From The E-Hell Blog: Ooopsie Thank You Note

[Ms_Cellany]

Archie McPhee has some fabulous fake-out gift boxes, including the Bacon Tuxedo, Gravy Fountain, Musical Tie of the Month, and Box of Hope.

Thank you so much for posting this site.  We have a family joke about how much my husband likes bacon.  I'm even getting him a membership to the bacon of the month club for Christmas.  Some of these items will make perfect stocking stuffers.

Don't forget the bacon wallet, bacon gummi candy, and bacon-flavored toothpicks!  Although my toothpick- and bacon- addicted sweetie says that while she loves both, the bacon toothpicks were vile.

[zyrs]

I liked this story so much I shared it with my wife.

We always reuse boxes.  Jello boxes are great to wrap socks in.  Cereal boxes make great boxes for t-shirts and such.  I never assume that what's on the box is what's in the box.

[kandikrisp]

I think the only problem with reusing boxes is that if someone *doesn't* open it right away, it can go one of two ways. If, in a case like the OP, it's something really nice hidden in another box, that's a bit different than giving a kid a box full of clothes hidden in a scooter or Easy Bake Oven box. I think if I reused a box, I would always be a bit nervous that they would be more excited about what it looks like it is, rather than what it turns out to be. It's a "know your audience" kind of thing, I think.

[swoopie]

I actually replied to the post on the Ehell Blog...

At my bridal shower, I opened a gift.. it was a garbage can from a friend of my hubby's mom.  The next gift was from a different friend of MIL.  I unwrapped it and the box said "garbage bags."  Cool.  just got the garbage can, so the bags are great.  I thanked the woman at the time and they all started laughing and told me to open it!  Inside were 2 nice candle holders and candles in them!  Oops!  My mom said it made sense and she would have thought they were garbage bags too.  I felt a little silly, but hey.. no big deal. 

The only boxes I reuse are from department stores.. like for clothes.  And I reuse them for everything!  Also, gift bags.  There has been 1 gift bag I get every year for Christmas at my mom's house..  at least 15 years... haha.

[Joannie81]

When Hailey turned 4, Joline was still in diapers and DD1 wrapped whatever gift it was (I think it was a "My Little Pony", but I'm not sure)  in an empty diaper box.  Hailey was going through her presents saying "This is my favorite" to almost everything she opened.  Or it was "This is just what I wanted".  She got to the diaper box, and exclaimed: "Just what I never wanted!"  We were all laughing and were barely able to tell her to open the box.  So she did, and of course, it was "Just what I wanted!" 

One year, I opened a box from my brother and SIL.  It was a box for a camp lantern.  Now DH and I love to go camping and I thought she got me one and it was great.  Not what I asked for, but still something we wanted.  I was starting to talk about it when they told me to open it.  Can't remember what it was, because they have given us so many really wonderful gifts, but I do know I loved it!  I forgot the rule about looking in boxes because the box was in great shape and it was something that we would use.

[Miss Marple]

I was taking some holidays from work to get married and as was the tradition of my department, I organized a morning tea. After the morning tea there were 8 presents on my  desks from differing colleagues. They were all different brands of toasters. The type you get for under $10.

Each time I opened my toaster I smiled and said thank you. Well after the last toaster one of my friends finally took pity on me and said it was a gag and they would trade them in for a top of the range toaster.

I as so excited about getting married it didn't register that it was a joke. I just thought what a coincidence that they all got me the same thing and I did need a new toaster.

[Alida]

"Don't believe the box!" is a common refrain in my family.

Funny, though - one of my brothers gave my daughter a FryDaddy this year and another brother said, "Don't believe the box!" He couldn't figure out why younger brother would have given a 16 year old girl a FryDaddy.

It was right off her Amazon wish list - DD is a fantastic cook and wants to play with making doughnuts next.

Boy, she would have been disappointed if the box was a lie!

[dietcokeofevil]

I had some of those those decorated boxes that you don't need to wrap, but I wrap anyway.  2 year old DS unwrapped his said "Ooh I got a reindeer" then set the box down and moved on to the next gift. 

[Asharah]

I had some of those those decorated boxes that you don't need to wrap, but I wrap anyway.  2 year old DS unwrapped his said "Ooh I got a reindeer" then set the box down and moved on to the next gift. 

[kennedar]

I did this!!! When we brought our wedding gifts home, 2 of them were misplaced. (In our defense, we had over 200 guests, so well over 100 gifts that my parents brought into the house while we were on our honeymoon). DH and I wrote out all of our thank you notes using a list that we had made at the gift opening. There was one gift though that was in a box called "polar bear puzzle". The box never got opened at the opening, and the gift was misplaced in transit so we could not verify what was in it. DH wrote the thank you note to his cousin thanking him for the wonderful puzzle and how much we loved it.

Cleaning our basement out 2 weeks ago, I found the box. When I opened it up, there is a beautiful jade polar bear statue doing a native dance. Its amazing!

Moral of the story...do not let anyone else put away your wedding gifts! Even if you are on your honeymoon!

[KenveeB]

We never trust the box in my family!  But we usually use random household boxes, so it's usually pretty obvious that the box isn't representative of the actual gift.  One year I gave my two nephews a box of Sweet 'n Low and and box of Christmas lights, and one of my favorite pictures is of my (mostly bald) dad posing with his new box of hair curlers.  But sometimes it leads to a lot of fun when you see the box, think "don't trust the box", and then it turns out to actually be that, like when my brother got the TV he'd been wanting!

[pwv]

I do this all the time.  My SIL will send me nephews' christmas/birthday lists and I wrap the gifts in cereal boxes or whatever.  One year one of them wanted a CD player so I got him one.  When he unwrapped it, he looked at the box, started to get excited, then stopped and looked at me and said "do I need to open this?"

[BeagleMommy]

I had a great aunt who was the master of this.  Every birthday gift I received from her was wrapped in the comic pages and a box from a department store that went out of business 30 years ago.

For my wedding, she gave me a lovely set of dishtowels (in above mentioned box from defunct department store) wrapped in aluminum foil.  The gift card had a pretty, if somewhat vintage, picture of a bride and groom on the front.  My mother flipped the card over and the print date was listed as 1932.  I got married in 1987. 

[Drunken Housewife]

I have a story like this, too.  When I had my first baby, some friends sent us a present.  It was in a box for an online roleplaying game, Everquest.  I know the husband of that couple was addicted to Everquest, and it made sense that he'd give it to us, because we did like computer games and he'd never had kids.  I said, "I can't believe they gave us this, this is the worst time for you to get hooked on an online game. Promise me you won't play this!"  My husband had a history of being addicted to various computer games and obsessively playing them.  [This was before the World of Warcraft existed, and it was unimaginable to me that someday i would become an online game addict].  I really believed it was Everquest, and I thought it was that husband making some point that we, esp. my husband, shd still be enjoying our own interests despite having a baby.

At some point later, we actually opened the box, and it was one of the best gifts ever, a beautiful John Lennon baby outfit with little white rats on it.  At that time, I was involved in rat rescue and rat welfare volunteering, so it was extra thoughtful.  We used that outfit over and over again and always enjoyed it.

[Bethczar]

This happened in my family, too. After many years of living hours away, my parents moved into a new house close to a lot of my mom's family, so they had a housewarming party. One of my cousins gave a box of croutons. Thinking this was a cute variation on the "bread & salt" tradition, my mom thanked her and put it in the pantry. About a month later my mom decided she wanted some croutons on her salad and found a very nice set of dishtowels inside.

I don't think she ever told my cousin, although Cousin probably would have thought it funny.