since the second time.

Another surprise is that we're having the two gril's rooms painted pink and purple while we're gone. We'll return home Christmas evening to their newly painted rooms with a couple more Christmas presents that we couldn't take with us.

 

[norah2]

We're surprising our dd (17) and ds (10) on Christmas with a trip to WDW in Feb. We haven't figured out yet how we're going to do it. But my goal is to have that 5-10 seconds of "what is going on?" confusion before they figure it out.

 

[Elloine]

We are surprising our children (8,6 and 1) in 15 days. We are driving down from IL and plan on stopping to visit family we haven't seen in years in GA for a few days beforehand. The kids do know we are going there and are SOO excited. We are scheduled to arrive in Disney on Dec. 25th. Since we will not be home for Santa this year, Santa is going to leave stockings for them at our family's house in GA. I bought some small Disney things to put into their stockings. Our plan is to let them open their gifts from Santa and see how long it takes to kick in. They will have another surprise arriving at the hotel and realizing all their aunts, uncles, cousins and Grandmother are joining us. This trip has been in the works for over a year and I'm about to explode with excitement!!!

 

[UndercoverMama]

probably the old standby of balloons in a box

Never read that one before this thread and I love it!

Can't wait to surprise DDs 5&6 with our trip! I've got a box ready with a countdown calendar I made that says "The X's are going to Disney World!" and some Disney shirts and autograph books. We leave 30 days after Christmas, so I am excited to share the countdown/anticipation with them!

This is my plan for NEXT Christmas. Hope it is an amazing Christmas morning!

 

[Baloobus]

We are surprising our girls as well, 9 & 6. We hadn't quite figured out how to tell them yet, but we are leaving Christmas morning and staying a week. The balloons are a great idea.

 

[Explodo]

We're suprising our offspring (dd7 and ds4) exactly one week from right now (17th)! We are leaving on the 18th.

I've got a set of 3 of boxes wrapped up to look like one HUGE box. In two of the boxes there is nothing. But in the third is all of the disney administrivia...BAg TAgs, Maps, Itentirary etc...I'm also planning on

Kind of Funny, because they both have been minging about wanting to go back to mickeyworld. The suprise commercials came on the other night. It was the one where they hid the suprise in a pizza box. So...The daughter 4 days ago was checking the pizza box with excitement only to be dissapointed when there was only cheesy pizza in there.

Also have a 2nd suprise in store for them when we get there. I talked my mom and dad into meeting us there. The kids may pass out when they see Mimi and Papa. I cant wait

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

only 3 more sleeps until i finally can talk about disney without having to whisper or wait until the kiddies aren't around! so excited.

i hope everyone else is getting excited too, and i hope all those that have already surprised their loved ones had a great time doing so! let us know how it all went!

 

[Dizfan4life]

All of these ideas are so fun to read! I am an avid Disney planner and I have been brainstorming in my head about how I am going to surprise our kids it isn't going to be this Christmas, but it will be their gift next Christmas. I've been thinking of getting park maps, with a surprise note, and maybe even their park passes, that is if I purchase them ahead of time, and wrap it all up. I haven't set a for sure date yet, but we will probably leave a few days after Christmas so I have time to pack with hopes of staying at Disney for a week and a half. Oh goodness.... I am so excited and I have to keep quiet a whole year !

 

[IwannaseeMickey]

My kids are also getting a box (9 and 3), and we go in March. So far, the box will have a gift card for each to WDW, and also one for the 9 yr old to Harry Potter...she will be SO ecstatic to finally get to go to Universal...only b/c of HP World. I have a pin in it for the 9 yr old too, and a princess tshirt and Belle necklace for the little one. I also have printed out calendars that they can use to mark off the days.

Guess I had better get it all wrapped up!

 

[wendyt_ca]

I am not surprising anyone this year but next year my little brother will be 10 (and is autistic) and I am surprising him on Christmas day that we will be going march 2013. I am going with a friend this April so I am going to buy some stuff there like an autograph book and pen, a couple of gift cards, and some other little things. Plus I will grab park maps for all of the parks to put away, some sunscreen, his park tickets and I am going to do something up for him and I would like to get him an "I'm going to Disney World" shirt. I haven't decided all the details yet but I am thinking that I might buy him a luggage and put everything in that. It's a year away but I am pretty excited cause this will be his first trip anywhere lol.

 

[minuet]

Not surprising about the actual trip since my parents have already decided to go in May but to this point they haven't planned anything. They've asked me to do up a plan for them during the holidays but I'm already a step ahead.

My siblings and I (with me being the ringleader) decided to get together and give them an unforgettable day at the Magic Kingdom with things they have always said they would love to do but would never think about themselves.

We booked them the Marceline to MK tour, lunch at LTT, supper at California Grill to watch the fireworks and threw in funds for characters in flight for their day at downtown Disney since my dad talked himself out of it last year. They love learning about the history of Disney and all the tidbits more so than thrill rides so we all thought they would love this.

I have certificates done up for each item with their confirmation numbers, the Disney print-outs of everything and a small box of US money for the things that cannot be pre-paid. I also included the menus for the 2 restaurants. It's all in a giant box and to throw them off I filled it with candycanes and red and green pompoms.

I cannot wait for their reactions tomorrow. My dad is already excited about the trip (he nudged me in the movies the other day when the Disney logo came up on the big screen and there was a huge grin on his face)

My mom also reads this board so I've been hesitant to post until now as I know she is currently sleeping. lol

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

well, 45min to Christmas, at least where I am. Hopefully my two sweet children are sleeping, dreaming of sugarplums, while at their dad's house TOmororw morning however they are back home, so excited to give them their gift!

Good luck everyone with your surprises!

 

[15isto2]

Hopw everyones big reveals went well

 

[NLD]

Well, we surprised dd (7) this morning with her January birthday trip!

We saved the "reveal" box for last. After all the other presents were opened, we told her to go ahead and open that last nondescript red-wrapped package.

I handed her a piece of paper with a poem on it and told her to read that first. That's about when she started getting excited because she could tell something was out of the ordinary. The poem clued her into the fact that this wasn't just a Christmas present, but a birthday present, too.

Then she opened the box.

Inside was a plush Sorcerer Mickey. Underneath Mickey was an "I'm going to Disney World!" tee shirt. She saw Mickey right away and smiled but didn't notice the tee shirt yet.

So I said, "Look, there's something else in there."

She pulled the tee shirt out, held it up, and read it softly.

In this excited-but-hardly-daring-to-believe voice she said, "What does that mean?"

I said, "Well, what does it say? Read it out loud!"

So she read it again in a stronger voice and then looked at me again with all this hope in her eyes.

So I handed her a card and said, "Here, maybe this will tell you more."

She opened the card. It was a generic Christmas card but inside I'd written the details of the trip......... It said:

Your presence is requested at Walt Disney World!
January 28-February 3
For a birthday trip with your Mommy and Grandma.
Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!

So she read it and then screamed and ran and gave me and dh a HUGE hug, saying "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

She LOVED it and cannot believe she got a trip to Disney wrapped under the tree!

Keeps saying it's the best Christmas present ever.

So... now we just count down the month until we go!


...How did everyone else's reveal go?

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

Well...the kids got their gifts. They opened the advent calendars to count down, and crickets chirped. (which we figured) then they opened up the disney trading pins, and they were super excited about that....just about the pins. LOL Then they opened up the Birnbaum guide to Disney books, and crickets. ...and I asked them what they thought we should count down to, and my ds said Disney? and I said "YEA how about in 40 sleeps we go? My dd was mad, she didn't believe me and she went off to another gift.

My ds didn't know what to do.

A half hour later, my dd was talking and she still didn't believe we were going.

They are not convinced that we are going, but it hasn't sunk in yet....too much going on for one day I guess.

Irregardless, the adults are all excited we can talk about disney out in the open now. LOL
Merry Christmas everyone