Strange gift wrapping stories
By TheRealDawn
@dawnald (85147)
Shingle Springs, California
August 17, 2010 3:29pm CST
There was the friend who gave me a Christmas gift in advance, and told me I should keep it in the freezer until it was time to open it. Turned out, it was socks. hahaha
The same friend gave me a gift that was wrapped in something like 100 layers of wrapping paper. It wasn't only a gift, it was an hour's worth of entertainment.
Then there's the sister-in-law who used to put lots and lots of confetti into gifts and cards, so that when you opened things it would fly at you. This continued until her grandmother sent a whole envelope full of confetti back to her.
I myself used to wrap teeny, tiny little gifts in huge gift boxes, so that the person had to really hunt for them.
I think the funniest one that we got was from Richard's sister. It was a shirt and a really heavy wooden rhino with a broken horn. He liked the shirt, but we thought the rhino was kind of odd. Then one day his sister came over, saw the rhino, and wondered where we had gotten it. "Oh haha, I used it to weight the shirt down. It wasn't really part of the gift." So we gave her the rhino back, so that she could cause more mayhem with it.
I used to work in a Hallmark store, and pick up the prettiest wrap on discount. I especially liked the reverse-a-wrap. You could do cool things with it. Now, I pretty much can't be bothered. No time.
OK, so do I win for the funniest gift wrap stories? Or can you beat them? 
2 people like this
12 responses
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
17 Aug 10
Last year my daughter got my son a jersey that was a famous football players shirt....she had it sent here and I was to wrap it and she didn't want him to know what it was. Well I did like you. I started by balling it up as small as possible and put it in a pretty bag....then I put it in a shoe box...then another bag...bigger box and ended up with this enormous Christmas bag....He wasn't amused at first but got into it. The prize he found at the end was pretty powerful. He got teary!
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85147)
• Shingle Springs, California
17 Aug 10
Hey, when it's a great gift like that, of course he isn't going to mind the packaging at the end!
@dawnald (85147)
• Shingle Springs, California
17 Aug 10
my mom had arthritis, so we knew not to use lots of tape on her stuff...
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
17 Aug 10
My hubby and his sister used to use an entire roll of tape on each other's gifts and envelopes. There was more tape than wrapping and it took ages to open! There was never really anything decent inside either.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63420)
• United States
17 Aug 10
I had a friend who always disguised her gifts. For example, she gave a poster wrapped so it looked like it was a giant candy cane, or an umbrella.
Now, the roomie gave her father a gift box of chocolates and after she had wrapped all her gifts, she had all these little pieces of paper left, so she took the chocolates out (well, these were like nuggets or mini chocolate bars) and wrapped each one individually... Her dad wasn't pleased at having to unwrap the gift then each of the individual chocolates.
I had another friend who gave a spice rack with spices for a wedding shower and they wrapped each bottle of spice separately "oh, a bottle of cloves! how nice! oh, a bottle of chives! how nice!"
Finally, I worked with a gal who gave me a lot of little things, in a larger box, again, individually wrapped.
I guess the best story was when the roomie had a lot of little toys she wanted to give to a child and put them in a Velveeta box. He unwrapped it and said, disappointed, "Its cheese!" and set it aside. She told him to open it. "Its cheese," he said again, more accusatory. She shook it and he still wouldn't open it, she finally had to open it and show him it wasn't cheese.
1 person likes this
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
17 Aug 10
We've done the confetti thing too.. it was a running gag for awhile. Then I sent a card to a friend out of state with some confetti, and tortured her about it online for the longest time. Then one summer I was desperate for summer clothes for my middle son.. and I knew her boys were slightly older than mine, so I asked if she'd send me some hand me downs. I opened the box very carefully expecting the confetti, and there wasn't any. So I sat on the sofa and started unfolding the clothes expecting it to be safe... until I pull out a pair of shorts and open them up and the confetti flies everywhere... she'd stuffed it all into a folded pair of shorts half way down the box! The little witch!
When I was a kid it was also a running gag to send gifts in odd boxes. My mom got a Bon Jovi cassette tape that was inside a Brillo Pad box.. we did all sorts of things like that. Until the year my foster dad gave me one of the biggest disappointments in my life. I was around 8, I think it was my birthday. I open the gift and there's a microscope box. I was thrilled and jumping for joy, I was so excited. I open the microscope box and it was clothes and I threw them across the room and cried! Never again did anyone put anything inside a different box after that.. especially when it was for me.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85147)
• Shingle Springs, California
17 Aug 10
haha she gotcha!
Now it's one thing to use a crummy box to wrap a nice present in, but the other way around is not nice.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
17 Aug 10
I guess he never knew I wanted a microscope that bad and figured at 8 yrs old I'd appreciate clothes more. I did get a cheapo telescope for Christmas that year though.. which was as good as a microscope to me.
1 person likes this
@Humbug25 (12540)
•
27 Aug 10
Hi ya dawny
My brother used to put like pegs in his gifts to confuse the reciprecants and it worked haha. Ok this a recent story of something that happened between me and a friend. It was my sons birthday back in May and he had a small party at the house. I invited my friend and her son and they gave my son this gift that was a box of disgusting things and was called so. It contained, pots of slime and fake sick, a large bug and this fake poop that was squidgey and really did smell bad, like the real thing, honest. She did oppologise and said she had no clue it was in there. Anyway I said no more about it. A week or so later I sent it back to her in the mail hahahahahahahaha
I was in stitches about it but the really funny thing was that her husband opened it and he had no idea about the gift hahahahahahaahhahahahaha I know she is going to get her own back on me at some point but we do laugh about it loads when telling other people about it
I was in stitches about it but the really funny thing was that her husband opened it and he had no idea about the gift hahahahahahaahhahahahaha I know she is going to get her own back on me at some point but we do laugh about it loads when telling other people about it 
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
19 Aug 10
I really like the story about the weighting down the shirt to throw off what the actual gift was.
Let's see, the best story that I have to tell is that when I was growing up it got to the point that my father's side of the family just exchanged money, but my parents felt that there was no novelty in opening an envelope, so they would wrap the cash in boxes of various different sizes. It was fun.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85147)
• Shingle Springs, California
19 Aug 10
Now I would have to be different and occasionally slip something in that wasn't money...
@kedralynn (980)
• United States
17 Aug 10
I don't think I can beat the socks in the freezer story... But I had a partner once who bought me a ring. But he decided to wrap it in a box, cover that box with duct tape, put it in a bigger box, wrap that box, and so on and so so what I got handed was a big box about 15 x 15 inches. He did it on purpose so I wouldn't know what he got me. But I got kind of frustrated opening boxes and playing with tape for a good 25 minutes!
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85147)
• Shingle Springs, California
17 Aug 10
Same thing happened to me, but without the duct tape!
@dawnald (85147)
• Shingle Springs, California
17 Aug 10
Evil, truly evil. A gift like that deserves some payback.
@kedralynn (980)
• United States
17 Aug 10
The tape was the worst part. I finally got scissors and just started slicing it up. I swear he used a whole roll!
1 person likes this
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
18 Aug 10
my dad used to wrap presents in a small box, then a larger box, then a larger box...well, you get the picture. he also used to add an empty pill bottle of nuts or screws, just something that would rattle and totally mess with the recipients mind!
1 person likes this
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
17 Aug 10
I gave hubby 30 in pennies for his 30th b-day. I've decorated his car and dumped tuns of confetti in them before too. Hubby one time had me psyched that I was getting a ferret and he gave me this box w/ holes punched in it inside was a small box styled like you'd get in a happy meal and it contain a lil tiny rubber wiener that said "pet ____" I WAS SOOOO MAD! Not what I wanted at all.
@dawnald (85147)
• Shingle Springs, California
17 Aug 10
oooh, it's one thing if it's a gift you will like, but that's just asking for retaliation!!!
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
17 Aug 10
what a wonderful fun family you have. mine used to be that way till this economy made everyone sad. i used to wrap things in bigger boxes and several different wrappings. i like the one about the freezer. thats the funniest ive heard. i did hear about a family that passed a can of spam around as a gift, wrapped and everything,for years. 
dont think anyone would want eating it after many years
yes, i think you win...!!!
@paula27661 (15811)
• Australia
18 Aug 10
Ha ha ha!! That is funny! I’m sure you felt you had to put the rhino out in full view every time they visited! My sister gave us some cordless phones for Christmas one year; at least that is what the box said because when we opened it there was nothing in it, no a thing not even the instruction manual. She got a kettle from a mother in law one year and it was inside the box but it was a dirty one, clearly used which did not work! I don’t think either of these incidents was intentional but we have learned to check contents of all boxes before we get wrapping!
1 person likes this
@Orea15 (281)
• United States
17 Aug 10
The clever gift wrap thing can backfire.
One year there was this big and impressive package under the tree, and it had my name on it! I was so excited. Maybe my husband and kids got me a new bathrobe or something. I really had no idea, but it had to be something special, right. Well, no. Christmas came, and I opened the gift with great anticipation. It was a new foot for my sewing machine. Something I wanted, but I was just crushed and ever so disappointed. They were all grinning hugely and so proud of themselves for fooling Mom. I never let them know, but all these years later, I find the sting still remains. And I'll never get my hopes up again in the same way.
So, be careful. Clever isn't always a good thing.
I didn't enjoy the over-wrapped gift my son did years later, either. I guess I'm a party pooper, but it didn't seem worth all of the effort slicing through the duct tape and whatever he used. I just got irritated after a while. I think if it happens again, I'll just chuck it his way and tell him that he wrapped it, so he can open it for me!
Good grief, I'm turning into a curmudgeon.
1 person likes this
@lindaharding627 (1442)
• United States
18 Aug 10
My mom used to call us into her bedroom to do the Christmas gift wrapping. Each of us kids would be able to wrap gifts for one sibling. She called me into her bedroom and said that all my younger brother's gifts were on the bed and to wrap everything. I did wrap everything on the bed. Unknown to me, my mom had left a pair of my younger brother's pants on the bed when she took them out of the dryer. I wrapped them too. My brother Dave opened his gifts and exclaimed "Hey this looks just like a pair of my pants I have been looking for and haven't been able to find." He looked at the tag and his initials were already inscribed on it. Everybody laughed when they realized that I gift wrapped a pair of pants for my brother that were already his. Lol.
@dawnald (85147)
• Shingle Springs, California
18 Aug 10
I should do something like that. When I do some straightening up, I'll gift wrap some of the things the kids have left lying around.
