That Little Snot!!!!

[many houseapes]

I have always hid our Christmas presents in rubbermaid totes in the garage - they were safe in years past-but a few days ago I caught my 10yr. old ds snooping! I had always just put everyone's presents in individual Christmas bags to lessen the cost(and hassels) of wrapping paper.Well....I'm not going to get away with following that tradition this year and I have spent about 6 hrs. and $5 on wrapping presents, so if the little snot decides to let the other kids in on his "secret", they won't be able to see exactly what treasures I have been hiding - they will all be wrapped. After spending all of that time wrapping all the gifts, I am reminded as to why I started using the cloth Christmas bags in the first place.
I know that what ds did was a typical kid stunt,but GGGRRR.lol

[cab54]

My SIL and I used to hide our kids' presents at each others houses, so that if my sons would have found the stash, it would have had dolls and my little ponies. That would have kept them guessing! LOL!

[ktsmama]

I was wondering just the other day how much longer I will be able to hide my DD10's presents. I hate that he is snooping, but like you said he is a typical kid.

[monkeywrangler71]

I remember the year we found my brother's stereo. All his idea, he roped me into helping him search. We found it out in the camper, but that was Dad's hiding place so he didn't notice. My mother, on the other hand, knew immediately that someone had been in her closet, and unfortunately the gift in her closet was for me. I got blamed, and she gave that gift away (something I wanted for years and never did get).

Funny now when I look back, but I was pretty sad at the time.

What's terrible though, I don't hide anything. I just tell my oldest to stay out of a certain room. I know she won't peek because she doesn't want to - everything has to be hidden from me though because I can't resist.

[Ceashels]

I could always resist, I never wanted to spoil the surprise.

My girlfriend (early teen) and neighbor at the time though snooped and found a doll. Her Mom told her it was for me and hidden there as a favor to My Mom so I wouldn't find it.

Christmas day came. She got the doll
and I got a bra. Man she was ever P***ed Off. She bloomed later than me. LOL

[pkellyc]

When I was growing up my parents kept our Christmas gifts in a large locked closet. When my brother grew old enough we had him take the hinges off the door so we could peek. It took at least 20 minutes to get those hinges off and I will never forget the anticipation of knowing while we watched him struggle with them.
Imagine our surprise when there were 4 large identical boxes stacked and wrapped. All four of us kids went nuts that year speculating on what could be in those boxes.

I have floor to ceiling metal cabinets with doors in my basement. We have always stashed our gifts in one and pad locked it. The girls claim that the only thing they have ever came across were sleds that were stashed under my bed.

Now that they are grown I put them in my closet and just tell them to stay out of it.

[Cricket1]

My sister and I used to open wrapped presents in a stealth-like way. We would just pull up the scotch tape on one end of a present, take a peek inside and then seal it up again. We LOVED doing this. We did it for years until we finally got caught!

[dianne9106]

I was always rotten and still am at finding pressie's! I always found my gifts before Christmas. As a result I am a rotten gift giver when it comes to waiting until the day to give. I just bought my 21 mo. DD a Dora kitchen with accessories off Craigslist today. I put it in the garage and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can keep myself from giving it to her!! As for my DS now 16 yrs, he has searched for them before, but I have always kept a huge surprise from him somehow. My husband and I know what we are getting each other, but sometimes the fun is the little pressie's that a true surprise - it becomes a game.
Dianne

Think Green - Give Used this Christmas!

[miss_thrifty]

my oldest was told years ago tell him what he's got or about Santa and no gifts. So far he hasn't said a thing. I know my 11 yr old doesnt really believe but thats ok. I told him its up to him if he belives and the also its more about the spirit of xmas anyways.

[foxxyroxie]

My parents used to just wrap the presents and put them under the tree and everyone was on an honor system. Well, one year my sister and I had wanted this paint set and we snooped and found it under the tree. We had actually carefully unwrapped the present and rewrapped it. My parents found out, removed the paints from it's box and filled it soooo full of dry dog food it didn't even rattle. Imagine our surprise on Christmas morning when we opened the paint set and found dog food!! After that, we were both super good when it came to the presents under the tree. Ironically, later in years, we found out the snooping was hereditary -- mom was the #1 snooper!! and we really had to be on our toes and try to fool her with what her present was.

[AprilP]

Yeah, i used to snoop when i was a kid too.

I'm lucky now, i have a large locking cabinet at work, and i store everything here, wrap at lunchtime, then after I get the tree up, i take everything home and put the prezzies under the tree.

Of course, my kids are of the age where there aren't too many surprises, they make a list and i buy what's on the list.

I do however like to put each present in strange sized boxes to throw them off what each one is.

[FreesiaE]

Ah, my little brother was notorious for having gifts that somehow "accidentally" had a tear in the paper. It only seemed to be his oddly enough. We only got to open 1 gift on Christmas Eve, so my brother picked his out, which was a wrapped, but slightly torn small box. Well, if you looked through the tear, you could see it was a copy of The Power Rangers movie. His favorite--he loved those Power Rangers! "Hurray, a Power Rangers movie! I'm going to put it in the video machine". He puts it in, and what appears but Barney the Dinosaur (he may have been about 7 or so at the time and Barney was NOT cool). Well, tears start welling up in his eyes and my parents start to smile. He cried and cried about it for probably a good 1/2 hour and appolgized for "peaking" at his gifts. The real tape was given to him the next morning.

[powerfm1]

I knew my kids snooped and that was fine, it's all about the kids anyway.

My daughter used to be terrible about keeping her present to me a secret. She'd be so excited and stand there bopping up and down like she had to pee. It was so funny! I'd always ask her not to tell me because I love surprised.

It always made her crazy - hey I can have my fun too!

Now that they are grown, I always buy one or two special little gifts (everyone's getting a great wok, tfal with a glass lid). Then I give them gift cards and that's what they give me. It's the only way to make sure everyone gets what they need and want.

[many houseapes]

i can remember when I was about 4 yrs old....I was watching my dad wrap a toaster & he swore me to secrecy that I wouldn't tell mommy what he got her - it was a surprise & I wasn't suppose to tell. Well.... he turned away for just a moment - I grabbed the half-wrapped toaster & ran off to where my mother was & I proudly said " I'm just SHOWING what daddy got for you - I didn't TELL you!". They both bursted out laughing & didn't have the heart to spank me.lolTried as he might, my father couldn't catch me in time when I ran off with the gift.

[kaykwilts]

Both my girls are getting digital cameras for Christmas. I know the older one will be good and not snoop but I'm going to have to find a good hiding place so my 15 year old does not find it. It's just her nature. I know she'll snoop.