MIL has stolen my childhood christmas decorations!

[ExhaustedPigeon37]

Hello all,

Bit of a strange one but I think my MIL has stolen my Christmas Decorations!!

They have been in my family since I was small and although they aren’t expensive, nothing special they are just sentimental to me.

We had these three decorations, saying Joy, Noel and Ho Ho Ho with a Santa head on the top. The letters cascade downwards and the Santa has a loop so that you can hang them up. This year I put our decorations up and only found the Joy one. Asked DH and he said he hadn’t seen them, so I only put the Joy one up thinking I’d come across them in another box, I never did.

Fast forward to yesterday when we went over to theirs and they live about an hour away so we stayed for dinner and catch up after DH finished work. MIL was showing us her new decorations and the tree (which is themed red and white). I happened to glance at the bottom of the tree where I saw THE/MY Noel and Ho Ho Ho decorations hanging off of her tree!!! I’ve never seen these decorations at their house before, so the only conclusion I can come to is that they are mine, which is why I couldn’t find them this year!

Asked DH and he said he didn’t notice, asked if he remembers us giving them to her or anything and he said can’t at all. Last year we moved house in

I’m so shocked. What do I do? Do I ask for them back? Do I just leave it? Do I sneak them out when we next go there? DH wanted to stay at home on Boxing Day but I now want to go there to retrieve my decorations (they have been invited on Christmas Day but declined due to the journey and FIL recently having had a knee replacement).

Because people will half inch anything if it takes their fancy. My step-father helped himself to some tile cleaner from my house a few years back! We know it was him as we found it under his sink and he had been asking my hubby about it the day he took it without asking!

Could you send a photo of yours and ask SIL if she remembers having similar ones as a child?

Shamelessly place marking to find out what happens 😂

Op, don’t tell them anything or they could hide them a d you will never get them back.

Arrange to come earlier to drop the present off and when you are let in just grab them and make them explain themselves with them in your possession.

Good luck

Could they have got mixed up when you moved house and ended up at theirs?

I just cant fathom someone stealing xmas decorations

But yeah nick them back.

Personally I'd just take them back , say nothing else just yoink* and in the handbag its too obvious that its a set of 3 and 2 of them are missing. take them back, hope she feels guilty, she shouldn't steal ! if anyone admired mine i'd do my best to find some the same or similar but if they stole from me they'd never be invited back- ever! I hope Santa is watching her and she gets reindeer poo for Christmas! please update us when you get YOUR decks back x

I’m curious about this suggestion… how do people think this particular situation could have happened? She didn’t help us move and we had them in the new house last year too.

None of the children have been over there since their Christmas tree has gone up this year

Steal them back!

Take them back when you get the chance on Boxing day and say nothing.
Keep them somewhere safe for yourself.

I have a relative like this and everyone in my house watches her like a hawk when she visits. It's a pain in the ass.

I think you let your husband handle this. It's unlikely that by coincidence your mil had bought identical decorations. Neither did your mil pinch them off your tree but somehow theyve got into her stash perhaps when you've shared stuff even a toddler giving them to her. Give the benefit of the doubt ask your husband to request them back. He could say theyd got over to hers by mistake, how youre missing them and as they have sentimental value you would like them back, I don't think she can refuse..she'd never admit to taking them would she? She'll hand them over graciously. End of the matter nothing else said or there'll be a baublegate..not worth it!!

I had a look through my Christmas decs that haven't gone up this year, I've got "NOEL", OP, if you would like it. I've no special affection for it. Next time at hers do a stealth swap and take your dec back.

Think it was a couple of pounds and probably from Homebase, approx 1993. Oops, just seen post saying BHS. That's probably correct.

Why don’t you just ask her?

I hope Operation Ho Ho Heist goes well, @ExhaustedPigeon37! I know how sentimental Christmas decorations can be.

Ouch

Just take them back without a word

DH is refusing to deal with it. Which is why I’m left to do it.

Couldn't have been a toddler. We only have teenagers and we had them last year

I would say to her that you really like her decorations as they remind you of your childhood ones and ask her where you could buy some from. See what her response is !

Where does he get off, refusing to deal with it? Does he not care about your sentimental attachment to these items?

Does he acknowledge that she filched them but doesn't want to confront? Or does he honestly think they are hers?

I'd be fuming, in MN-speak, that he was so passive and indifferent to my distress.

I quite like the idea of buying the same ones and swapping them for yours on the quiet. What would appeal to me the most is the mind-fuckery when she visits your house and sees them and doesn't understand how you can still have them when she knows she stole them, but she can't say anything.

I wouldn't send your message. She could just say they've always had them, or they got them in a charity shop.
Just take them. If you need to do it front if them you can say "oh great, thanks so much for holding onto these for me, I knew they must have got mixed in with the presents last year!". Calling your PILs out is pointless, there's no way they will own up.

@BippidyBoppety that's a lovely offer, I hope OP takes you up on it!

Everyone saying to just ask MIL......how is that actually going to go? She's going to say that they are hers and then where does OP go from there?

Normally I'm in the "have the conversation" camp but in this instance I'd be getting replicas if at all possible and doing a surreptitious swap, then marking my ones so I could prove they were the originals.

Where were they hanging last year? You mentioned that you usually don't put them on the tree.

I also wonder whether one of the kids might have taken the decorations at some point last Xmas and gave them to their grandparents/left them at the grandparents' house.

I would love it if this turned out to be a real version of the urban legend of the stolen biscuits: two people in public, one helps himself to the other's biscuits, the owner of the biscuits is incensed and pointedly takes biscuits from the packet as well, this goes on for a while until together they finish the packet, the second person leaves, and finally the "owner" realises that he was the thief, when he discovers his own packet of biscuits in his bag or somewhere. Douglas Adams has a version of the story.

Wow! That would be amazing! Yes please! I don’t know how or if you can DM on here?

I wouldn’t ask about them, as you may never get them back. I’d just take them next time I was there.

If she says they’re new @ExhaustedPigeon37 if you don’t want to sneak them back ask her we’re she got them from as you want to replace your inherited ones with sentimental value that appear to have disappeared. She’d have to be very cheeky not to offer them to you then.