Put a Little More Fun into Christmas Gift-Giving

A Few Creative Ideas to Get Your Recipients into the Holiday Spirit!

My father was a prankster. He loved Christmas and nothing delighted him more than going to elaborate lengths to make the gift-receiving process a little more enjoyable. If not for the recipient, at least for those observing the opening of the gifts he wrapped. Of course, there was always a big mess to clean up, but everyone pitched in. Naturally, his penchant for Christmas pranks was passed on to his children.

Here are a few ideas to make Christmas more fun and a little more interesting.

1. The ol' duct tape trick. Dad always invested in at least a couple rolls of duct tape at Christmastime. This was his favorite gag. Often combined with placing a small but significant gift in a small box into a larger box into a larger box . . . you get the idea. Each box was covered in duct tape. Just make sure the gift is worth all the work getting to it.

2. The Treasure Hunt. I got my younger brother a movie one Christmas. It was the television movie "The California Kid" with Martin Sheen and one of my brother's ultimate favorite movies. A very young Nick Nolte also appeared in the film along with Sheen's younger brother, Joe Estevez. It was very hard to find at that time, but can be found on DVD these days. The hot rod was the real star of the film. Be that as it may, because it was so hard to find and my brother coveted the movie so much, I decided to make a game of giving it to him.

First, I went to a locksmith shop and asked them if they threw away any keys. It turned out that locksmiths throw out hundreds of keys that don't work or get damaged in the key making process. They were only too happy to give me an entire bag full of old keys.

Next, I purchased a fire box large enough to hold the movie. The box came with its own key. I put all the keys from the locksmith on ribbons and used a different color ribbon for the fire box key. All the keys were hung on the Christmas tree as decorations.