Post your idea on how to surprise my kids at Xmas

[TomBxyz]

Hi all! Been reading the boards for a few weeks and finally registered today. My wife and I are planning a trip to WDW in mid Feb. My 2 sons, 9 & 13 don't know about it yet. It will be thier "big" Christmas gift this year. We're trying to decide how to "wrap" it! I would like to hear any suggestions anyone has. I was thinking along the lines of literally wrapping up a big box with tickets or something in it. But we won't have any real tickets at that point and even the plane tickets are just an e-ticket printout. Any suggestions on what to put in the box to get the point across? Or any other ideas on how to surprise them with this trip?

 

[sweetinmaine]

Hi all! Been reading the boards for a few weeks and finally registered today. My wife and I are planning a trip to WDW in mid Feb. My 2 sons, 9 & 13 don't know about it yet. It will be thier "big" Christmas gift this year. We're trying to decide how to "wrap" it! I would like to hear any suggestions anyone has. I was thinking along the lines of literally wrapping up a big box with tickets or something in it. But we won't have any real tickets at that point and even the plane tickets are just an e-ticket printout. Any suggestions on what to put in the box to get the point across? Or any other ideas on how to surprise them with this trip?

and to the boards! You'll get all of your questions answered here!

Last year for Christmas we gave our kids and grandsons a trip to Disney. We hung a blow up airplane next to the tree and had plush Mickey and Minnie on it. We included a stuffed Donald Duck and Goofy in the front of the tree sticking out of a few of the presents. Those are lottery tickets hanging off the plane in front of Mickey and Minnie. Our kids are both adults.

 

[Reese]

I love the airplane .

We are giving our kids a trip to WDW world for Christmas this year. We are leaving in Jan. We have decided that we are getting a huge box and placing some Disney balloons inside. We will have seven packages inside, one for each day. They can open each package and see what we have planned for that day (two of my children like to know minute to minute what is on the agenda). I plan on printing off cute Disney pages and put our ADR's for the day and than some little trinkets with each day. Santa is also giving them tickets for the P&P party so everyone (including my Mom that we're also surprising) has a box with a costume and their tickets in it. I'm so excited .

 

[sweetinmaine]

I love the airplane .

We are giving our kids a trip to WDW world for Christmas this year. We are leaving in Jan. We have decided that we are getting a huge box and placing some Disney balloons inside. We will have seven packages inside, one for each day. They can open each package and see what we have planned for that day (two of my children like to know minute to minute what is on the agenda). I plan on printing off cute Disney pages and put our ADR's for the day and than some little trinkets with each day. Santa is also giving them tickets for the P&P party so everyone (including my Mom that we're also surprising) has a box with a costume and their tickets in it. I'm so excited .

That sounds like a great surprise! Be sure to take pictures so you can include them in your photo album! You'll have to update us as to how everything went!

 

[momathome]

Our trip is not a surprise but My kids love a treasure hunt with clues to finding the next clue. You could wrap a disney clue at each location and the tickets at the final location. Some of our friends did this for their trip. Their kids loved it!!

 

[TomBxyz]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. The treasure hunt is a good idea but, unfortunately, Santa made the mistake of starting that tradtion a few years ago and they expect it every year now! (the oldest one is definitely beyond Santa stage, the younger one isn't yet though). And there's no way Santa is getting the credit for our WDW trip!

 

[Dodge34]

Here is a big idea but difficult with older kids (one of my friends did this to both is 5yrs old twins and 7 yrs old daughter but hiding it from a 13yrs old... quite a good challenge here), do not tell them untill the day you go to the airport, and even there, don't tell them were you are going at all, surprise them when they learn their final destination by themselves. You could make them pack everything for a surprise trip but lie to them about their destination at first.

 

[TomBxyz]

Dodge - that would be a good idea under different circumstances. In our case, this is an Xmas gift (and there will be fewer other gifts than they are used to, because of the expense of this one), so we really want to surprise them at Xmas. Also, as I've seen others mention before, part of the fun is the anticipation and planning of the trip. I've had to bite my tounge a few times already to stop from saying something about the trip.

It would be a lot of fun to to see thier reaction by just not saying anything and driving to the airport though! Maybe on a future trip.

 

[Reese]

For our first trip to WDW last year we surprised them by giving them a box of clues before we left for the airport. I had packed everything without them knowing . It wasn't just socks that were getting lost in the laundry that week.

Perhaps you could wrap up clues individually, little trinkets, You could than number the presents and the kids could open them in order of vaugest to most specific. This way there is still presents under the tree and they have the anticipation of guessing but not knowing. Imagine the excitment as they think could it really be true, as they close in on solving the clues.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I'd write up a personal invitation from Mickey and put that in an envelope. Make it sound like the mouse is inviting you to be his guests.

 

[AMaloy314]

How about one of those Make-It-Yourself jigsaw puzzles? You could wrap each piece in a box. When they finally unwrap all the pieces and assemble them, maybe the picture could be a map of the parks, or a photo of Mickey saying "Welcome To WDW, (insert names here)". Or "See you on (insert date here)."

It is kind of a take off on the treasure hunt theme, since they have to figure it out.

 

[wdwdreamin2]

I'm doing the exact same thing this year!

It's DD6's Christmas present, just for her and Mom! Jan 3-8.

We have a friend who can write in the Disney script. He is going to write her a letter telling her about the trip. I bought a medium plush Mickey to hold the note. I'm going to wrap them in a box, and have it be the last box of a "treasure hunt." So I'll have the first box with a tag that say's "Start Here!", and clue inside to go to "the red box with a green bow, ie. I don't know how many I'll do yet, but when your 6, you gotta have Alot to open!!

I also ordered an autograph book and pin lanyard (and pins) as other gifts.

I know what you mean...Santa is NOT getting credit for this one!!

Please let us know how it turns out!!

 

[TomBxyz]

Some good ideas here, thanks! I really like the jigsaw puzzle suggestion, I might look into that one. I was thinking of cutting out big individual letters that spell out something like "We're going to Dinsney World" and have them try to figure it out from that, but the puzzle sounds cool too.

 

[pantherlj]

Doing the same thing for Christmas morning for my girls! I am just as excited about telling them as I am going!! They are 4 and 7 and I have a friend that just went to Disney so my ideas might not work for you but maybe it will give you an idea or two.

Most of the gifts in our house are from Santa. This is the only gift from us. They will each have a box to open from us after all other gifts have been opened. In the box will be "clues". So far I have some Disney Princess pens on ropes, Disney dollars, Ariel Pez (their favorite), pooh pencils. I don't think they will guess it from that. So, inside the box will be another wrapped gift. It will be a Tinkerbell folder with a map of each park (compliments of my friend but you should have enough time to order the custom ones on disneyworld.com). I lucked out with the folders at Kmart. I never go there but just did for some reason one day and found tinkerbell folders - one pink, one green - their favorite colors! When they finally guess (or when they give up), I will press play on the DVD player and the WDW planner DVD will start playing.

I will make sure we are done with present opening in time for the Disney Christmas Parade on TV (who am I kidding, I get up at 6 because I love CHristams so much )

My friend picked up Cinderella postcards for me. About a week before we go, they will each get a post card from Cinderella inviting them to have breakfast with her at her castle.

Have fun planning!

 

[MomofCKJ]

Our trip is also our kids gift except we are going the week leading up to Christmas, Dec 15-22. It will be their first time and they have no idea!

We are sitting them down the night of Dec 14th and telling them they can each open one small present just because it is something they will use more leading up to Christmas. Inside each gift bag will be their Guest of Honor badges I ordered with their names engraved. I think the oldest (9) will figure it out right away but I don't know about the other two (7 and 4). We can't wait to tell them! We've kept the secret since we booked in February!

Allyson

 

[missymagic]

I love the puzzle idea made it on a piece of poster board so they are over sized. Write Disney questions on some cards that have clues to where the puzzle pieces are hidden around the house. Once they have all the pieces they can assemble or break it down so they each have there own scavenger hunt and then they have to all put there clues to gether to find the final destination

 

[nocalo]

We are surprising our dd with a trip to WDW from 12/21 to 12/28. Since she will have already mailed her letter to Santa by then, we decided that Santa was going to reply to her letter. The letter will say something along the line of "your parents said you were a very good girl this year, and because of that you are leaving for WDW TODAY!". We plan on giving it to her the morning that we leave. Dont want to tell her the night before, because she (we) will never get any sleep. Also wanted her to have a little time to anticipate the trip.

Have a great time!

 

[3dog2kidmom]

Last year we surprised the kids on Christmas morning. Knowing I could only pull this off once in our lifetimes made me a nervous wreck, but I did indeed pull it off! "Santa" brought them new, monogrammed, suitcases which were all packed and under the tree with plush Mickey/Minnie/Plutos sticking out of the pockets, and matching mini backpacks filled with goodies for the plane (snacks, 20 questions game, little Disney trinkets and Disney dollars) hanging off of each of the suitcases. On top of the luggage was a printed invitation from Santa that read, "You've been so good this year I wanted to give you something really special. Go get dressed and hurry, you're leaving for the airport to go to Disney World RIGHT NOW!"

BTW, they were 6 and 8 at the time. They still believe in Santa this year, but I fear it's coming to an end as they are already questioning the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.

 

[Ms.Grumpy]

WE ARE SURPRISING MY TWO BOYS WITH A TRIP ON NOV 29. THE YOUNGEST IS THREE AND MY STEP SON IS 11. FOR MY SSON WE ARE NOT TELLING HIM WE ARE GOING UNTIL WE ARRIVE AT THE AIRPORT IN ORLANDO. SOME OF YOU MAY BE SAYING, "HE IS GOING TO FIGURE IT OUT ON THE PLANE WHEN THE DESTINATION IS NAMED" BUT HE HAS A LEARNING DISABILITY AND DOES NOT PICK UP ON CUES. AT THE AIRPORT I AM GOING TO GIVE A LETTER TO THE MAGICAL EXPRESS CREW AND ASK THEM TO ANNOUNCE IF THEIR IS A T. CRAIN ON THE BUS. THE LETTER IS GOING TO BE A LETTER FROM MICKEY WELCOMING HIM TO WDW AND TELLING HIM HOW HAPPY HE IS THAT HE IS HERE.
EVERY MORNING HE WILL BE SURPRISED TO DISCOVER A POSTCARD THAT A CHARACTER HAS LEFT FOR HIM WHILE HE WAS ASLEEP! WE PLAN ON MAKING THIS THE BEST VACATION HE HAS EVER HAD

 

[TomBxyz]

We can't wait to tell them! We've kept the secret since we booked in February!

Allyson

Wow! We've only had this planned for 2 weeks and it's driving me nuts not being able to talk to the boys about it!