Hiding is easy. The hard part is remembering where everything is. I've found gifts later on that were intended for Christmas. I need to start making a treasure map.
My mom did this so bad every time we moved we had Christmas again. They were always the stocking stuffers but still. I was a military brat so every year 2 Christmases.
@@colleenfleming5107 what a great idea! I love how good I am at hiding things, except when I can't find them. I think I need to hide the chocolate! Lol
I use the app Santa’s Bag. It keeps me on track for gift buying, and it has a location portion for each gift! That has helped me tremendously, because I was always forgetting where I’d put them! 🤦🏼♀️
OMG! Sailing in the BVI’s is one of my favorite things! I’m so sorry you got sick. There is a prescription patch you can use that is very effective. We have sailed the BVI several times....watching the water change colors, reading, playing games, snorkeling! More snorkeling. BTW, there aren’t that many uninhabited islands! We do have a 2 person crew when we go. They do the work. We have the fun! I really can’t recommend this trip highly enough. The waters are so clear and beautiful. All the different colors....coral and gorgeous fish. The rock formation at the British Virgin Gorla....amazing. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy. I can hardly wait to go back!
My best tip is that I host a "wrapping" party on December 21 for a few of my closest girlfriends. We have done it for over ten years. It is so much fun and no staying up until midnight on December 24th wrapping gifts.
I've always been kinda critical of ppl decorating for xmas early or stores playing xmas music before (US) Thanksgiving. I never wanted to hear, see or even think about Xmas before December but this year is so different. We already started decorating and getting into the Xmas spirit because it has just been a really tough year for my family. We lost a grandparent to covid and then a great grandparent of natural causes immediately after. Both of whom LOVED the holidays so in honor of them, xmas came early for our family this year. I'm sure everyone could use a few extra days of xmas magic right now 💚
I like this idea for storing the wrapping stuff! But, I get 2 medium sized gift bags. In one, I fold up other gift bags and tissue paper. The other one, I put scissors, tape, tags and bows in. I leave them under the tree, so they just look like presents. I keep my paper rolls in one of those Ikea wall organizers. Every few days, after everyone goes to bed, I pull them out and wrap a few presents.
Hubby and I took our then 15yr old on a family vacation to New Orleans, we ate at a restaurant called The Garlic Clove. Hubby then proceeded to eat most of the elephant garlic appetizer because daughter and I found out we can only eat so much garlic. Then ate his meal. We live in a desert area and New Orleans in July is HUMID. He sweated out garlic the entire week. Showers didn't help nothing helped. I'm pretty sure the hotel staff had to burn the sheets. We still had a good time but I had to sleep with my daughter. We had no problems with vampires though LOL
My worst vacation was my honeymoon. I married a "mountain man," and we went to the Colorado Rockies. It was the end of May/beginning of June. He thought it would be fun to camp outside a night, and I thought, "what the heck." We camped by a lake, it was so beautiful! But then I went to take my contacts out (my glasses were in the makeup bag that a bridesmaid had taken out of the suitcase during my wedding). I was allergic to something on my hands (no bathrooms at the lake!), and my eyes swelled shut. I was ready to go hiking back, but it was too dark. We stayed, and IT SNOWED AND WE DIDN'T HAVE A TENT. We had a shower curtain lean to, and put our sleeping bags in a plastic mattress protector. That was it. The next morning, my eyes were still swollen shut. We tripped down the mountain, went back to our cabin, and my husband spent the rest of our honeymoon writing a research paper for a class he'd taken an incomplete in. It took about three days for my eyes to go back to normal. Side note - For our 25th, we went on a very nice trip to Europe!
As a kid we had some great traditions. One was every Christmas Eve we'd play board games and winner got to pick a prize (the ones mom collected from cereal boxes). It was so much fun. Then mom would hide a few presents on Christmas eve and we'd have to find them, if we fiund someone else's we couldn't tell them (there were 5 of us). We'd have hot chocolate on Christmas eve too and watch all the old Rankin/Bass animations (I'm 48). Great memories, but unfortunately no one continued those traditions and I never had children 😢
Hid my kids gifts in a storage box in the basement labeled "STFIG"... yep, gifts spelled backwards. They still haven't figured it out (now 29 and 27!). Also, buying a office type tape dispenser is a GAME CHANGER for wrapping... so much easier to just reach over and rip off a piece with one (not two) hands. Also, less likely to "disappear" in the household! Love your channel and looking forward to new HOT MESS episodes!
I hide them in suitcases and out in the camper, car trunks work too, just send yourself an email of where you're hiding them! I have a habit of hiding things "too well."
My son was just a baby and our neighbor had 2 little girls 5 & 7. They asked could they hide some presents at our house. The season got hectic and their mom was frantic over when could she get over to wrap. i told her I love to wrap, so I got her supplies and a list of who got what gift! Her oldest told her “Mom that IS a Santa! The handwriting on the tags is not yours!” So if you have smart kids, let your neighbor make out some tags!! Season Greetings all!
I buy neutral wrapping paper (red, craft, birch pattern, stars) so I can use the same paper for any occasion. Fancy Christmas tags make it festive enough!
I thought I had solved the problem by just wrapping the gifts as soon as I got them home, then hiding them. Once our tree was up, the gifts went under it. My boys loved shaking the gifts trying to determine what was in them. I came home from work one day and discovered they had unwrapped watches bought for them. Sadly, one of them forgot to wrap it back up and left it on my bed....busted!!!! As my boys got older we would sit around and talk about lots of things, including Christmas presents. I learned that my oldest upwrapped his new Nike's and wore them, them wrapped them back up. THEN....along comes Atari (I'm showing my age).....they unwrapped the games, played them and wrapped them back up before I got home. All of this within the one hour they were alone!!!!! Never underestimate a nosy kid.
My boys did the same thing one year when they were in high school. I had no idea until Christmas morning when they guess the contents of every gift before unwrapping. 😏
Just thought of it this year ! I’m trying not to leave the empty totes all over the garage (hubby complains )so I thought let me put them back up . Perfect place for the gifts and it will be easy to access Christmas Eve. I also wrap gifts I buy the day I buy them . That way I don’t have a lot at the end . I can get away with that because my grandkids aren’t here everyday . Love your ideas !
My mom is the same way. Lol, my birthday is at the end of January so one time she said to me “this was suppose to be a Christmas gift, but I lost it so now it’s an early birthday gift” 🤣
Ha! That's me on my honeymoon in Hawaii. Fishing boat for the day? Great! 45 minutes in, I asked if the rocking was ever going to end. Captain said, "Ah ... no". The vomiting continued for a couple of hours, and I thought, "Soon as my stomach is completely empty, I'll be fine." Nope ... all day long, no break. Never been on a boat since, and that was 1983. I live right on the Pacific ocean, too!
1) I'm stealing "woofin my cookies" 2) worst vacation was to Abaco, Bahamas when my ex husband sank the boat and I was topless 🤣 we got rescued by a group of cute young guys diving for lobsters 🦞 one gave me a shirt to wear and when the owner of the boat came to get us (boat didn't actually sink to bottom, but flipped over) and his name was (legit) Johnny Cash, the fella wanted his t-shirt back. Thankfully Johnny Cash had a small hand towel so I could cover my parts. Oh, my bikini 👙 top sank to the bottom of the ocean. There's more to this which is hilarious 🤣
When I was a little girl I woke up late at night and went downstairs and caught my Mum wrapping a dolls house for me, she quickly took me back upstairs and the next day told me I must have dreamt it!
Omg! Cass! U crack me up!! I too had visions of sitting back on a sailboat, wind blowing through my hair, big hat, etc. And I too pucked!! It was not fun. Others saw dolphins jumping next to the boat, turtles...I saw the edge of the boat and ocean as I pucked into it. I can’t imagine 9 days of that!! U poor thing!!
So I have a fantastic hiding under the bed story, I was about 8 or 9 years old and I loved to scare my family. I would hide in closet, laundry baskets, even the yard trash can. I really loved it! One of my favorite places to hide was under the beds. So one day I woke up before everyone, I snuck into my parents room and climbed under their bed. After a while I heard the bed squeak a little, my Mom and Dad were talking softly so I couldn’t hear them. Then my Dad put his feet to the floor, I grabbed his feet and yell ROAR!!!!! He flinch and said my name in that “your in trouble” voice. I slid out from underneath the bed, said sorry and left. My Mom told me the story from her view recently. She said all the kids were sleeping in, so of course what do parents think of when kids are sleeping in. Spending “special” time together. So they were lying in bed whispering sweet nothings to each other, my Dad got up to shut and lock the door and then, “roar” from under the bed. After I left the room and the mood with me, they sat there laughing. She said from then on they always looked under the bed when they were getting in the mood.
I’ve always lived in small houses, so finding hiding places for presents was very hard if not impossible. One year I did padlock my clothes closet. But the thing that helped the most was to use a different wrapping paper for each person and use ONLY that paper . That way there weren’t any gift tags. This way, only I knew which gifts went to which person. And of course, I wrapped them as I got them. I also keep track of what I get for each person and where they are stashed in my bullet journal.
I've done something very similar. I've used different gift wrap for each person, no name tags, or numbered the gifts odd and even. Or my favourite...I've put the opposite child's name on the tag. Either way in hiding or under the tree, they can't guess what's inside because the shape and sound isn't really what they've asked for. Lol. I also keep a gift list on my computer.
We went to myrtle beach on vacation in 2006. Our girls were 5 and 10. My husband kept rushing me to get out the door. We get there and realize our youngest daughters suitcase was still on her bedroom floor at home! She cried, I cried! Luckily there was a Kmart near by with a great sale!
Oh yeah, been there-done that with the barfing seasickness on ANY size boat (getting to and from scuba diving sites). Don't think there's anything more miserable. There were times it was so bad I just wanted them to throw me overboard and let me die. LOL but also serious. You have my deepest sympathy and greatest gratitude for your humorous courage in sharing. You are so funny and just tickle me pink with your personality. Thanks for brightening my day!!!
!So handy! Everything you need for gift wrapping in one place and slides right under the bed. How cool is that! The suitcases are a good idea too. I just put gifts in the closet and sort of cover them up.😃 Have a nice day,Cass!💖
That wrapping station is brilliant! Growing up, my family had a sailboat. I spent most of our time on the high seas conked out on Dramamine. Glorious memories 🤢
One year we had gotten a mattress in a box for our son the month before and it was still upright in the garage. We put all the gifts in there and the kids all thought it was still just an empty box waiting to recycle lol! Best hiding spot ever! xo
My worst vacation my sister & I got into a huge argument at key west over food. (stupid I know) anyways it got so loud. That a homeless man said "quiet down we were killing his vibe" 🤣😂🤣😂😭
We put the tree up lastnight and it was fun for the kids to decorate it, and its just the beginning! I hide gifts in the shed , and in the basement in bins...
Hubby and I with the the in-laws went on a ferry...from Connecticut to Block Island...not very far...my first boat trip and I was getting sea sick...when MIL says have a wine cooler...need less to say BARF!!!
My mum and dad used to put things in the loft. About 2 years ago I was helping them insulate the loft and came across a bag of wrapped gifts from about 30 years earlier, lol xxxxxxx
Oh my goodness. I want a roll under the bed storage bin now! I have my stuff in two things and it drives me crazy plus I don't have a place for my longer wrapping paper. My cricketish heart just drooled over you're wrapping station.
Not finding a gift per se but my 5 year old was in the shop when we fond a gift (the big LOL doll ball for half price) and I could not really keep it away but we agreed that it's for Christmas. I hid it away but she kept asking for it - so I gave in a bit but said that she can't unwrap it until Christmas. Long story short - she is still running around with that unopened ball and asking how long until Christmas :D I guess this will be the most anticipated unwrapping ever :D
My Honeymoon was crazy! Mother nature visited me the nite before the wedding😳. My voice caught when I was saying I do. The next day we left for our trip by car. Took the wrong route(4 hrs longer). I threw up the whole way, new hubby wouldn't let us go back.😏. I had no voice the whole trip. Turned out I had bronchial pneumonia!😞. 27 yrs later, and we have sooo many more stories!!😜. I should write a book...😁
Re: hiding gifts. I stash all the gifts in my closet. Kids aren't allowed in my closet. (That's also where the adult chocolate is.) Even if they get in there, it's a mess in the bottom of that closet so good luck to them. 🤣
One of my best vacations ever was on an old dutch sailing boat. We were 20 teenagers, two social workers and three skippers and I loved it. But for some reason I had really high expectations about a ferry ride from Italy to Greece two years later. Maybe it was the size of the boat, it looked like "The Love Boat" and I really thought we would have a really big cabin with a bathroom and a view. But it was a cabin with two bunk beds. For five people. Below the waterline, so no view. No window at all. The shower and the toilet were down the hall. But it took only 30 hours to reach Greece and I survived.
Husband took me for a helicopter ride over the Rockies. I was SO excited to go.. how fun! Turns out that people who get motion sickness should not. Airplanes are typically ok for me.. helicopters.. absolutely not. He loved the ride. I had to practice my slow breathing and going to my happy place.
The wrapping station is a great idea. Hiding gifts has backfired on me a couple times. I forgot all about a couple gifts because they were hidden in "creative" places. I found them months later where they magically became birthday gifts. 😄😘
We have a small home so not a lot of hiding spots. I hide gifts in my closet. My kids know I do. I've told them I'll return gifts purchased if they go snooping. 😜
when my 3 sons were younger, i hid their presents at a neighbor's house, and i would hide their children's. did it for easter baskets as well. it worked great, til they were teens. lol now i just wrap them in amazon boxes without name tags. i use one gift wrap design for each family member and i have written down what paper goes with each son. lol it works great.
When mine were little we lived in a small apartment with not much space. I hid their presents in the trunk of my car. Great.....until I told my oldest to go grab something from the trunk. She still talks about that almost 20 years later lol.
I wrapped all the St Nicolas presents (Germany) , Santa sack presents (British) and family presents last night...and finished the Advent Callender... So no more buying or wrapping to do😁... Just Advent fun with the kids😊😊. I did some small fun gifts for my family 4 weeks ago and sent per post because we won't be able to get together this year due to Covid lockdown rules😢. I am like you.. I haven't decorated yet.. I will for 1st Advent in 2 weeks when we light the first "Advent Kranz" candle... A German tradition... Which is where I live at present.. So we mix Ango (UK) and German traditions. PS.. I hide all presents in a cupboard in my youngest (now 8yr Olds) bedroom... They never go in there because they think it is full of "just" guest bedding! 😉
Our BVI trip was the BEST trip ever!! It beat Paris, Holland, Germany etc. hands down! We are definitely “water” people though and spend a lot of time on boats. No sailboat for us though. We did have a little dingy that we pulled behind our boat THAT WE LOST THE MOTOR TO! That cost a pretty Penny but it was still a fabulous trip; yes, many mimosas for us. Haha. Love your videos and books.
My oldest found his teeth that I kept from the tooth fairy 🤣 It was pretty funny! He was like mom why do you have all my teeth!!?? Even after he found out we still continued with the tooth fairy until all his baby teeth were gone😊
I seriously need this wrapping paper station. This way I can store it inside my tiny apartment and not our garage to were I can't get to them because they are towards the back wall buried. Ahhh! Sorry to hear about the sailing vacation, I haven't had a bad vacation just an unorganized one. Fiance planned our 8 yr "together" Anniversary this past Sept in Colorado. Huge hotel in Denver, even paid for the flight but he had no itinerary. I had only days to search where to visit once he told me we weren't going to the Black Hills but instead CO. Everything I wanted to see was near Colorado Springs and his Aunt lived in Pueblo even further south to visit. Told him next time to plan better and not leave me hanging. I may have cried a few times because of that little bit of stress but didn't ruin our Anniversary Getaway.
My family had a locked room in the attic, which, of course, my sister and brother took the hinges off the door of, to check out the unwrapped gift haul 🤣. I just put a sign on the (closed) guest room door saying, “Santa’s Workshop: no peeking or it all goes back to the store!!” Never had a breach of security 😆
I actually live full time on a boat. The secret: don't ever go anywhere when the seas are rough. Just sit tight. We see people all the time who are sick and miserable because they are on a schedule. "We MUST go to St. La Di Da or our vacation will be ruined!" OK, you just sail there in the hurricane, then. Buh-bye! Oh, and the pretty scenery is on the islands, not out in the open water. That's just...water. Lots and lots of water.
I wasn't going to watch this one, but then I saw the best spots to hide gifts part ;) Good gracious, I am so good at hiding my presents and then forgetting where I put them! 😂
Loved your closing story Cass! My husband and I went kayaking in the ocean to see the bioluminescent bay in Puerto Rico. It looked and sounded amazing online and we were very excited. We got off of the 1 1/2 hour bus ride to see the choppy ocean and the "cowabunga dude" that would be leading our tour-yikes! Needless to say we ventured out into the water in kayaks-the craziest thing you could possibly do in the dark with tiny glowsticks on our life vests. If you've never heard of mangroves it's a path created by a group of trees in the ocean. You have to go in a line with your kayaks, stay exactly in the middle or your kayak will tip over and the paranas will eat you! It was terrifying to say the least. To add to the terror, they warn you that fish might randomly jump into your kayak along the way hence the screaming-it was the ultimate spook alley to ever exist in the world....upon reaching our destination we did not see bright glowing water and then had to go back the very same way we got there. No one spoke to each other the entire bus ride back and I'm pretty sure the pair of sisters on the tour still don't speak to each other to this day. If you're looking for something to test your marriage-this is it!
I don't buy a lot to begin with, we make and bake, but I keep them in a box on top of my shelf in my closet. We have way too much wrapping paper to do the under bed storage idea, overall its great!
Are you kidding me?! I just bought one of these last month for wrapping supplies. I put all my stuff in there and was like, huh, I wonder how I’ll organize this. Thanks so much for this video!
We actually hide our gifts in a usually-empty tote in the basement that is marked as "Summer Things" and kept on the rack amongst the other totes. The kids never touch it because they have no interest in beach toys, wetsuits and life jackets in the winter. My husband is also a bit snoopy so I hide his gifts in one of my shoe boxes and he hasn't found one yet.
@ClutterBug I so feel you about the boat experience. I got talked into accompanying my mother-in-law and 2 young daughters on a whale watch out of Boston Harbor, while pregnant with my third. I already get motion sickness, and pregnancy made it worse. So, after I yakked up my breakfast to starboard, I spent the next several hours lying flat on my back in the most central location of the boat that I could find, taking deep breaths...
I have two bins in my wardrobe shelving that I keep presents in. Most of the year of course they are empty apart from Christmas and birthdays but they stay on the top shelves with other random bins the kids never know what's in them and so the kids can't get to them anyway. No chance of loosing them that way also very easy to see as I go along what child has more or less if one bin is full.
I don't have any really epic vacation fails. The worse one was probably the first time our family went to Spain. When we arrived, my oldest son was complaining about not feeling well. I thought he was just tired. By the time we got to our hotel, he had a fever, he was vomiting and starting to get a rash. We had traveled to Spain from Central Africa, so I just knew he had some horrible tropical disease that the doctors in Spain wouldn't know how to treat. It did turn out to be a tropical disease, but not a horrible one. (chikungunya fever, which is uncomfortable but not lethal.) He was sick for about 2/3 of the trip, but by the end, he was feeling much better. Fortunately, he remembers the fun at the end more than being sick.
I used to hide my kids presents in our motorhome, till they got old enough not to snoop because they new what they were getting, I don’t know how many presents I’ve lost and not found until months after Christmas 🤦♀️it’s usually my daughters, the worst vacation I went on was when I went to Disney world in 2012 I didn’t realize I was getting sick, we drive to Disney which is a 20 hour drive so imagine driving that home when you think your dying🤣 you have a high fever can’t hardly walk, dizzy spells and you run into a blizzard when your almost home and when you reach home your furnace doesn’t work 😭 then when you finally go to the doctor she tells you have a rare sinus infection because your snot is orange😱! When I get seasick it’s a migraine from hell, went on a cruise and found that out, but my sissy who went with me had seasick medicine and she brought plenty for me too🥰
My kids "go on vacation" all the time, lol. My luggage is constantly out! I put it high up on a shelf, and they get a chair and get it down! So, that's a no go for me. They are with me pretty much 24/7, so I have to exclusively online shop. When the packages get here, I just tell them they're presents for our friends, and just leave them in a corner 🤷🏻♀️.
My mom hid the Christmas in the cedar chest my grandfather made which is huge! I guess the quilts and blankets came out and we never thought about it being a big empty box. Found this out when I was practically grown so I did not ruin my Christmases.
Darn it! I thought I was the only person to hide gifts in suitcases when the kids were little! I used to bring out 1or 2 suitcases out and just leave them out in the familyroom in clear view. They became part of the scenery. I’d wrap gifts and stick them in there. Christmas Eve id drag them to tree and unload. Super easy.
My husband was born in Tortola in the BVI and wanted to take our family back to see where he was born so we decided to combine Disneyland in Florida with the following week in Tortola. After the luxury of the Disney resort we flew in progressively smaller planes first to Miami, then to Puerto Rico where the captain strolled onto the tarmac to join us, wearing sunglasses and sipping a drink. After a quick walk round the plane he kicked the tyres !!!!! (I KID YOU NOT😱) and we flew over to Beef Island strapped in a go-kart with wings! 🤢 Finally arriving at our destination we settled in to our bungalow by the beach (Cane Garden Bay) and prepared to relax after the hectic schedule of Disney. Little did we know our week would consist of coconuts bombing the tin roof of the bungalow, chickens climbing the trees in the garden, daily power cuts and the loudest generator ever firing up at 3.30 every morning and the local wildlife keeping us awake at night!!!!! Luckily we found the “peace and quiet” of our paradise island hugely entertaining and decided to sleep on the beach during the day after a few cocktails 🍹. When we finally arrived back in our Miami hotel before our flight back to the UK I nearly sobbed at the comfy bed and the little toiletries in the shower. 😂. It was a wonderful holiday but boy are those Paradise Islands noisy!!!
My twin sons at the time 6 and my twin daughters at the age of 3..........decided to come down stairs at like 2:30am on Christmas morning and opened almost all the gifts while the adults slept.......disappointed and angry doesn't explain the emotion. This Mama has super high expectations about Christmas morning. As I am sure all of you do after ALL the money and work is put in. I made them go back to their beds and I rewrapped everything (half-assed) and forced surprised and grateful faces or you got nothing. lol
My 2 oldest found an Amazon box with (2) Nintendo 3DS's in it.... they, of course, didn't tell me but then realized after 'Santa' gave those to them that Santa must work for Amazon. HA! They didn't let on for a couple of years that Santa's cover had been blown.
I use to hide our gifts in the trunk of our car...LOL! I had 3 kids...so they knew all the hidey hoardy spots LOL!! so I put them back in my walk in closet when they got older....and now they go in my Art/Craft room...LOL!
I have a long clear bin so I think I am going to consolidate my wrapping that is in several different areas and give this a try! We have a closet that slopes down bc it's part of a cape cod next to a dormer so that's where I crawl back and hide gifts. Under our bed there is nothing, which I love, so that won't work. Plus my children like to play under there, so that also wouldn't work. 😆
