Bay Area Reefers

One year I bought decorative christmas boxes and put my wife's presents in them and then wrapped them. That way there was no way telling what they were. The presents were a surprise and we still use the boxes for decorations

i had a girl make a map and at each location was a clue to my gift...... it was pretty cool i got raiders season tickets...

A few years ago, my uncle gave me a gift by way of a hunt. He gave me one clue that lead to another to another to another etc. At the end, was my gift "wrapped" inside one of those empty paint cans. Can was wrapped in paper where a label would be, and the can key (opener) was taped to the top.

Just in case it took years to find it I guess

LOL

"Foxy Boxes" as we call them are always fun ... especially if you put in false bottoms or sides and then a small decoy gift as well. The person thinks they are getting one thing and then another appears. My mother in law is well known for this technique, and she has also been known on multiple occasions to include in the box a well wrapped brick from her garden just to throw off the gift receiver.

A couple years ago for Xmas one of my daughters wanted a camera. I got a huge (4' x 2' x 1') box and wrapped up the camera in a smaller box with bow / etc. plus two other small boxes filled with minor decoy gifts. All 3 boxes were them taped to the bottom of the big box and it was filled with tons of tissue paper. After she had the fun of opening up the big box and seeing 3 smaller boxes, we told her the game was that she could choose only one box to open and we'd get the other two (ala Let's Make a Deal). Although it sounds cruel, it was fun for everyone and of course we coached her to get the "right" box.

One other favorite with the girls was many years ago when iPods first came out, and one of my daughters wanted one more than anything. She was only in junior high though, and at that time we felt such a gift was highly extravagant for someone that age. However, she was a super hard worker who got great grades in school, and we wanted to recognize that. We decided to get the iPod but have a little fun. While at Lucky's or Safeway one night I saw one of those massive stuffed animals that are about 4' long. In this case it was a stuffed black and white cat. I got the cat and a huge box, figuring she would have fun with it. However, before packing the cat in the box, I unstitched a seam, inserted the iPod into one of the ears or legs of the cat, and stitched the cat back up again. When she got the gift (the last one to be opened) she was happy, but you could tell she was a little dissapointed about the reality of not getting the iPod she wanted so badly. As we were cleaning up all the wrapping paper from the gift giving, we "happened" to recall that we had heard somewhere that some of the stuffed cats supposedly had prizes in them, and had she checked? It took her several minutes to thoroughly inpect the cat, but when she finally found the item and realized what it was, there were plenty of tears of joy and appreciation for the gift.

My wife was hosting a bridal shower not a bachelorette party for a close friend. She knew that the soon to be mother-in-law, who was attending, had a reputation for being very uptight.

We went to Good Vibrations and bought 25 of their large logo shopping bags (they charged us $0.65 each). Every present at the party, all of which were safely "non-naughty", came in an identical Good Vibrations gift bag. The first laugh was at the present opening, the second laugh was the bride and mother-in-law loading all the bags into their car. Apparently they got more strange looks unloading the gifts back at the bride's apartment. The bride says it took her several years to discretely dispose of the gift bags.

On our 3rd anniversary, I took my wife out to dinner to Creola, a Cajun restaurant in San Carlos where I proposed to her. We enjoyed two of their delicious Hurricanes and as the second one was taking effect, the waiter brought out a tray with a neatly wrapped gift I had slipped to him. He presented the tray to Nikki. Residing in the gift box was a South Pacific pearl necklace that was received with great enthusiasm.

When I first started dating my now-wife, I teased her a bit about not having any real tools.
So for Xmas, her "open last" big present was a box with ... a nice new hammer in it.
Padded with a toilet paper tube and some newspaper.
After a few minutes of me going - what's wrong?? you needed a hammer ...
And about when she looked like she was going to hit me with it.
I mentioned to look in the toilet paper tube, where there was
a very nice necklace she had been eying earlier.
She was very happy, but I still think she was contemplating hitting me with the hammer.