Christmas Surprise

[ParkesDisney]

My son and I are booked at CBR from Dec 27 - Jan 1. I am anticipating keeping this a secret/surprise until Christmas. Here's the problem: I need some creative suggestions for putting it under the tree for Christmas morning...because creative, I am not!

Thanks!

 

[NOLA08]

creative, i don't know, but this is what we did:

we booked a surprise holiday disney trip for our 3 kiddos.

we packed their bags, disney luggage tags & all, put them in large boxes, wrapped them and put them under the tree.

my son was the first to get his open. at first he opened it, saw the bag, opened the bag & said, "what?! it's my own stuff?!"

it didn't sink in until we told them, "guess what, we are leaving for disney world today!!"

at first they didn't even believe it, then there were happy dances all around

one of our great family memories

whatever you decide, i'm sure it will be awesome!!

 

[CanadianPaco]

I think this is an awesome idea! I couldn't keep a secret to save my life so I'm interested in what others have to share...

 

[ParkesDisney]

I generally suck at secrets too, so this is going to be HARD!! He splits time between his dad and I and, since we live in Southern Ontario, I will be packing off season clothes, so packing in secret is not going to be the hard part. The rest of it will be the hard part! I just want to blow his socks off on Christmas morning with this surprise!

 

[CanadianPaco]

We're from S.Ont too ...Woodstock. I never thought about the packing - you could basically pack as you put away the season. Good luck!

 

[Orreed]

I am not sure if this is possible but it would be neat. You would wrap a DVD along with some other Disney goodies like gift cards, lanyards, water bottles, or any fun thing for your trip. On the tag put, from Mickey. On the DVD somehow get a video of Mickey wishing your son a Merry Christmas and telling him that he would be going to Walt Disney World on the 27th!

 

[MrEVILdrPorkchop2u]

Love the idea of wrapping the luggage!

 

[ParkesDisney]

I am loving all the ideas...keep them coming! I'm a teacher at a school with a fantastic media arts program...those kids/teachers can do just about anything, so Mickey delivering the news just might be possible...

 

[Lumiere Lover]

You could also wrap some park maps or a Birnbaum book. Then when he opens it, you can tell him he needs to read it quickly, that you need to get to the airport.

If you want some park maps (unused, but two years old) PM me your name and address and I can send you some park maps. That way he can circle rides he wants to do. Just remember, Mickey's Toontown is on the maps I have.

 

[iluveeyore]

Good luck, and let us know what you decide to do! I'm not the greatest at surprises either - I've seen videos of kids opening boxes that helium balloons rise out of with "We're going to Disney - surprise!" written on the string. Maybe a Disney helium balloon from the dollar store with a message on it??
As far as the packing, please make sure you pack for all seasons - we actually needed layers of hoodies, and I wore my winter coat a few days when we went for Christmas week two years ago. Just make sure you have some extra layers packed and maybe the thin stretch gloves and a warm hat just in case, and check the weather before you go. Better to have extra than to not have enough and have to spend $60 on a WDW hoodie!!!
Have fun with your planning! We'll be there Jan 1-8!!

 

[stindall]

You could also wrap some park maps or a Birnbaum book. Then when he opens it, you can tell him he needs to read it quickly, that you need to get to the airport.

If you want some park maps (unused, but two years old) PM me your name and address and I can send you some park maps. That way he can circle rides he wants to do. Just remember, Mickey's Toontown is on the maps I have.

That's what I was thinking too. Maybe a Hidden Mickey book and a park book in your wrapped luggage (like the above poster said).

 

[kasedroz]

I don't think what we are doing is too creative but this is what we plan to reveal our Christmas trip to them. We are waiting until we get to the airport to tell them, we are driving up to my Inlaws house which is where they think we will be spending the week there. Our flight leaves the next morning at 8 so we have to be there by 6:30, so we'll quickly get dressed first in our Disney shirts and then put on our hoodies to cover them up. Then when we are at the airport we'll hand them their travel backpacks (they both have a preschool backpack from pottery barn). Inside their backpacks they'll have a shirt saying "I'm going to WDW", an autograph book and pen, water bottle (still debating this one bc we get one with our dining plan), a Mickey christmas snack (courtesy of my family in Fl), lanyard with a few pins to get them started, a Disney DSI game for the plane ride, a Disney coloring book and crayons. And I plan on making them some Disney Christmas flip flops to switch into when we land.

 

[danicaca]

These are all great ideas! I wish we could surprise our girls, but I am planning plenty of surprises while we are there. @kasedroz - I would go ahead and get your kiddos the water bottles. The mugs are nice, but not for young kids. They spill easily. We filled up DD's mug, then transferred it to her sippy. This trip, I bought both girls Disney water bottles, which we will use in the parks, and at the resort to minimize spillage!
Danica



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[Headed4Fun]

We surprised my son for his birthday earlier this year. We packed up a box filled with Disney things and wrapped it up.....I asked him if he wanted an early birthday present. It had new Mickey Crocs, a shirt for him and and sister, stickers, autograph books, pens, lanyards, gift cards....etc.
At the bottom of the box was a sign that said "I'm going to Disney World for my Birthday" with a picture of Mickey on it. He got to the bottom of the box and it still didn't make sense to him. Then, my husband wheeled out 2 rolling Disney carry-ons that were packed and ready to go. He screamed "SUITCASES!!!!!" and then we knew that he understood it all! haha

We also arranged for a call from Mickey Mouse that morning - there's a phone service that does that for about $2-3 per call. It was prerecorded but in our case, it was fine.

Good luck - keeping that a secret was probably the hardest thing I've ever done but it was sooooo worth the reaction. Have a great time!

 

[ctl]

All the ideas sound great. You could add this to them, if you like. If you go to the Disney Movie rewards site you can get a Disney character to phone your son and tell him he's going to Disney. The calls are either $2.95 or $3.95, I can't remember which, but I got my DD called on the morning of her trip and it was awesome to see her face. Have a great time.

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

I LOVE the luggage idea, ingenious.

We have surprised DD with weekend trips before, but not for a big holiday so we just packed the day or 2 before & woke her early to make the long drive. She STILL talks about it though & she was not quite 4 when it happened. It made an awesome impression on her.

Just wanted to add - have you already ordered customized maps from disney? They're nicely done & you could frame/wrap them for the kiddos & tell them for Christmas you decided to give them "The World".

 

[CraftyMommy]

My son had been to WDW before but doesn't remember it because he was 1 and 2 on those trips.

He didn't go again until he was 6. Since this was the first trip he would remember we decided to do a big surprise as a way to tell him we were going. His birthday is New Year's Day and we would celebrate it a day or 2 after so that people could come to his party without it interfering with their New Year's plans.

We had all of the party attendees wear something Disney related if they had it. Most people wore Buzz Lightyear, Cars, or Pirates t-shirts since they are all over Walmart and Target.

I got party supplies from Party City. Mickey napkins, Tigger cups, POTC party favors. I got several helium balloons with various Disney characters on them. There was a Cars pinata.

I didn't ask my son what theme he wanted his birthday party to be, and he never mentioned anything, so I went with the everything Disney theme.

When we were opening presents he opened an envelope that had a big ticket (I made it using my Cricut machine) It kind of looked like the ticket from Polar Express. It was gold but it had Disney character stickers all over it and said "Ticket to WDW" I asked him what do you think WDW means? He instantly guessed Walt Disney World. The next gift he opened was the Guide to the Magic For Kids book. There were a few Disney t-shirts as well. After he opened the Disney gifts he asked, "Is this Disney ticket real?" I said it sure is and we are going tomorrow! He was so excited it was difficult to get him settle down long enough to open the rest of his regular birthday gifts.

That Guide to the Magic For Kids book was one of my best purchases. Two years later he gets it out regularly and flips through the pages reliving all the memories we had on that trip. He points out which ride he liked the most (which changes a lot) and which ones he wants to try next time. Little does he know we're going for Christmas this year. I'm working on plans for that surprise.

I know this is a birthday story, but you could do most of this stuff for Christmas. During the holidays there is a lot of Disney themed wrapping paper for sale.

 

[DisneyDreamer0610]

I created Journals for my 2 boys...they are 9 and 11...I got the templates from allearsnet.net I think and cut and pasted everything to fit into a composition notebook and made tabs and such so each page and section was different, made cross word puzzles, downloaded paper battle ship for them to play on the flight there, cut out coloring pages for them to color on the flight and other activities so its something for them to do on the way there and back PLUS while we are in the lines it has trivia about rides and the parks and stuff which is neat...well the first few pages are the basic info, like their names the dates we are going who all is going how we are getting there where we are staying and all that kind of stuff ...I filled all that out and left the rest blank for them to fill in when we actually go and then wrapped the journals up and put them under the tree...when they opened them they read the dates and info and FLIPPED! it took me a while to come up with the idea and a few weeks to put together the journals but it was well worth it! hope this helps!