Kids found hidden Christmas gifts...what would you do ?

[Greenpolkadot]

Talking with some friends yesterday.
One tells us that her kids (3 under 10 ). found all their gifts from where she had hidden them.
She says they must done a proper search as they were hidden in cupboards ' the shed and various other places.
She took the gifts away but then wonders if she should buy a whole new load of stuff as the suprise has gone .
Personally I would keep the discovered stuff and re-present it on Christmas morning...but she thinks I'm being mean and unreasonable.

I did this when i was a kid. Once i even carefully unwrapped then wrapped back up, all my presents under the tree while my mum was out! Left me feeling really deflated and I never did it again!

She definitely should NOT buy new presents, it will teach them a lesson.

Frankly, my children would simply have never done this because they were brought up properly and knew how to behave.

So many 🙄 for this goady nonsense.

That’s why always wrap and put our presents under the tree so they know they are there but they should not open. We only get one Santa present which we hide to minimise similar issues!

take them away, maybe until boxing day
surprise is that there's nothing for the little darlings brats on Christmas Day
less likely to try it again next year.

I presume she brought them what they wanted. If young kids sounds as though they were unsupervised, if older then they'll understand consequences. Wrap them up again and they get them on Christmas day. Keep them in boring looking boxes unwrapped until nearer the time or swap presents with a friend

I went snooping when I was young. When I got to Christmas day, it wasn't the same so I never did it again. Her kids should have the same experience in my opinion.

If they still believe in Santa, my 4 year old came across some presents in my cupboard. She wasn’t looking for presents, she is just incredibly nosey! I said they were presents I’d bought ready for nursery birthday parties. I’ve then laid the groundwork a bit and told her sometimes if Santa can’t find the right toy, he asks parents to buy them for him and then we send them on to him to add to his sleigh

How old are the kids? I can imagine a ten ye old who doesn't believe having a rummage but younger than that oreumsable
Means they don't believe in Santa anymore. That's a shame.

I wouldn't replace but I'd make up a story of some sort to try and maintain some magic and have a good chat with the eldest (or most likely culprit leading the others)

I would buy one ‘surprise’ from Santa… the rest would be wrapped and put away… when they don’t have surprises on Christmas Day it’s only themselves to blame

My friends child unwrapped all her presents when she was a teenager, rewrapped them, opened them onChristmas morning with no surprise. She later confessed it was the worst Christmas ever and didn't do it again!

I would buy different gifts. The fun is the surprise

Put them under the tree unwrapped.

They've had the fun then. More fun would be rewarding bad behaviour.

I'm lost for words

Not me but my uncle found my mams and his presents, told her what it was, their mam found out and took them back and got other stuff. She never forgets it, prob 60+ years ago now. So I’d say no to buying extra other stuff, kids will just learn to look and expect more stuff. Better they learn now than expect life to be easy/rewarded for misbehaviour

The only time I looked, I found the most hideous coat that I absolutely hated the moment I saw it in British Homes Stores.

It was when houndstooth coats were the height of style and I really wanted one - in black and white, short length, with a collar, belt and cut to flatter - I didn't have a coat at the time and I was cold going to school, so I'd decided a proper coat that also happened to be in fashion and would also look good over jeans would be a brilliant present to ask for.

What she pointed at was fuchsia pink tweed, collarless and shaped like a bell tent.

She'd asked me what I thought of it in BHS and I'd tried to not be a brat, saying 'You like pink, don't you - can we go and look in Tammy Girl next?' where I'd pointed out the ones I liked, rather than saying 'That is probably the most hideous thing I have ever seen and combined with you chopping off your long, thick hair on your 40th birthday for a one inch long bubble perm, will make you look like an angry pink weeble visible from Space'.

I had to go through a fortnight of knowing that I was going to get the revolting coat - I tried to convince myself that she'd bought it for her own use, especially because it was size 16 when I weighed roughly 7 stone 4 and was about 5'1" (or in her description 'huge and fat').

On Christmas morning, the Coat of Horror was there for me. And as she made me put it on and I stood there with this gigantic pink monstrosity billowing out and the dog thinking I had a new tent for him to hide under, she came back into the living room. Wearing the same coat in size 20.

'Look! I've got one too - we can match!'.

It was bad enough having something that she then said was the only coat I was ever going to have as there was 'plenty of room in it' (no shit, it was big enough to act as emergency housing for a family of five, of course a standard sized 12 - 16 year old wasn't going to grow nine inches and put on 8 stone) and 'I'm not getting you another coat, you don't wear the one you already have' until I got a part time job at 16 and bought a cheap jacket with my £12.47 a week wages.

But the fortnight of knowing it was there and being unable to do or say a thing about it was the worst bit by far.

It’s not just a question of affordability, or waste, or frivolity, materialism or consumerism. I’d be concerned that replacing gifts just gives the children the wrong message; that there is endless and uncapped access to gifts and that they’ll be more motivated to discover them in the future, so that they can get even more. It’ll only encourage greed.

Not only would in it get new presents, I wouldn't bother wrapping the ones they found. If they find Xmas morning disappointing, that's their problem.

I think that there is too much emphasis by some on worshipping the Great God Surprise at Christmas.

Getting (and giving) nice presents at Christmas; good food; a festive atmosphere- all these are great parts of Christmas. Surprise isn't, at least for many. Even if you're at the stage of believing in Father Christmas- many children send lists of what they want to Father Christmas, so aren't expecting a total surprise.

Thus, IMO 'spoiling the surprise' isn't a tragedy, and the children should neither be punished for it nor compensated for it. If they mind having the surprise spoilt, then they won't do the same next time. If they don't mind, then it doesn't matter.

While I don't think I ever snooped as a child, I don't think the surprise element was important to my joy in Christmas. Though I do remember that for some time I confused the words 'surprise', 'prize' and 'present': they all meant something nice that people gave you!

I'd be inclined to give them less but I'm for good behaviour!