Who's the Poster Who Said Mom Switched the Name Tags on the Xmas Presents?

[apnep]

I can't find the thread where you originally posted how your mom surprised you and your sibs and you talked about it for years because she tricked you. Well, I thought it was such a good idea I decided I'd do a little switcheroo with my kids.

DS12, DD9, and DS7 got up and started sorting their gifts like they always do. I made sure to tell them they were NOT allowed to open until we were with them because we wanted to see. Well, they got the gifts all sorted and then I said, "Wait! All the gifts labeled Jared go to Evie." And so on...

Well, DS7 starts losing it and got so upset he didn't open his gifts for a while. Hahahaha! Oh, we'll remember this holiday alright! The holiday mom made Josh cry. This is right up there with the year "Santa" gave them all a lump of coal in their stockings and Evie, who was 5 or 6 then, looked at the coal and started crying.

Just wanted to let you know how it went over in my house.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Eastern]

That was just so unnecessary.

 

[RachelsMommie]

Uh....WHY did you do that? Not understanding what the point was...

 

[sam_gordon]

So it's a good Christmas if the kids end up crying?

 

[apnep]

Because the gifts were out and I knew they'd be poking around under tree. I thought it sounded like a fun idea and would keep them guessing.

Sheesh, y'all are a bunch of downers. I didn't post this to get flamed by a bunch of people. I would have sent a PM to the original poster but could not find who brought the idea up. If you don't have anything nice to say, then just keep it to yourself. DS was fine after a few minutes and ended up having a wonderful Christmas. This was just a small blip and I was just trying to share my story. You win some, you lose some. And BTW, had I known how it would go over, I wouldn't have done it, but hindsight is 20/20 and all I can do is have a sense of humor about it. Merry Christmas!

 

[Kitzka]

Lol I think it was funny. A little joking fun.

Lara

 

[AC7179]

I'm so against being cruel at Christmas, but I don't see this as cruel at all. Just a trick to throw kids off from guessing their presents, and my guess is that the little one was just overwhelmed by Christmas excitement.

 

[msmayor]

This year I bought my son a marshmallow shooter - he's 16, but has wanted one for a while. I also bought a bag of marshmallows and wrapped them separately, and secretly hoped he'd open those BEFORE the shooter as it would probably confuse him.

Turns out the marshmallows were the very first gift he opened.

Son: "Wow mom...marshmallows."

Me: "Well I know how much you love them, right?"

Son: "uh, yeah...they're good. Didn't expect to get them as a gift though."

Me: "Yeah, well...it was a rough year on our budget."


Two gifts later when he opened up the shooter we all had a good laugh!

 

[v.t.]

Too funny. At our house it is not Christmas until someone has a meltdown.

After reading the same thread, I put different colored ribbons on the packages with no names to keep them guessing. It all worked out fine until DS11 opened his helicopter and DS9 screamed "that is my present, I think I asked for one of those."

 

[Princess Nancy]

We had all the grandkids make mushy cards for Grandma and taped a pack of tissues to each one. She was so confused but figured we thought she would need them when she got the cards. Of course she tried to eek out a few tears over their silly little cards.

Finally she opened her special gift. A 90 Minutes Dvd of all her trips to Disney with the kids (15 year!!) I think she used 2 packs as we all piled on her bed and on the floor on Christmas to was the DVD!!

It was pretty special!!

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

I can't find the thread where you originally posted how your mom surprised you and your sibs and you talked about it for years because she tricked you. Well, I thought it was such a good idea I decided I'd do a little switcheroo with my kids.

DS12, DD9, and DS7 got up and started sorting their gifts like they always do. I made sure to tell them they were NOT allowed to open until we were with them because we wanted to see. Well, they got the gifts all sorted and then I said, "Wait! All the gifts labeled Jared go to Evie." And so on...

Well, DS7 starts losing it and got so upset he didn't open his gifts for a while. Hahahaha! Oh, we'll remember this holiday alright! The holiday mom made Josh cry. This is right up there with the year "Santa" gave them all a lump of coal in their stockings and Evie, who was 5 or 6 then, looked at the coal and started crying.

Just wanted to let you know how it went over in my house.

Merry Christmas!

"the rule" people

 

[apnep]

Finally she opened her special gift. A 90 Minutes Dvd of all her trips to Disney with the kids (15 year!!) I think she used 2 packs as we all piled on her bed and on the floor on Christmas to was the DVD!!

It was pretty special!!

Aww, that does sound special!

My husband kind of did the same thing, except he converted some old video (there was no sound) his parents shot of them when they were growing up and he set it music. It had a bunch of video of them as a family at Christmas when they were all younger. It was really nice!

Sounds like you had a great time with your family.

 

[ConnieB]

Because the gifts were out and I knew they'd be poking around under tree. I thought it sounded like a fun idea and would keep them guessing.

Sheesh, y'all are a bunch of downers. I didn't post this to get flamed by a bunch of people. I would have sent a PM to the original poster but could not find who brought the idea up. If you don't have anything nice to say, then just keep it to yourself. DS was fine after a few minutes and ended up having a wonderful Christmas. This was just a small blip and I was just trying to share my story. You win some, you lose some. And BTW, had I known how it would go over, I wouldn't have done it, but hindsight is 20/20 and all I can do is have a sense of humor about it. Merry Christmas!

I wasn't the original poster, but my mom did something similiar because we kids were always sneaking in and shaking presents to try to guess....so she started putting figures in the "To" space...you know, like a circle, star, triangle, and of course each year we never knew what shape was ours! One year she forgot who was who, that was a barrel of laughs on her!

I'm sorry your son reacted negatively....he probably thought he was getting Evie's dolly or something, instead of realizing you meant you'd switched name tags, lol. But....next year, remind him about it and he's likely to laugh with you....and 20 years from now he'll be doing it to his kids, lol.

 

[branv]

Whoops! Well, you win some, you lose some. I got what you intended OP, at least it wasn't one of those disasterous "We're going to WDW" surprises that end up deflated all over the place.

My parents did something similar one year when I was 9. There was the BIG present in the corner, but it had a tag with no name on it. For days and days we kept asking, "who's it for...who's it for?" and my parents just shrugged. Finally, Christmas morning we ran out there and my name was on it. You should have seen the outrage from my bro and sis when I opened it and it was an Atari (well..that dates me, huh? ). My parents flat out said that b/c I was the littlest, my older brother and sister were always bullying me, taking stuff away from me and never letting me have a turn with things. So they thought they had to put my name on it to give me half a chance with playing it! Hmmmmm...which did kind of work, but really only as long as my parents were around. Brats...

 

[sam_gordon]

Because the gifts were out and I knew they'd be poking around under tree. I thought it sounded like a fun idea and would keep them guessing.

Sheesh, y'all are a bunch of downers. I didn't post this to get flamed by a bunch of people. I would have sent a PM to the original poster but could not find who brought the idea up. If you don't have anything nice to say, then just keep it to yourself. DS was fine after a few minutes and ended up having a wonderful Christmas. This was just a small blip and I was just trying to share my story. You win some, you lose some. And BTW, had I known how it would go over, I wouldn't have done it, but hindsight is 20/20 and all I can do is have a sense of humor about it. Merry Christmas!

I kind of thought you'd come back with a post like this. Let me point out you can't read inflection on a message board. Go back and look at your OP again... "Mom made Josh cry" laugh! "I gave them coal one year and they cried" laugh! "Letting you know how things worked in our house" laugh!

While I think switching tags could be amusing, I would look at your kids reactions and regret doing it. I think if you would have mentioned DS recovering quickly it would have helped matters.

As far as 'keep it to yourself', this is a DISCUSSION board. You'll find people who agree with you and those who don't.

 

[drcmk]

"Wait! All the gifts labeled Jared go to Evie." And so on...

Well, DS7 starts losing it and got so upset he didn't open his gifts for a while. Hahahaha! Oh, we'll remember this holiday alright! The holiday mom made Josh cry. !

Hey, there is nothing wrong with encouraging your kids to be flexible and not to take themselves too seriously, especially on a holiday! If Mom doesn't have a sense of humor, how can anyone else in your family develop one?!

 

[apnep]

I kind of thought you'd come back with a post like this. Let me point out you can't read inflection on a message board. Go back and look at your OP again... "Mom made Josh cry" laugh! "I gave them coal one year and they cried" laugh! "Letting you know how things worked in our house" laugh!

While I think switching tags could be amusing, I would look at your kids reactions and regret doing it. I think if you would have mentioned DS recovering quickly it would have helped matters.

As far as 'keep it to yourself', this is a DISCUSSION board. You'll find people who agree with you and those who don't.

Well Sam, why on earth would I be cruel to my children on Christmas day, or any other day for that matter...and then post it on a board to show just how mean and nasty I can be?

I'm laughing because it did not turn out how I had hoped and it's all I can do. Of course I regretted doing it, but as I said, I can't take it back, so I might as well look at the bright side. Yes, this is a discussion board, I realize that, but there are a lot of people on it who choose to be intentionally mean to posters when there is no need for it. So if nothing nice can be said, what is the point? To be mean and judgemental? Also, in case you didn't notice, my thread was titled to catch the attention of the person who originally gave me the idea.

Having a sense of humor has carried me through many a tough time in life, and I hope that I can pass that on to my children because it's the people who learn to go with the flow and stay positive during difficult moments that lead happier lives.

Peace and blessings. Thanks to everyone willing to chuckle with me and share an "oops" moment.

 

[richmond282]

I wrap each person's gifts in a different paper and don't put tags on until a day or so before. That way nobody knows which paper is theirs!

 

[Magical JenK]

I can't find the thread where you originally posted how your mom surprised you and your sibs and you talked about it for years because she tricked you. Well, I thought it was such a good idea I decided I'd do a little switcheroo with my kids.

DS12, DD9, and DS7 got up and started sorting their gifts like they always do. I made sure to tell them they were NOT allowed to open until we were with them because we wanted to see. Well, they got the gifts all sorted and then I said, "Wait! All the gifts labeled Jared go to Evie." And so on...

Well, DS7 starts losing it and got so upset he didn't open his gifts for a while. Hahahaha! Oh, we'll remember this holiday alright! The holiday mom made Josh cry. This is right up there with the year "Santa" gave them all a lump of coal in their stockings and Evie, who was 5 or 6 then, looked at the coal and started crying.

Just wanted to let you know how it went over in my house.

Merry Christmas!

Ha love it! That's a great way to keep kids guessing!! I was the one who always guessed my gifts when they went under the tree...one year I had ONE gift...that's it. I was so confused & of course upset...well then I opened the ONE gift & it was a suitcase & inside the suitcase were all the rest of my gifts. My mom did it cuz she was sick of me getting all my guesses correct! She got me good!!

 

[powellrj]

I wrap each person's gifts in a different paper and don't put tags on until a day or so before. That way nobody knows which paper is theirs!

thats what I always use to do too. Then on christmas morning I would put the stocking on the kid who the pile belonged to.