Nothing ruins the magic of Christmas like a snooping kid. They can’t help their mischievous little hearts — Dec. 25 just feels sooo far away at that age — but I would still turn into Mama Grinch if one of my three kids ever discovered my stash. In fact, I carry on a holiday tradition my mom set in place: if you see your gifts, I’m returning them! Harsh, but it works (at least it did for me when I was a kid). But if your kids are FBI-level detectives when it comes to presents, it can be challenging to find the perfect hiding place. That’s why one parent took to Reddit to crowdsource advice, and the responses are a gold mine of genius ideas!
In the “Parenting” subreddit, one person asked the important question: “Where does everybody hide their Christmas presents from Santa?”
“Sure, it was easy with wee little ones, but now… no place is off limits to them little ones,” the parent wrote. “I don’t want them stumbling on them cause they still believe in Santa. I need ideas, help a parent out?”
This person is also maybe — probably not, but could be — the kids trying to find extra tips for their sleuthing. “Signed, human adult (totally not 3 kids in a trench coat trying to find their parents stash).” It’s funny because that is something devious kids would do, although this post is most likely just a desperate adult who wants to keep the magic alive for at least another year, which is very relatable.
Luckily, Reddit came through for them with the best ideas.
“If you have an artificial tree, the tree box is a great place to hide the gifts,” one person wrote, and why didn’t I think of that before? The empty tree box just goes back in the garage once we’ve decorated — and that would be the perfect hiding place for some gifts!
In a similar vein, others use the empty Christmas decoration boxes. “We put the empty boxes and totes in the basement and it’s just assumed that they are empty,” they wrote.
Someone else said, “I hide the gifts inside our luggage 🧳.” Again — genius!
Others had slightly more complicated methods to hiding the bags, which is totally worth it if you have the time (and energy!) to recreate.
“In plain sight,” one person wrote. “Under the tree double wrapped with labels for other people on them. After they go to bed, I quickly take off the top layer of paper, toss it in a dark bag under other garbage or fold it up to reuse next year. They still haven’t caught on and they’re teens. They really like to snoop. So when they see a label for Aunt Liz and I casually mentioned that I bought her a new nightgown and slippers, they don’t think twice.
The trick is to use generic size boxes, plain paper, or gift bags. We have a large enough group that it’s easy not to notice.”
Whoa! Wrapping each present twice sounds…a little much, but at the same time, it works for her! “The thought of double wrapping presents is enough for me to find a different solution but this is genius,” one person wrote, appreciating the game, but knowing themselves enough to know it would not work for their family (same).
Another suggestion was to use a rarely used closet. “Spare room closet,” they wrote. “Honestly, I think my child forgets this room exists when grandparents aren’t occupying it. Like it slips into pocket dimension as soon as the bedroom door is closed.”
Someone else said, “The attic- kids can’t get up their themselves yet!”
“Before November, in a bin labeled ‘seasonal clothes,’” another person wrote. “It lives in my closet and no one ever questions it. After the tree is put up, everything gets wrapped as it comes in and goes under the tree. Santa doesn’t bring a lot of things to our house, so most gifts can live under the tree once it gets put up.”
It’s smart! This commenter’s mom also used a similar strategy as my mom to discourage her kids from snooping. “(My child is still too young to go snooping on purpose, but I was that kid that wanted to find gifts,” they wrote. “My mom just explained that if I found my gifts, that’s all I was getting and I’d be disappointed Christmas morning. Especially if I messed with wrapped gifts – they’d stay as I left them and the fun of unwrapping them would be gone. As a result, I didn’t go snooping around in my parents room, or the spare/junk room).”
Another idea is to hide the presents in a different house else completely. “My parents hid them at my grandmas,” one person wrote. “On Christmas Eve, mom would take us to church for Christmas Eve candlelight service and dad would go to Grandmas and get the presents and leave them in his car until we were in bed.”
One of my favorites was to hide presents in the laundry hamper. “No one likes to do laundry in my house….” one person wrote (relatable). “So there is usually a pile in my bedroom that is waiting to be put away. I like to hide the presents there. No one has found them yet!” This person is brilliant — and that strategy would absolutely work at my house, too.
If you want to get creative with your Christmas present stash this year, go ahead. But don’t forget: Santa has to remember where all the presents are hidden so he can put them under the tree on Christmas Eve!
Looking for some adorable stocking stuffers for your kiddos that won’t break the bank? Check out these options.
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