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

[Kayka]

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.

Sorry it backfired... but then again, not really, cause when I look back at some of the happiest memories in my childhood, they aren't the things that were perfect and went precisely as planned. They are oops moments! The things that are momentarily not what we had hoped for, but become the things we laugh about and talk about for years to come.

 

[a1tinkfans]

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!

Just a HINT Be sure to leave those marshmallows out to get them stale and they will shoot faster and farther

 

[SandrA9810]

That's awesome. My family never tried any of that stuff. I wasn't too much of a peaker or a shaker. But I always tried guessing what was in each box.

 

[Eastern]

You win some, you lose some.

None of the comments you received are 'flaming'. You did get the above quote right, though.

If you are going to post on a public forum, expect to get feedback of all types, not just the kind you want to hear.

 

[tink2dw]

little kids can be soooooooooo literal!!! Jokes sometimes bounce off them they don't get it. My daughter was that way, I could not use sarcasm.

I bet he did think that you meant that he was getting his sister's Presents! While his sister was going to get his presents!! Can you imagine the wheels turning in the poor boys head?? Him with dolls, and his sister with hot wheels, Lego's, but his stuff.

once he saw the packages opened and realized and bother was getting boy toys and sister was getting girl gifts, he knew all was right with his little world and started opening gifts to see what he was getting!!

I was about 10 and we had some gifts under the tree, but Mom and Dad had explained Christmas would be small. We didn't care, we knew Santa would come to our house. Mom showed us certain gifts we could gently shake and guess at. SO, we did of course! We shook, rattled, guessed, every guess was No!

So, Christmas morning, we had unwrapped Santa's gifts that really excited us! then we opened those guess boxes. I opened my 1st gift, tore off the wrapping paper, broke the tape, opened the box, pulled back the tissue paper
and there from the Sears catalog Big Wish Book was a picture of a coat. Mom explained that every guess box's pic was thing you were getting And you got to pick it out with with Mom and Dad!! It was the best, most remembered, most talked about Christmas!!

 

[gypsydoodlebug]

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 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!

That's pretty cunning. I only have one kiddo so pretty much everything is hers and we hide most until Christmas morning, but these are brilliant ideas...

 

[MissUndastood]

OP, that was so clever. I am using that tactic next year. Love it.

 

[luvthemouse71]

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, pretty good. Pranking is big in my family. Also, the coal is a good idea. Keeps the little boogers in line.

I'm sure they were fine after..people freak out easily these days.

 

[stacielee]

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!

I've done this for the past few years, but I never put tags on them. I just have to remember on Christmas morning whose are whose! With 3 teenagers, it's the only hope I have of them not guessing what ever gift is!! I like the idea of symbols on the tags, maybe next year!

 

[SILLYANDI]

I feel for ya, I had a similar experience this Christmas. We bought DD10 a guitar for Christmas, but since she is a shaker/feeler, we wrote DD12's name on it instead (the box was about hte size of a 40 in flat screen TV, which DD12 was quick to point out!). DD12 also had a wrapped present (a laptop), and DS9 & DD6 had pretty big gifts waiting for them too. DD10 only had a "puny little nothing gift" and everyone else had "big, better" gifts as DD10 told us for 2 LONG days.

On Christmas morning DD12 opens the laptop and is totally excited. DD10 is even more bummed now because sis got a laptop AND a cool big gift. DD10 opens her puny gift and it's Taylor Swift Guitar picks. She is now totally peeved because she wanted a "GUITAR not guitar picks", she yelled all whiney at us.

With that kind of attitude she can wait until every other present is open...
30 minutes later we get back to the big gift. DH walks it over to DD12 (who by this time thinks she's getting the laptop AND the flat screen TV that she had on her list) then he turns and hands it to DD10. Instantly we have DD10 turn giddy with delight and DD12 in tears over the TV that wasn't hers.

I had to point out to DD12 that she DID get a laptop so there wasn't much to cry about..with the lack of sleep and 12 yr old hormones, though, I wished it was a TV for a few minutes!

 

[gris gris]

Sorry it backfired... but then again, not really, cause when I look back at some of the happiest memories in my childhood, they aren't the things that were perfect and went precisely as planned. They are oops moments! The things that are momentarily not what we had hoped for, but become the things we laugh about and talk about for years to come.

I agree with this! Many of my memories growing up are of when things didn't go as planned.

This year Santa put fake dog poop in DS4's stocking and I thought he would freak out and scream about it but he was so funny he brought it to Grandpa's house and put it on the floor and blamed the dog. It was cute and he tried to trick everyone. If a 4 year old can have a memory, I bet he'll remember this one.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

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.

That would be me. the name of the thread was:
a FUn , FREE thing to do for your kids this holiday season (sorry I don't know how to post the link)

;-) We are still talking about it. We even talked about it again this year.

 

[apnep]

little kids can be soooooooooo literal!!! ...I bet he did think that you meant that he was getting his sister's Presents! While his sister was going to get his presents!! Can you imagine the wheels turning in the poor boys head?? Him with dolls, and his sister with hot wheels, Lego's, but his stuff.

You know, you're probably right. I could not figure out what the big deal was? I didn't think of it that way. He probably did think his sister was getting his toys.

 

[EKW]

I don't switch name tags...I just don't put tags on any of the presents! Each boy gets his own wrapping paper...only I know who goes with which paper. Admittedly, it was easier back when I had an elderly aunt living with us...the more types of paper, the harder to guess.

I don't reveal which paper each boy gets until we are ready to unwrap. They're more than welcome to shake and rattle, but they figure it isn't worth it since they don't know whether the present is theirs or not!

I also do naughty things like use inappropriate box sizes...stuff a sweater into a 6" cube or use a clothing box to wrap a keychain.

Luckily, my kids aren't really bad...they don't unwrap presents or poke holes. If they did, I just wouldn't wrap at all. I'd hide everything (I have two locking trunks) until Christmas day, then hand it to them in bags, lol!

 

[apnep]

I feel for ya, I had a similar experience this Christmas. We bought DD10 a guitar for Christmas, but since she is a shaker/feeler, we wrote DD12's name on it instead (the box was about hte size of a 40 in flat screen TV, which DD12 was quick to point out!). DD12 also had a wrapped present (a laptop), and DS9 & DD6 had pretty big gifts waiting for them too. DD10 only had a "puny little nothing gift" and everyone else had "big, better" gifts as DD10 told us for 2 LONG days.

On Christmas morning DD12 opens the laptop and is totally excited. DD10 is even more bummed now because sis got a laptop AND a cool big gift. DD10 opens her puny gift and it's Taylor Swift Guitar picks. She is now totally peeved because she wanted a "GUITAR not guitar picks", she yelled all whiney at us.

With that kind of attitude she can wait until every other present is open...
30 minutes later we get back to the big gift. DH walks it over to DD12 (who by this time thinks she's getting the laptop AND the flat screen TV that she had on her list) then he turns and hands it to DD10. Instantly we have DD10 turn giddy with delight and DD12 in tears over the TV that wasn't hers.

I had to point out to DD12 that she DID get a laptop so there wasn't much to cry about..with the lack of sleep and 12 yr old hormones, though, I wished it was a TV for a few minutes!

Oh, that must have been tough and frustrating for you. I'm sorry things didn't go down so well. I am sure when they get older though, you'll all be laughing about it even though it doesn't feel like it now. Thanks for sharing your story.

 

[apnep]

I agree with this! Many of my memories growing up are of when things didn't go as planned.

This year Santa put fake dog poop in DS4's stocking and I thought he would freak out and scream about it but he was so funny he brought it to Grandpa's house and put it on the floor and blamed the dog. It was cute and he tried to trick everyone. If a 4 year old can have a memory, I bet he'll remember this one.

OMG, that is so funny, and very unusual!

 

[apnep]

That would be me. the name of the thread was:
a FUn , FREE thing to do for your kids this holiday season (sorry I don't know how to post the link)

;-) We are still talking about it. We even talked about it again this year.

Well, thanks for the idea! I know it didn't work out like I had planned but I'm sure we'll be talking about it in the future as well!

 

[Inigo]

Every year since my kids were little, I've labeled their presents in some coded way so they don't know which presents go to which person until I reveal the code on Christmas day. One year I labeled every present sequentially as I wrapped. Another year I put all odd numbers on DD's and even numbers on DS's. I've come up with code words such as Rudolph and Frosty. I use a different code every year.

I mentioned to the kids last year that, since they were both adults, I was just going to label their presents with their names. Both of them said I'd better not ever stop.

It was so sweet last week watching almost 20 year DD and 23 year old DS sitting on the floor by the tree trying to figure out the code. (DD was 5104 and DS was 8347, for no particular reason). They were going through every way possible of adding the digits, trying to assign a number to a letter to see if it spelled anything, trying to figure out if there were any important dates in history they should know, etc.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I addressed all of my kids presents to Phineas, Ferb or Perry this year. They didn't find out until Christmas morning which character name was on their presents. They loved it! We're big P&F fans (and especially Agent P) here.

 

[mydisneyobsession]

I love some of the ideas in this thread and can't wait to use them!

I always use a different paper for each person (my husband included. He's the biggest offender for picking up presents and guessing with 100% accuracy what's in them. Very annoying.) But I have rolls and rolls of paper leftover from past Christmases that I need to use next year, so I'll probably use one of these other ideas instead. I'm thinking code names or symbols would be fun!

I love the story about the grown children trying to crack the code... so touching and fun.