Parenting Tips: The Best Places To Hide Your Holiday Gifts From The Kids!

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The myth of Santa Claus is one that helps make the Christmas season magical for kids around the world. 

Unfortunately for parents, keeping the magic alive can challenge even the most creative parents. 

Besides picking out, buying, and wrapping the gifts, we must find a way to keep our children believing that the old guy with the white beard makes and delivers the presents to good girls and boys on Christmas Eve.  

As a mom and teacher, I have fielded numerous questions regarding the topic of Santa over the years and my response has become relatively generic. 

“If you don’t believe in Santa, I can’t imagine he’ll bring you anything.”  That being said, my personal goal is to keep the childhood fantasy of Christmas alive for as long as possible. 

I mean, you’re only young once, right? 

And if Santa isn’t real, how can we keep them from misbehaving for the month before Christmas? 

Without the threat of Santa’s naughty list or his secret spy, the Elf on the Shelf, who will keep them from naughty antics in the weeks leading up to Christmas?

So, in an effort to keep the secret, I have turned to some pretty drastic measures. 

I have disguised my handwriting. 

I have stayed up until the wee hours of the night to ensure that all the kids in my house are asleep before I pack stockings and place the Santa gifts under the tree. 

All three of my kids insist on giving separate treats to Santa, so let’s just say I have eaten more than my fair share of cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer on Christmas Eve. 

And I do this all in the name of keeping the magic alive as long as possible. 

Even with all my elaborate deceit, my kids still have suspicions, and my daughter especially will go to great lengths to discover presents she thinks I might be hiding. 

Since my twins are nearing their twelfth birthday and most of their friends have stopped believing, I am making it my personal mission to keep the Santa gifts away from their prying eyes so they don’t share the secret with their little brother. 

So if you’re If you’re like me and you’re looking for more ways to keep the magic alive, these tips might be of help to you.

Tip 1: Wrap Santa gifts immediately after you get them.  The last thing you want is for your children to see the gift.  At least if the package is already wrapped, the child won’t know what’s inside. 

If you want to be an overachiever this Christmas, you can put smaller gifts in larger boxes and stuff them. 

This will make it harder to guess what is inside based on size, shape, and the good ol’ shaking method.

Tip 2: Hide gifts in different places.  One year, my snoopiest child, found a Santa gift wrapped, but hidden in my closet. 

When she questioned me about it, I acted as surprised as her and told her that Santa must have been worried about having a full sleigh and hidden it there.  I told her she better put it back before he found out.

Tip 3: Hide a few presents in their closet. My kiddos are terrible at finding their own belongings…socks, basketball shoes, shirts, especially items that are in their closet. 

They claim to have looked everywhere for an item that I locate within a few seconds.  Makes me wonder how they could “accidentally” find one I have so carefully hidden. 

Hmmmmmm…  I hide a few smaller gifts of their sibling’s on the top shelf near the back where they never look.  This brings me to Tip 3.

Tip 4: Use their lack of height to your advantage.  Fortunately, my kiddos are still shorter than me, so I use my height advantage and keep presents up high. 

We have high shelves in our garage and closets, so those are areas where I can put a few presents as they wait for me to put them under the tree. 

Tip 5: Choose places you know they will never go. One of my favorite tricks is to hide presents in places that my children like to avoid. 

One such place is our laundry room.  Since all they have to do is put clothes in a basket and wait for it…more magic…their clothes magically appear in their room, they travel into the laundry maybe once a year. 

I also have a cupboard with cleaning supplies.  This is another perfect place to hide a few small gifts. 

If you child is afraid of the basement, use it as a place to store those gifts.  Use their weaknesses to your advantage.  

Tip 6: Take the presents to a undisclosed, secret location. If you are blessed with older or wiser children who have become sleuths at discovering presents, or you just have a lot of extra time, pack up the gifts and take them someplace else. 

Try a family member or friend if you can store the gifts at their house.  If you’re really lucky, they might even offer to wrap the presents for you, like your own personal elf.

The key is really to think like a child and keep them guessing…and if you do get caught, you can always remember my go-to phrases when asked those tough Christmas questions, “I don’t know all of Santa’s  tricks, maybe he hides presents because they won’t all fit on the sleigh” and the best,  “If you don’t believe in Santa, I can’t imagine he is going to bring you something.”