Are there “ joke gifts” at your Christmas?

[auntfrannie]

The recipient has to be willing to take a joke, though. One year my mother gave my little sister a log from the fireplace and she cried like a baby. She was probably in her mid-teens. My BIL, who loves outdoor bonfires, couldn't understand why she was crying because he thought it was a perfect gift!

 

[RUDisney]

Toilet paper . It started years ago when my youngest nephew got it for my dad for his present. Than the next year my dad did it to him, and the next year was flipped, and so on. This year my dad got my nephew a poop kit (toilet paper, wipes, spray, and a new this guy pooped today t shirt) in Russian nesting boxes. My nephew got him VIPoo in Russian nesting boxes I am the only onle in the family that knows both gifts. I am cackling in glee I just have to get them to open them at the same time.

So, this has nothing to do with Christmas, but it made me remember when my Uncle Frank died. He was a custodian and had decided that he didn't get paid enough, so he would steal TP from his employer. He had it stored everywhere in his house. My cousins would open a drawer and it would be filled with TP... boxes in closet? Filled with TP. Cabinets? Filled with TP. My cousins wanted to give a roll of TP to everyone who attended his funeral as a lovely parting gift from him. (They didn't muster the courage to do that, though.)

 

[Julie's Haircut]

It's not the norm but occasionally there will be a gag gift if something catches the gift-givers eye.

A few years ago DD gave me a calendar titled "Nuns Having Fun." B&W photos from the 50s and 60s of nuns riding roller coasters, twirling hula hoops around their waists, sneaking cigarettes behind the convent, etc.

I had a subscription to Boys' Life in the late 60s, but what I really wanted was a subscription to Nuns' Life.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

We've done joke boxes before. It's become a tradition that gift wrapped within a box of Christmas Crunch.

Sometimes my gift is actually a box of Christmas Crunch.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

We've done joke boxes before. It's become a tradition that gift wrapped within a box of Christmas Crunch.

Sometimes my gift is actually a box of Christmas Crunch.

In recent years, a few gifts have been put inside those "prank" gift boxes.

I did get DW a gag gift the other day for this Christmas. Sssssh!! Don't tell her.

 

[rickybobby]

A group that I hang out with has a gift swap every year, and one year many moons ago, one of the gifts was an industrial sized jar of mayonnaise. This is one of those gift sessions where you can trade with someone, so some poor schmuck got stuck with it. It has returned every year since. The use by date is now prehistoric. Pity the fool who ever opens the jar at this point.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

In recent years, a few gifts have been put inside those "prank" gift boxes.

I could this one to good use, actually.

 

[bigbabyblues]

No real joke gifts by tradition. There is the small Leg Lamp nightlight that shows up at MIL's house every year. She draws a name and it goes home with the lucky winner. It is supposed to be somewhere in your house where we can find it if we visit.

 

[dhardawa]

Sometimes the kids open funny gifts on Christmas Eve. This year, the kids are getting a gift from the dog. They’re getting blankets with the dog’s giant face on them.

 

[Southernmiss]

We started dirty Santa gift exchange with my 3 siblings, their spouses, the kids over 18 and my mom last year. One of our sons bought a Squatty Potty as his Dirty Santa gift. It was fought over by 3 people! The gift itself and the paraphernalia that goes with it is hilarious. But the fight over it was even more fun.

One of my sister in laws bought "Cards Against Humanity". Our more straight laced sister in law stole it, but she did not realize what it was. So BIL stole it from her to protect her from the embarrassment of opening it and realizing the cards.

Can't imagine what will top these this year! But we'll see!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

There was an ugly lamp exchange that went horribly wrong. It got passed around for several years until my BIL gave it to my elderly grandmother. Grandma didn’t remember the lamp joke, but definitely realized it was ugly. Not wanting to hurt my BIL’s feelings, she thanked him politely until we explained the joke to her. She giggled a little and then we thought it was over.

Over the next several weeks, everyone in the family received multiple apologies from grandma (including hand written letters to each of us) for “ruining Christmas”. She was so upset she didn’t get the joke or have anything clever to say it was keeping her up at night. The sweetest, kindest old lady ever was absolutely convinced she had ruined Christmas (after giving each of us $1,000 that year) because the joke was a dud.

My BIL became the permanent keeper of the ugly lamp after that LOL

 

[PigletsPal2]

Occasionally we'll do gag gifts, but mostly we get our kicks by making up the To/From tags. When DD#2 was about ten years old, she was teaching herself how to cook, using the how-to cookbooks of her favorite celebrity chefs or cooks. So when she saw a gift with a tag that was addressed to her from The Barefoot Contessa, she was sure it was Ina Garten's latest cookbook. Bzzzt! Wrong answer! It was a pair of bedroom slippers. This year DH is getting a gift from The Dealer. The thought process goes like this: The Dealer>Card Sharp>Las Vegas>CSI (one of his favorite shows)>CSI theme song>Who Are You?>identification>Ancestry DNA test kit. He's getting Season 5 of Game of Thrones and the tag reads from 1-2-3-4-5. He already has seasons 1-2, and DD#1 got him seasons 3-4 this year.

We also look for the strangest box we can find for a gift. The Christmas I was 13, I got a box of Ritz Crackers. I HATE Ritz Crackers. But I loved the watch that was inside. And every year, we each hope that the Nordstom's box is for us, because it usually holds a pretty neat gift, starting when DH got me a cashmere coat wrapped in the Nordstrom's box. I think this may be the last year for the box - it's getting pretty shabby looking.


Queen Colleen

 

[mousefan73]

I am playing a joke on my DD this year. She wished for one of the giant bean bags/floor cushion things.. I got her one and saw a matching "table" stool size that I got too... So I will wrap the small one for the tree and have her open that and say that is the bean bag you wanted! She will of course get upset and mad at me for getting a small baby size one.. Unknowingly the HUUUGE bean bag will be in her room already. So I will let her get mad for a while and then send her to her room. Love playing mind games with my 12 yr old!!. Revenge for all bratiness lol!

 

[smiths02]

I usually buy some candy version of coal and put it in FILs stocking. He grew up poor and rural, so his "I walked three miles in the snow to get to school" stories are actually true! He teases about getting coal for Christmas, so I make sure he gets some.

I always get my kids underwear and socks for Christmas. I wrapped those in the most amazing packages. The big gift is a surprise vacation to Orlando in April, so I got them some shirts and things to help announce that which are wrapped in butcher paper and twine.

Nothing more creative than that.

 

[QueenIsabella]

We do some fun pranks at Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we do a "Silly Santa", which is like the Dirty Santa, except there are three gifts for each person. Some are nice things--lottery tickets, Yankee Candle stuff, bath bombs. Then there are head-scratchers, like the Zombie Chia pet. Added bonus, a few of the gifts have an extra, like a gift card. One even has a $100 bill tucked into it! Funny thing is, though--my family's not big on stealing the already-opened gifts. Maybe they figure they'll have better luck with opening a new package?

I also got three of those prank boxes. For my vegetarian DD, there's bacon-scented dryer sheets. For my perpetually cold younger DD, it's a face heater. I forgot what the third one was (I'm an early wrapper).