So a few years ago, my siblings and I got a $2 dress from the Dorcas thrift shop for my mom. It was hideous, with ruffles on every edge and the loudest flower print we could find. We wrapped it up really professionally in a Nordstrom box and gave it to her, my sister in law video taping the entire reaction (with her "new" video camera). The way she went on and on about how she "really appreciated the thought" was hilarious. Needless to say, she's a tad gullible.

ANYWAY, we're trying to think of another prank we can pull on Christmas morning. She's due for another awkward moment. Anyone have any ideas? (and no, i'm not telling her anyone died, is pregnant, sick with a deadly disease or gay)

12/22/2005 8:28:35 PM

buy like 6 of the same thing

get varying size boxes

12/22/2005 8:33:48 PM

Go to a thrift shop (or get for free) some old, half-used lotions and such ... wrap it up in a "bath basket" all nice and pretty, maybe even attach a bath & body works tag or something to it

If you're REALLY good, you can put the real thing underneath the filler, and after you've had enough of her going on and on about it you can tell her "Oh, keep going, there's more in the bottom!"



Shit, I might do that to my mother-in-law ... just to see her face

disclaimer: I do like my mother-in-law, btw. We get along great! I like visiting her.

[Edited on December 22, 2005 at 8:48 PM. Reason : ^]

12/22/2005 8:48:04 PM

just dont get her a gift
and at some point be like, "haha, surprise!"

12/22/2005 8:51:18 PM

vibrator or dildo because you didnt put that in your no-no gifts list.

12/22/2005 9:02:28 PM

^^she's such a sweet woman though she'd probably not even notice. she's all about her kids and would probably give us money b/c she'd assume we were too broke to buy her anything.

^and yes, that would create an awkward moment, but perhaps not the kind i'd like to share with her.

come on people...Christmas is in two days!

12/23/2005 12:03:06 AM

move the christmas tree to a different room.

12/23/2005 12:06:56 AM

you could do the same thing, only with a jewelry box instead of Nordstrom

buy some fugly fake gawdy horrible ring and put it in a super nice box, maybe Tiffany's if you can find one

12/23/2005 12:08:54 AM

here's a couple i have used

take a very tiny gift and wrap it in a small box and put it in a larger box and wrap it, then put that in a larger box and wrap that, etc etc ad nauseum. i did that to my brother when i was about 15 and in the smallest box was some fairly large (for a 13 year old to get, anyway) bill with a gum wrapper around it.
it got him good.

another one is get one big box and wrap a bunch of small dummy boxes and put the real gift in one of the small boxes, then put all the small boxes in a big box. kinda the same idea, less teleological and maybe more frustrating...

12/23/2005 12:13:53 AM

^yeah everyone in my family usually does that to one of their gifts each year. my brother got it this year. his Itunes gift card is wrapped in 2 lb bag of sugar (so the weight throws him off) and wrapped in consecutively larger boxes. He probably won't get into it until Monday.

nerdchick's idea is pretty good...

12/23/2005 12:22:30 AM

or you could just give her a really lame present, like an inch thick VCR manual or something. Make her think that's her real gift.

it would be funny to see her try to thank you for that

12/23/2005 12:29:10 AM

well she doesn't know ANYTHING about technology. i've had to write down all sorts of instructions about how to turn on the digital cable box, how to enter a phone number in a cell phone, etc. Computers are like a foreign language to her. Maybe I could give her some kind of little gadget and tell her it does something totally outrageous...

12/23/2005 12:33:56 AM

we do this a few times

we will take something they already own and re wrap it and see if they notice they already have it or its the same thing, also we have had scavenger hunts that tell them the hunt was their present at the end

and the funniest one yet, give them an early present, once they open it and stick it to the side, get someone to grab it, go rewrap it and give it to them again...they will be like well now i have 2, and look the other one when its not there till you tell them

12/23/2005 12:37:47 AM

Give a fake gift certificate to an Adult film store.

Or perhaps get ahold of a porno VCR casette box and put a blank tape in it.

12/23/2005 12:44:20 AM

Get her an XM radio receiver

12/23/2005 4:14:26 AM

Get her a book about something she has absolutely no interest in. Like fly fishing or something. Then tell her she needs to get out more.

12/23/2005 7:13:04 AM

Will she believe the fake lottery ticket? (You can get them at Spencers.) You can say you went to another state to get it. (We mixed it with real ones but that was in Massachusetts where they were easily accessible.)

12/23/2005 9:08:07 AM

Give her a case for a digital camera or something.

Then dont get her a digital camera.

12/23/2005 11:14:52 AM

Put a blank video tape in a video pack box and label it "[your name]'s hot night with [insert some random guy's name]" Then, when she opens it, act really embarrased and say "oops, I put the wrong tape in there" and quickly snatch the tape back and explain you bought her some random movie and accidentally put one from your collection in the box.

12/23/2005 2:41:28 PM

Find road kill, put it in a box, wrap it up and when she opens it and finds it dead be like "I knew I forgot to put holes in the box!"

12/23/2005 3:03:06 PM

ok so i decided to go with the technology gag. my brother works at a technology support company and he has a storage room full of random gadgets. he picked out this surfboard modem that's really sleek looking with all these hookups on the back. it's by neoware and the logo is printed on the side. so we decided to call it "smart kitchen by neoware". we downloaded all the warranty and instruction information off the website, and the logo and doctored it all to say "smart kitchen" above it. we made a installation cd complete with fake label and packaged it up all professionally in the mail room.

so we're going to tell her that it's compatible with her cell phone and after a short tutorial that she takes so that voice recognition can kick in with the software we install in the home computer, she can call from her cell and make different appliances do all sorts of things. i.e.) preheat the oven, start the coffee maker, etc. now i know this kind of technology actually does exist, but we're going to start making things more and more outrageous. the funny part will be to see how far we can go with what we tell her it can do. my brother suggested telling her you can call and tell the dishwasher you had bbq ribs for dinner so it'll know to run two cycles. i may tell her she can program it so the ice maker will carve miniature animals into the icecubes.

HOPEFULLY she'll have caught on by that point. anyone have any ideas on what else we could tell her it does?

12/23/2005 5:00:50 PM

It'll euthanize her children

12/23/2005 6:57:54 PM

tell her your pregnant

12/23/2005 8:12:24 PM

tell her she can tell her bathtub what kind of mood she is in (happy, upset, worried, stressed, etc) and it will have a bath drawn for her and set to a perfect temperature according to the mood she is in.

12/23/2005 9:58:05 PM

I love the ice cubes

12/23/2005 11:47:23 PM