Ways to tell the kids

[sarahbug79]

We are surprising the kids with the Disney trip at Christmas we leave in January. We have never been there I was thinking of getting a box putting a Mickey balloon inside and maybe pretend tickets at the bottom of the string with a note about the trip. The 6 yr old can read as long as I don't use too hard of words. Just not sure what to write out. Any ideas?

Sarah

 

[blessedby3]

I am doing the same thing- surprising our 4 kids on Christmas Day with their trip to Disney scheduled for March. We are staying at the Poly for the first time so I went to a party store and bought 4 tiki cups and 4 leis and I am going to wrap the cups first and have them open them together. Then I will have them open the leis next together. They still wont be able to figure it out and may think they are going to Hawaii -not! I asked a fellow Diser to mail me postcards from the Poly- thanks eyenjeff- and I will have them open them last. They will of course get it then. Then I will have our usual countdown chain made and have that in a seperate box for them to open to see how many days we have left before going. I cant wait to tell them so I can finally post a ticker and the correct dates at the bottom of my siggy. I have 12/09 posted to throw them off and I cant put the Poly down yet either. I want a ticker.....only 12 more days and I can add one.
Have fun surprising your kids!

 

[happily single]

I was thinking of getting a box putting a Mickey balloon inside and maybe pretend tickets at the bottom of the string with a note about the trip.

That's exactly what I was planning of doing for the kids; unfortunately no christmas bonus so no mickey.

 

[teachermom]

We did not tell our kids at all! They are ages 7, 5 and 3 and we told them we were going to visit our uncle in Florida. As we were walking to the Magical Express check-in we asked our seven year old son to read the signs. He did and the look on their faces was priceless!
I did have one idea though, how about new WDW t-shirts or CDs of disney music?

 

[set1208]

We're surprising our dd8 on christmas too. (Her two brothers are too little to get in on the surprise, but they are going too). We bought the mickey luggage for me and dh and the Cars carry ons for her two toddler brothers. We also ordered the mickey luggage tags. I am going to fill out the tags and hang them on the tree. We'll see if she notices the theme as we are opening gifts. We also bought each of the kids disney tees. For the last gift, we made a power point show of disney pictures telling them that we will be going in Feb. I can't wait! Keeping a secret is not my strong suit...lol.

Have fun surprising the kids everyone!

 

[MelliRobi2]

and we are giving them each a bag of 6 printed personalized disney t-shirts for the trip(each day a different shirt) and some disney crocs and figure they will know we are going....we will be leaving just 3 weeks after that!

 

[tinkyrie]

My husband and I have surprised our boys three times!
#1 you can watch the video here: www.runtodisney.com
#2 We left my parents house the week after Christmas and the boys thought we were driving home, but we were driving to Disney instead. They were clueless the whole time. When we finally got to Orlando, it was getting late and so I said, "Why don't we just spend the night here, and drive home tomorrow." Well for my boys sleeping in any hotel room is just about as exciting as Disney! But my older son asked where we were and we told him to just look at the signs. He saw a road sign that said "Disney World- Magic Kingdom" and was like "Hey if you get off here you can get to Disney World" then he said, "MOM, did you go the wrong way?" It was GREAT!
#3 Just before putting them to bed on Christmas night, we said we had one more gift. It was a Disney stuffed animal for each of them with a note.

BY FAR, our favorite was the first surprise-the one on the video. We really did not go home, we drove straight to Disney! What memories!

 

[MelliRobi2]

My husband and I have surprised our boys three times!
#1 you can watch the video here: www.runtodisney.com

Oh my gosh that was soooo cute...it brought tears to my eyes! What a magical memory.

 

[an_evans]

One year I wrapped a box of a lot of little disney trinkets. I cut apart the words "You are going to Disney World in __ days" and wrapped them individually and they had to work together to solve it.

This year we are thinking of making a dvd and wrapping it.

 

[tnd]

My husband and I are still debating when we should tell our son. He's 3.5 so he has no sense of time yet. My plan, if we tell him beforehand, is to give him a Disney shirt (got online for 3.99) and some little Cars toys on the last night of Hanukkah, and a big sign that says we are going to Disney in 6 days.

My husband's plan is to say nothing until we get to there and see if he figures it out. I don't know that he will because we've only been to Disneyland and WDW is much bigger and looks very different.

 

[mjbaby]

My husband just surprised me with a late January/early February trip so now our big question is how to tell the kids. I like the balloon idea and may "borrow" it! Some other thoughts we had:

- Make a puzzle for them to open together on Christmas day and complete. When the puzzle is done, my 8 year old will be able to read it to his sister.
- Put together little travel packs for each of them with a new t-shirt (the only time their shirts match is when we travel so right away they'll know something's up), disposable cameras, new sport bottle, etc. They can open them Christmas Day.
- Wait until New Year's Eve to tell them at midnight (the ONLY day of the year they're allowed to stay up so late!). The trip my husband planned is to celebrate my 40th birthday and our daughter's fifth birthday - my bday is on NYE and our daughter's is a month later so we thought maybe we could give them a special "2009" present - I do like the chain idea someone else posted and might borrow that one, too.

 

[an_evans]

I like the puzzle idea! I could be really devious and wrap each piece individually!

 

[maryjean]

How about having a Scavenger Hunt.You could hide little clues around the house that will lead them to the box.Then inside just write who's the leader of the club thats made for you and me and have them fill in the blank.Then write quess where I live or something like that.

 

[adventure_woman]

Call the merchandise people and have them send you Mickey ears for each person with their names engraved in the back of the hat. Or have them send you autograph books.