<font color=skyblue>Ever do this? I mean, not intentionally. I know when we were kids, we snooped through the house and hoped to find mom's hiding place for our toys, or maybe we became experts in unwrapping and rewrapping gifts that were under the tree when the parents were gone or asleep. There's this cute commercial on TV where these kids are snooping and find a gift and open it only to see a letter from mom saying "nope, not here...keep trying!"

But I am talking about accidently finding them when you were not looking for them. For kids, this might be all the evidence they need to know that Santa does not exist. You were looking for something one day and there is was! and you could not figure out how your #1 wish on Santa's list ended up in dad's sock drawer. Then it hits you. Dad is Santa! Or...maybe not...

Anyway, the point of my topic, and you can see it has many subtopics involved in it, so if you prefer to talk about any of them feel free. However, the point of my post was that I accidently came across a gift my wife had for me. She knows I am into hand-crafted arts, and she has a friend at work whose husband makes and sells custom-made wine bottle stoppers. The one she bought me is really nice, and had the price tag on it of $20.00. Its one piece, but the center has a free-floating ring that cannot come off. He carved the wood out from the ring and now it is its own second piece. Really neat crafting. I found it in her jacket pocket because she forgot it was there and put her jacket in the washing room to be washed. I searched the pockets first because I know she leaves stuff in there all the time. Darn glad I did, but now I ruined my surprise because I had to show her what she had left in the pocket now that her jacket is being laundered.

So...before I get into other stories of finding my gifts pre-X-mas, I'll let you guys chat it out a while and see how good this topic does. </font>

[ 12-16-2006, 06:43 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

I discovered that the big guy wasn't real when I found the box for the gift he'd left for my mother. Wasn't too traumatic, but it could have been.

My view is that it shouldn't be traumatic for children to learn about Santa - it can be a fantasy everybody realizes is false but still have fun.

I don't think I ever believed in Santa, but we still played all the same games about stuff being left under the tree and even had an uncle that dressed up for the part at family christmas parties.

I never actually believed in Santa. I could always either hear my dad sneaking around in the night, or I found the gift beforehand. I still remember bursting into the bathroom while my mom was washing her hair, and I was screaming with glee with the biggest Lego prison starship ever made. She just looked at me and said "You know it's too early, right?" and I quietly put the gift back in the closet where I found it. I was 8, maybe 9. She was astounded by my reaction.

My parents always did one present from Santa and the rest were from them. Which is a good idea I think, it's nice to have the Santa thing but you want to get some credit I think as a parent since you were the one who found and bought all the gifts!

Anyway my mum used to sometimes put christmas presents that she bought early in the top of the linen cupboard. I knew and never looked there - I think partly I liked to be surprised plus I was pretty well behaved and followed the rules. So one time near to Christmas but not that near (like October or something) I was getting a new pillow from the top of the cupboard but being careful that I didn't see something I wasn't supposed to see, and I saw this box that said Handy G.... I thought it said Handy Girl, and I was like ooh, a present! But I didn't look anymore not wanting to spoil the surprise. So on Christmas I was opening my presents, wondering what this Handy Girl present was going to be! But, to my surprise, no Handy Girl present turned up! A few days later I thought I'd get to the bottom of it so checked the cupboard - it was a box actually labelled Handy Gloves with rubber gloves in it [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] :D

Lol Aelia! that is hilarious!

i used to search for AGES for my christmas pressies, but NEVER found any. I am now convinced my mother owned a multi-dimension storage thing that was the size of a matchbox or something but could hold all the pressies.

Now my wife must have one too - casue i can never find chocolate biscuits/ice cream/other yum stuff

What do you mean Santa doesn't exist?!?! :eek:

This thread should come with a spoiler alert [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img]

[ 12-18-2006, 08:25 PM: Message edited by: wellard ]