Christmas confessions.

[punkrockmama]

Come on y'all, spill it.

When I was in the eighth grade I asked for this book (can't remember the tittle now) and a leather jacket. I really wanted this stuff you guys. My parents were "put the presents under the tree as soon as it was up" kind of people. So one night I went downstairs and used a butter knife to slit open the tape and carefully unwrap the presents until I found the book and jacket. From then on I would go down there, open them up and read a chapter a night while wearing my jacket, then rewrap the stuff and stash it back under the tree.

My mom figured it out after Christms when I showed no interest in reading the book I had begged for. She totally called me on it. I got in so much trouble and never saw a present until Christmas morning again (believe me, I looked).

What mischievous thing did you do back in the day at Christmastime? I want to know how many of you got sick from taking a sneaky peak from the spiked egg nog,lol. :P

[denna]

I think I was about 8 years old when my sister (who is 3 years older) showed me where Mom aka Santa had been hiding our Christmas presents (they were above the washer/dryer in some cabinets). Well I saw that I got the doll that I had *really* wanted so that night (Christmas Eve), I pretended to be *really* sick and my mom felt bad so she let me open up any present that I wanted. Of course I chose the doll, I dont think she knows to this day.

That is the only one I can remember right now, sorry no egg nog sipping here..I'm lame :)~

[bcky2]

i also used to go under the tree and carefully open my presents just enough so i could see what i got. now that i think back i realize what a suprise killer doing that is :)

[holliam]

My parents stored the presents either under their bed or in the attic. I have no idea how I figured that out. It was really easy to get into our attic; it had a set of real stairs through my parents' closet.

My birthday is 12/26 so I never knew which items were for Christmas or my birthday. Of course, a couple of times things I was sure were for me ended up being for one of my siblings. Total bummer.

I really wish I hadn't done it. Oddly enough I have a lot of really strong happy memories of Christmas and my birthday and none of them involve what I got as presents. That part just loses its importance as we get older I think! Imagine that! :)

Holli

[Mommy Of A Little Angel]

Well, I was searching for gifts once when my dad surprised me by coming home and I had to make up a lame excuse about what I was doing in their closet. So, I knew I never wanted to cut it that close and came up with a much better way to find out what we were getting. My parents kept all their recent receipts in a box on their dresser so I would just thumb through those to see what we were getting. It was quick and dirty!

[denna]

<That part just loses its importance as we get older I think! Imagine that!>

ITA, Christmas is not at all about the presents anymore. Though I must admit I have splurged on DS this year, it has been a long time w/o a real Christmas and he is the first so I thought, what the hey?!? But it is not at all about the gifts. I really dont even remember the presents from any of my Christmases growing up but I do remember the family and the trips.

[elizabethkott]

Oh....
that is CRAFTY!!!!!!!!!
:)

[oliviasmomma]

There was one Christmas when I accidentally kept finding my presents :( I was 15, and I wasn't looking on purpose. (By that point, I liked the suprise--had I been younger, maybe I would have felt differently) I felt so badly--we didn't have a lot of money, my mom worked so hard for everything, and I knew how much it meant to her to be able to give me things on Christmas. (The previous year, she was laid off, we couldn't pay the heat bill so we heated with the stove, and there was only 1 present--socks--under the tree. I still had a great Christmas that year :) ) Anyway, I found a bracelet in the desk drawer, a watch in her sock drawer, and something else that I can't remember. I never told her, resolved to be as excited as ever, and have kept the secret until now.

Oh, thinking about it makes me feel just as guilty all over again!

[sarahsthreads]

My birthday is also in December (the 12th) and the year I turned 12 I accidentally found all the presents. One of my little brothers had this distressing tendency to hide behind things and jump out at me, so when I went into the downstairs (full) bathroom - where we never used the bathtub - and saw the shower curtain sticking out at an odd angle, I assumed it was him getting ready to scare me and ripped the curtain back...

I had been begging for a guitar. And there it was - along with everything else I was getting for Christmas and my birthday, and my brothers' Christmas presents. I knew Santa wasn't a real person at that point in my life, but I hadn't ever tried to find my presents because I loved the surprise. I only just confessed to my mom a few years ago, because I still feel badly about it as an adult. She apparently suspected, because this was shortly after Thanksgiving and from then until my birthday I started playing her guitar and trying to learn chords on it way more than I had before.

I think the reason I felt so badly about it is because I knew that guitar was a financial strain for my parents, and I really never expected to get it - and finding out about it before my parents gave it to me and could see how happy I was ruined it for me. (Though I still have the guitar to this day and it still makes me happy!)

Sarah :)

[cmdunn1972]

I remember one year (probably 5th or 6th grade) I had figured out where my parents hid the still-unwrapped presents. They left me alone in the house while they all went to one of my sister's sports games. (I guess I had homework I was supposed to do or something.) I had a field day going through the closet and under the bed searching for gifts.

LOL Pass the egg nog please? :)

[scoop22]

ok.. i was and still am a snooper. i hate suprises. i have to know. when i was little i always found my gifts or otheres in my moms closet. she wasn't very good at hiding gifts ( i never told her this shhhhhhhhhh) when we were old enough she would wrap them and put them under the tree. there was a big one under the tree. my mom never labeld gifts so we had no clue who's it was. we thought for sure it was a fuse ball table. nope it was LUGGAGE. who gives a little kid a LUGGAGE SET. we didn't travel or anything. good thing it wasn't for me. it was my sisters. i will never forget taping that thing back up. i love christmas!!!

thanks for sharing stories. i am happy to see i am not the only sneek in the group.
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[kijip]

My brothers and I always tracked down our presents, unwrapped them and rewrapped them. Each year we managed to do it. We were really good at finding stuff and rewrapping it but my parents knew after a point, LOL. It kind of became a tradition for them to get sneakier and sneakier with the hiding. One year it was altogether too easy to find the presents. Then on Christmas morning we opened up different presents altogehter, LOL. They returned everything and bought us new stuff. It was their plan all along because the first set of gifts was really off for us, and they did it on purpose. Like pink sweaters and dolls for tomboy me and basketball stuff for my baseball playing family etc.

[klwa]

I don't remember doing this, but I've been told that it happened, so I'll report it. :) My grandmother's neighbors had a daughter who was my age, so, when I stayed with Granny while my parents were at work, I'd go play with the little girl next door. I don't even remember her name, although her sister was Courtney. Hmm.. Well, apparently we found all of the wrapped presents and opened them while playing. (We were less than 5, because they moved before I started school.) Her parents had to then go out and buy more Santa Claus presents for her & younger sis because they told her that the ones we had opened were THEIR gifts to the girls. So, I wasn't even cool enough to go looking for my own presents. Had to be someone else's.
-Kris

[clc053103]

My parents, a week before x mas, went out on a saturday night. My mother had been shopping that day and locked the gifts up in her station wagon in the garage. We got a coat hanger, and lifted the lock (this was the 70's it wasn't difficult). When we were done checking out the gifts, we relocked the car.

What bad children we were!

[katiesmommy]

Yeah, I got into my gifts one year too. My mom figured it out before Christmas. She opened everything, took my gifts out, rewrapped the boxes, put them back under the tree, and hid the gifts. So, fast forward to Christmas morning, here I am ready to open the new charm bracelet I got. I open it, and there is nothing there. I never did it again after that.

[MayB]

Another reformed gift opener here. Similar story -- home alone before Christmas, presents under the tree. Carefully unwrapped and rewrapped all of mine. It was the WORST Christmas ever. I hated knowing what I was getting. The next year I unwrapped/rewrapped everyone else's; that was fun. Still to this day I'm a stickler for unwrapping Christmas morning only. The anticipation is the best part.

[shilo]

ok, well here's mine:

it's the 'year of the cabbage patch doll' (much like TMX elmo or a PS3 this year) - they were in extreme short supply. we, of course, were begging for them and all my mom would say is how santa's elves all caught a cold and were having a hard time getting all their work done in time for xmas. the backstory on the lengths she went to get them for us makes me feel even more guilty, still to this day that i found out ahead of time. my mom apparently called the local TRU 2x a day for weeks trying to find out when the next shipment would be coming in. she found out and that they had a limit of 1 per customer. so she hired one of our baby sitters to go with her and stand in line at 4 am in the morning. when the store opened, they each got a number and were sent around to the back cargo drop area. they apparently waited several more hours, at which time, the dolls arrived. they each turned in their tickets and got whatever doll dropped down the chute - no picking one out.

fast forward about a week, my sister and i and some friends are playing hide and go seek in our house. i go to empty out a hamper in my moms closet to hide and lo and behold - it's a cabbage patch doll. somehow i was a sensative enough 7 year old that i remember making the conscious decision not to tell my sister. but come christmas morning, labeled 'from santa', i knew the truth about that one too. kinda sad all the way around. we loved those dolls tho. now they just look weird to me.

lori

[fortato]

I was, and probably still am, a CHRONIC peeker...

When I was 13- My mom went out for a few hours and I, of course, started snooping...

When mum came home she asked me why I was in her closet, and I denied it... who wouldn't and she told me that she had stuck a hair to the closet door- with spit, and when it opened the hair fell off... It's really gross that she did it that way, but I was sooo busted...and the worst part was, that was where she hid my sister's presents...mine were hidden at the neighbor's house.


Kristen

[casey0729]

HA! This thread makes me feel like it's a 12 step group for peekers anonymous (the non-pervy kind of course!).

My Mom hid everything in her closet and never even thought we looked. She did start wrapping them early though but I used to just open the end and look in. I told her about it about 10 years ago and she just laughed. I bet she was a peeker too!! I don't peek now at what DH buys me even though I really, really want to. I like the surprise now.


KC

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[MonicaH]

I guess I am in a confessional mood because this is not going to make me sound like a nice person....

I did do the "sneak into the closet, try to unwrap the gifts" thing but I don't think I really ever discovered much. My mom was not surprised to find me doing this because my aunts had just told me that they all did it when they were kids, and I think I was doing it because they made it sound cool.

No, the worst thing that happened on Christmas was the year that I really wanted a Liz Claiborne purse because everyone else had one...I think I was in eighth grade. My mom refused to spend $30 on a purse for a 13 year old and instead got me a purse that was black with really bright color trim: red, blue, green, yellow alternating around it. I can still picture it to this day. I don't really remember what happened next but my mom says I threw it at her. I think she's exaggerating. However, we both agree that it probably would have been better to get no purse than the "wrong" one.

Monica

[punkrockmama]

I'll admit to this one too but I can't remember how old I was. I know it was before the book thing (!). Somebody at work gave my mom a bottle of Austi Spumati (sp?) and a box of chocolate covered cherries one Christmas. They went out and left me home alone so I was old enough to do that. Well, I went down into the kitchen and ate a couple of the cherries but washed them down with the whole bottle of booze. I spent the rest of the night throwing up.

I was a bad kid. (seriously)

[redhookmom]

I am going to tell my cousins story. All the gifts were out before Christmas. She carefully opened and exchanged the ones she didn't like!!!! She then wrapped the new gifts and put them under the tree. Why put off till tomorrow...

[candybomiller]

Now that is just downright naughty! LMAO!

[casey0729]

you know, the more I read this thread the more I keep picturing Sheila sitting under the tree in her jacket reading the book. Seriously, how many nights did you do this? Are you a fast reader? Did your Mom sleep like a rock? My Mom certainly didn't!!!


KC

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[AngelaS]

LOL I've thought of it too. I think it's hysterical that she opened BOTH gifts repeatedly!

[californiagirl]

I never went looking for my gifts, or unwrapped them. Nonetheless, I did occasionally find gifts, in which case I told my mother immediately. See, she would hide them and forget where, so there was no telling what year a present you found was for -- and you could find them any time of the year! (That was just the stocking presents, it never happened with big ones.)

[hillview]

One year I found all the gifts (I am a reformed gift peaker). I usually didn't get caught but one year mom knew I had snooped (cannot remember how). She returned ALL of the things I found. I was very sad and MUCH more careful from then on! :)
/hillary

[KBecks]

All I can say is I am so wrapping presents with knotted ribbon around the packages for when the boys get older -- maybe I'll even double-wrap with the ends in different directions (under the ribbon).

I spied in my mom's closet a few times but I don't think I ever saw what I was getting.

Also, I have no idea where I'll hide the presents in our house when the boys get older -- there is not much room.

[punkrockmama]

Bwahahaha.

I was very stealthy back in the day. The bedrooms were upstairs and my parents room was at the end of the hall. I grew up in a big, old house (wasn't fancy, just big and old). I had to walk down the stairs in a certain pattern because I knew exactly where to step to avoid making a creaking noise from the wood. You should have seen me operate in high school.



I think it took me about a week to finish the book. I didn't want to push it so I remember reading a bit then packing it in for the night just in case.

[overcome]

Interesting thread!

I don't remember ever peeking...must be that Catholic guilt thing...but I enjoyed readng everyone's stories!!

[mommy111]

But imagine the fun you had for a whole week! Like Christmas the whole week with your leather jacket and your favourite book!

[bisous]

My DH just asked me if I ever "peeked" and I had to answer truthfully--no! I don't know why but I'm a sucker for keeping my word. My mom made me swear not to ever try to find presents and I never did. Likewise, when she'd buy a bag of my favorite chocolate candy all she'd have to do is make me promise not to eat it except when she offered it to me. Then she could leave it out anywhere and I wouldn't touch it. The only place where I think that I've violated this principle is when she made me swear never to exceed the speed limit. I must have kept that promise for years but now that I'm 30 I do occasionally speed!

[sdoyle]

Boy this thread it timely....... Two stories:

1) No one in my family can keep a secret. My sister just called and said she was getting me an i-tunes gift card on my husband's suggestion for Christmas. (I don't have an i-pod.....yet)

2) Also a Cabbage Patch story. I badly wanted a CPK, probably the same year Lori got hers as they were impossible to get. Under the tree about 2 weeks before Christmas was an unmistakable CPK box with my name. I was dying to see her so I made a tiny rip in the front of the package and all I could see was brown so I assumed she had brown hair. Fast forward to Christmas Day......brown was the color of the tennis racket handle that was in the CPK box along with some balls and a tennis lessons gift certificate. Talk about disappointed!!

Off to buy my husband a gift. Looks like we ARE exchanging this year!

(oh.....don't tell my hubby about the i-pod ;))

[Aunt to sweet baby boy]

I remember looking in my parents closet when they were out and one time opening the wrapping on a box to see what it was. Sadly it was for my brother, not for me. We do not celebrate Christmas and my parents usually hid the presents up high in my brothers closet, i figured that one out later on that year.

Ilana, aka Nana to my sweet nephew Avi

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