Today's Thursday questions reminded me about some of my best, and worst gifts. I figured there's probably other pranksters in the crowd. So lets share: what are some of your most memorable gifts. It doesn't have to be just pranks if there's something particularly clever, meaningful, or that you poured a lot of hard work into. But if you've got a good gift story, share it here.
Me? I've had a habit of giving at least one gag gift a year to someone in my family. I think it started out with just the idea that my brother wanted ammo for christmas. I'd gotten him a 20 round box, along with some other stuff, and he reloads so I figured I could give him my empty boxes to hold reloaded ammo. So what I did was grab 6 empty boxes and put 2 or 3 rounds in each them tape them shut so it looked like I gave him 6 or 7 boxes of ammo when I'd only given him one. I then wrapped it in a larger box with the other gifts I'd given him so the weight wouldn't throw him off right away. He opened it, gasped a little bit at how much I'd "spent" in my poor college days, and gave me a big thank you. I said "you're welcome" and shut my mouth. It wasn't until about a half hour later that I heard a "GOD DAMNIT COPPERCLOUD!" along with some giggles as he caught on.
From there, it's kind of been a tradition. The next year I went to his house with my in-laws on christmas eve and stole some lights from that same brother out of his front yard and packed them up for him as a gift.
Another year my other brother was going to get back to me on things he wanted but never did, I figured cash is better than a gift card, but has a "lame" factor, so I froze it in a small block of ice. This was before the fancy ice craze, or at least before I knew about it, so I had to look up the best way to make clear ice so that he could see what it was. So the process is to freeze the ice directionally, not from all angles at once, to reduce cracking from expansion and any bubbles. So basically put it in a cooler with the top off in your freezer. It worked well. I packed it in a bag, bubble wrap, and multiple layers of cardboard for insulation and just let him open it normally.
Another year I saw the whole "wrap your gift in zip ties" gag and had to replicate it. I figured what better to give than... something that can open zip ties. So I first wrapped a diagonal cutters in normal wrapping paper, then started zip tying it. I did make sure toe weave the zip ties so that he couldn't just start sliding them off. That one was fun because it got a good laugh when everyone saw the wrapping then when he finally saw it we got more laughs. Bonus, I got him a nice one and he said he did actually need a good diagonal cutters!
Another year I was living an hour away from home, but I was on the road a bit (fixing PCs/Servers/Networking gear). I happened to go through my home town. My dad has a mechanical coo-coo clock that my other brothers like to mess with and adjust the weights and stuff. So I stopped by the house a week or two before christmas and stole the little pine cone weights! He at first suspected my brothers because I'd never messed with it before and only one of us lived in town. So I called them up and had them package up rocks for dad to force him to have to guess which one of us actually did it. Surprisingly he didn't single me out as the habbitual prankster and I'd wrapped them cleverly enough that I was his last pick.
This year? Well mom hasn't gotten in on the fun. One year she made some bacon and then accidentally dumped the grease into my brother's boot instead of a garbage can. It's a big inside joke with us because he was about to go camping in bear country and was like "yeah... I'm not taking the bacon scented boots for that!" So I saved up a bunch of bacon grease into a big mason jar and labeled it "boot seasoning" and wrapped that for her.
Last one, a bonus one. This one wasn't intended to be a prank, though I guess I can't help myself. My wife like advent calendars and thought we might get one for my mom. My mom likes puzzles. So the wife and I put together a 1000 piece puzzle this summer and divided it into 24 envelopes and we gave that to her at the beginning of the month. We did make sure to package them in sections that actually fit together (hence why we had to put it together first), though I did leave enough pieces left over that we can pack some up for Christmas day. The prank part that I couldn't stop myself from? I'll wrap up an empty box for her and then give one piece to all the brothers and grand kids and everyone so when she expects me to be giving her the last set of pieces in said box she'll have/get to wait as everyone walks up and puts their piece in the box and gives her a hug. Yeah.... she's gonna cry. I'm gonna cry. But it's gonna be gooooood.
Anyway. Please, share yours. I think my favorite might be stealing the Christmas lights, I'd forgotten about that one in the Thursday questions thread.
Me? I've had a habit of giving at least one gag gift a year to someone in my family. I think it started out with just the idea that my brother wanted ammo for christmas. I'd gotten him a 20 round box, along with some other stuff, and he reloads so I figured I could give him my empty boxes to hold reloaded ammo. So what I did was grab 6 empty boxes and put 2 or 3 rounds in each them tape them shut so it looked like I gave him 6 or 7 boxes of ammo when I'd only given him one. I then wrapped it in a larger box with the other gifts I'd given him so the weight wouldn't throw him off right away. He opened it, gasped a little bit at how much I'd "spent" in my poor college days, and gave me a big thank you. I said "you're welcome" and shut my mouth. It wasn't until about a half hour later that I heard a "GOD DAMNIT COPPERCLOUD!" along with some giggles as he caught on.
From there, it's kind of been a tradition. The next year I went to his house with my in-laws on christmas eve and stole some lights from that same brother out of his front yard and packed them up for him as a gift.
Another year my other brother was going to get back to me on things he wanted but never did, I figured cash is better than a gift card, but has a "lame" factor, so I froze it in a small block of ice. This was before the fancy ice craze, or at least before I knew about it, so I had to look up the best way to make clear ice so that he could see what it was. So the process is to freeze the ice directionally, not from all angles at once, to reduce cracking from expansion and any bubbles. So basically put it in a cooler with the top off in your freezer. It worked well. I packed it in a bag, bubble wrap, and multiple layers of cardboard for insulation and just let him open it normally.
Another year I saw the whole "wrap your gift in zip ties" gag and had to replicate it. I figured what better to give than... something that can open zip ties. So I first wrapped a diagonal cutters in normal wrapping paper, then started zip tying it. I did make sure toe weave the zip ties so that he couldn't just start sliding them off. That one was fun because it got a good laugh when everyone saw the wrapping then when he finally saw it we got more laughs. Bonus, I got him a nice one and he said he did actually need a good diagonal cutters!
Another year I was living an hour away from home, but I was on the road a bit (fixing PCs/Servers/Networking gear). I happened to go through my home town. My dad has a mechanical coo-coo clock that my other brothers like to mess with and adjust the weights and stuff. So I stopped by the house a week or two before christmas and stole the little pine cone weights! He at first suspected my brothers because I'd never messed with it before and only one of us lived in town. So I called them up and had them package up rocks for dad to force him to have to guess which one of us actually did it. Surprisingly he didn't single me out as the habbitual prankster and I'd wrapped them cleverly enough that I was his last pick.
This year? Well mom hasn't gotten in on the fun. One year she made some bacon and then accidentally dumped the grease into my brother's boot instead of a garbage can. It's a big inside joke with us because he was about to go camping in bear country and was like "yeah... I'm not taking the bacon scented boots for that!" So I saved up a bunch of bacon grease into a big mason jar and labeled it "boot seasoning" and wrapped that for her.
Last one, a bonus one. This one wasn't intended to be a prank, though I guess I can't help myself. My wife like advent calendars and thought we might get one for my mom. My mom likes puzzles. So the wife and I put together a 1000 piece puzzle this summer and divided it into 24 envelopes and we gave that to her at the beginning of the month. We did make sure to package them in sections that actually fit together (hence why we had to put it together first), though I did leave enough pieces left over that we can pack some up for Christmas day. The prank part that I couldn't stop myself from? I'll wrap up an empty box for her and then give one piece to all the brothers and grand kids and everyone so when she expects me to be giving her the last set of pieces in said box she'll have/get to wait as everyone walks up and puts their piece in the box and gives her a hug. Yeah.... she's gonna cry. I'm gonna cry. But it's gonna be gooooood.
Anyway. Please, share yours. I think my favorite might be stealing the Christmas lights, I'd forgotten about that one in the Thursday questions thread.
