hiding gifts...

[kfeusse]

where and how do you hide your family gifts? Before you wrap and after.  

[SKL]

This year I am using a big vinyl zippered package (like a bed-in-a-bag package) which happens to fit almost all my kids' stuff.  It is in the back corner of my closet covered with bedding.  It is possible that they have discovered it, but I don't think so.  (Their other gifts are under the package in the closet.)

[xixstar]

I happen to have a very cluttery craft room so I just leave everything in the bags, toss in a corner with some more fabric tossed on top and they're hidden. I usually will take 1-2 nights to wrap things as the month goes on and toss it back in the bags. 

[Rachel]

I leave them in my closet. The more worried I am about the item being found, the higher the shelf.

[Chris in VA]

Just in my closet but I don't care if they peek as it just affects them and not my joy of giving.

[SKL]

Until my kids were 7 or 8, I could hide the gifts "in plain sight," in the bottoms of boxes of gifts for extended family (in my bedroom).  I showed them several of the gifts which were for boys etc. so they weren't too curious.  Really big items were kept camouflaged in the basement.

[Starr]

I just tell them where I’m putting things along with the story of their grandmother peaking when she was ten. Her Christmas was miserable . No one has ever looked as far as I know.

[fraidycat]

They’re at my aunt’s house, sitting on the floor in the spare bedroom.

[wendyroo]

Downstairs under the work bench.  The kids are not allowed in the tool room unaccompanied, plus it is so cluttery down there you can barely see past the shop vac, popped up 2 by 4s, garbage can, etc.

 

Gifts stay in their Amazon boxes for a while until I am ready to wrap some of them; then they get stored back under the workbench in black garbage bags.  On Christmas Eve I just pull out the garbage bags, add ribbon to the gifts (I never do that ahead of time because the bows get crushed), put them under the tree and then set the garbage bags aside to be used to collect wrapping paper garbage the next morning.

 

Wendy

[Element]

I wrap them as soon as they come in. No one else in my family could wrap a present if their lives depended on it, so I'm not in great danger of the "sneak peek & re-wrap" tactic here. I just keep them in the basement on a shelf with a bunch of clutter. 

[hjffkj]

They are in my closet. The kids know they are there so if they want to ruin the surprise for themselves that is on them. DD did it last year, although she only saw one of her gifts. Hopefully she learned.

[Sharpie]

I use empty suitcases or keep them in the boxes they come in.  One room in our home has boxes and if I just tuck them in among the other boxes, the kids to this point haven't figured it out.  The suitcases are the easiest as I just put them back in the closet as before.

[alisoncooks]

I put them on a high shelf or in a drawer in my master br closet. My kids never go in there, and our house is small enough I'd hear if they did. Most items stay in their Amazon box so even if the kids see in the closet, they don't see anything.

[HomeAgain]

Kids' gifts are in my closet, dh hides mine under his side of the bed and I hide his in the hall closet.  None of us are prone to peeking, though.  I think there's even one in the garage for me next to my car, but since it's in a plain box I don't know what it is.

[cjzimmer1]

There is a stack of shipping boxes in front t of my closet.   Strategically stacked, some upside down, some turned just so a piece of paper sticking out here or there.  Everyone knows, there is a code to my boxes and there is a stern warning to all that if they are messed with I'm sending them all back.  In 20 years, no one has ever dared touch it.  They all steer as far away as possible lest someone accidently bump it.  

 

I really have no where to hide things so I've opted for the almost in plain sight approach.

[Tap]

I put them in my closet.  Everyone knows they are there.  If they want to look they can but they also taket he chance of thinking something is for them, that isn't or visa versa.

 

I tell them that if they peek they better keep it secret, because if I find out, I will return it all and start over.  That will mean that their requested gifts are going back and they get whatever I can find at the last minute. 

[SKL]

I don't wrap until the night before.  I always think I'm gonna start earlier next year, but it never happens.

[Sandwalker]

When the kids were little, in the car trunk.

[Night Elf]

In my closet. I honestly don't know if my kids ever searched for their gifts. If they did they never told me. They never asked a lot of questions about gifts. I could barely get lists out of them.

[Tess in the Burbs]

I have teens who often do go into my bedroom so hiding gifts is just too difficult.  I buy and wrap immediately.  It gets put under the tree.  The problem I have right now is finding the things I bought before December and hid them....I keep finding things in drawers...

[Bluegoat]

I tend to hide them around different places.  Typically closets - the linen closet my bedroom closet, the closet with out of season stuff and junk.  Right now I have a trombone for dh hidden in my son's closet, and socks in my china hutch and top kitchen shelf, and some stocking stuff in a kitchen cupboard.

 

I think my urge is sort of a hunter-gatherer cache method - if one gets discovered I don't have all my eggs in one basket.  The downside of course is that when the time comes, I often can't remember where they all are.

 

Once they are wrapped they generally all go in my closet, though the trombone might be a little obvious.

[Forget-Me-Not]

I have a stack of Amazon boxes in my bedroom.  I don't believe anyone peeks and I'm of the philosophy that if they do they only ruin it for themselves.  I don't even have issues with people messing with the wrapped gifts under the tree and trying to guess what they are by size/shape/sound/etc. 

 

[Joker]

I've always kept unwrapped presents on a top shelf of my closet. Once wrapped, they always go under the tree.

 

This year dh did hide the Nintendo Switch in an empty suitcase in our closet. Ds and dd really wanted it (mostly for the Mario Odyssey game). Neither actually think we would get it for them though so it'll be a big surprise which is harder to do these days since they are 18 and 15. It's going to be a Santa gift so won't be wrapped.

[Junie]

My kids all know that the gifts are hidden in a certain closet.

 

They know that peeking is not allowed and they will not receive any gift that they purposely looked for.

 

One child peeked one time at a birthday gift.  I gave it to her sister instead.  The offending child still got to play with it, but she didn't get it for her birthday.

[LifeLovePassion]

Under the tree in their amazon boxes.

[displace]

In laundry room, cleaning closet, clothes drawers (mine), in plain sight in boxes.

[Lisa R.]

I don’t hide the wrapped gift but I ask don’t put their name on them either. So, no one really knows which gifts are theirs.

 

My kids are very snoopy, so I don’t feel a bit guilty.

 

Every year, there is a new “Christmas codeâ€. I write out a key for myself or I’ll never remember. One year each child was assigned a continent so each present had a different country. One year it was Disney characters. One year it was numbers and alphabet sequences. That year each sequence ended in a number 1-4 and corresponded with their birth order.

 

I inform them of the code Christmas morning. It was really fun and cute when they were young, and they would try and “crack the codeâ€. Now they groan about it but it’s still a fun family tradition.

 

One year I acted like I was going to give in and out names on the tags. I put their names but shifted them down one child. So Oldest Child’s name was on Second Child’s presents and so in. It was hysterical that morning.

[lavender's green]

A few days ago while schooling the oldest, the younger two disappeared upstairs. 4 year old came back saying that "the wind blew open" the flap of a certain gift in my bedroom, which he knew was for him. He knew this because it's the same gift on the Amazon thread, where it didn't come in a box and he was all "Ooh, trains!" :glare: The tape on it was some decorative stuff without a lot of sticking power, so it is possible the flap came up by itself, but I decided to use my next kid-free morning to wrap every last present, and stow them in the attic, which is not kid-accessible. And every gift since that has been wrapped ASAP and stashed up there too.

 

I'm not normally so on top of stuff. It's actually really nice not having Amazon boxes stacked up in my room, and my Christmas Eve won't be a crazy up-till-midnight wrapfest.

[Meriwether]

Mine are in my closet. The kids know where they are. They also know that if they see a gift for themselves, they won't get it until their birthday. They are very careful not to look.

[Caroline]

Most get shipped to my parents’ house because we do Christmas at my sister’s beach condo twenty minutes from them. Ones that are here are in my DH’s closet mixed in with the extended family’s presents. It’s a giant pile.

[happypamama]

Mine live in boxes in my sewing room until I wrap them, and then they sit in the sewing room, wrapped, until Christmas Eve. My sewing room locks with a key and is only accessible through my bedroom, so it’s a pretty secure place. They *could* get into it, but they’re not likely to before they get caught.

[Mimm]

In my room. The kids know where they are. They can look if they want, but mostly I don't think they do.

[gardenmom5]

when my kids were little - they were in the basement where they didn't go much.  I now have a garage- and have boxes or cupboards in there where I Put them.  I have some in my laundry  room.  once they're wrapped - I put them out.  too much hassle and I have no one to hide santa presents from.  I also dont' have anyone shaking presents to figure out what's in it.   though dudeling hates surprises.

[KatieJ]

One year we hid them in the ceiling in the lower level. It had one of those dropped paneled ceilings. Duh removed a panel and put things in there.

[ksr5377]

There were a few years when they were just in big black garbage bags in the garage.  Then DH came up with the brilliant idea of hiding them in the Christmas Tree  boxes.  We have two trees so there's plenty of room to hide things, and no one goes snooping into the Christmas decorations.

 

When they're older and we're past the Santa stage I think I'm going to try the code system someone mentioned above instead of worrying about hiding things  But I think I'll keep some things to put out Christmas Eve.  For me, there's something about the pile under the tree getting a bit bigger that night that makes me happy =)

Edited December 9, 2017 by ksr5377

[EMS83]

We went the huge but minimal route this year, so I actually have two boxes in my bathroom, two in my closet.  These are the only rooms in the house they can't see/go into.  No other on-site storage, though we have a storage unit now, but that would require an after-dark run I'm not excited about doing.

[ThisIsTheDay]

Several years ago, we discovered hiding gifts in suitcases! They sit there in the basement, we use the key to lock them, and no one ever notices.

 

There was one year when my kids were little that we created a "false wall" of boxes in a storage room and hid their bikes behind the boxes. We also had a crawl space in that house, which was a great location, because NO ONE would ever have been brave enough to go in there except my husband.

 

The Christmas tree box hiding place IS brilliant!!

[ktgrok]

My closet is off limits to children during the holiday season, so in there. It's a big closet, and I hide stuff under clothes, blankets, etc. 

[JudoMom]

We have a ledge (an 8 ft wall with 11 foot ceilings that separates the master bath from the bedroom) in our bedroom and I climb on a chair and put the boxes up there until I can wrap.

 

However, my boys can climb up there (it's a hide and seek spot), and they all have access to my Amazon account, and they know my computer password so they could peek at my email if they wanted. If they want to peek, they can. I don't ask and they don't tell.

[JudoMom]

When they were little, I left the boxes stacked against a wall in my room. They never thought of peeking because they assumed they were more school books and supplies :lol:.

[KungFuPanda]

Once the tree is up, I put stuff in the Christmas tree box. I’ve also been known to shove the sealed Amazon box under the tree until I get around to dealing with it :-)

[ScoutTN]

In my closet and in our family room closet.

Kids do go into the fr closet sometimes, so things in there are hidden - our big camping coolers are a good spot. Boxes for boring things like the humidifier work too.

Big things go in dh's trunk or are stored at SIL's house.

[Renai]

I don’t hide the wrapped gift but I ask don’t put their name on them either. So, no one really knows which gifts are theirs.

 

My kids are very snoopy, so I don’t feel a bit guilty.

 

Every year, there is a new “Christmas codeâ€. I write out a key for myself or I’ll never remember. One year each child was assigned a continent so each present had a different country. One year it was Disney characters. One year it was numbers and alphabet sequences. That year each sequence ended in a number 1-4 and corresponded with their birth order.

 

I inform them of the code Christmas morning. It was really fun and cute when they were young, and they would try and “crack the codeâ€. Now they groan about it but it’s still a fun family tradition.

 

One year I acted like I was going to give in and out names on the tags. I put their names but shifted them down one child. So Oldest Child’s name was on Second Child’s presents and so in. It was hysterical that morning.

 

This is what I've done every year, too! It is a lot of fun because they try to guess who is who. When I did a My Little Pony theme for names, the girls tried to tell me to use Cranky Doodle for their dad, lol! (I didn't  :glare: ) I drew the line at them arguing over who should be Rarity - they're 11 years apart, smh.  :laugh:

 

The presents all go under the tree as I wrap them. I haven't hidden the presents this year. They are in easily peek-in-able boxes by the computer in my bedroom. One gift is on the top computer shelf because it's in an open bag. As far as I know, no one has peeked, yet.