Prank Someone with a Layered Christmas Gift
Ever wondered how to jazz up a boring Christmas party with something more entertaining? Or, how about slowing down the family member who always has to rip open their presents way too fast?
This prank will lighten up your friends or slow down the paper ripper during the gift exchange and get a few belly laughs in the process. In this prank, the gift is concealed within a small box at the center, while the gift itself presents as very large because you've layered it.
Steps
- Purchase or recycle a small present. It's up to you whether you give something expensive or cheap. In this article, the gift is an iPod Nano but any small item is fine, including electronics, picture frames, clothing and trinkets such as key chains, tools and small toys, etc.
- Assemble the items needed. These are listed below under "Things You'll Need". The boxes can be of any kind; grocery boxes are just fine but if possible, have a decoy box for the second-to-last box prior to the real gift, just to "double prank" your recipient! (In this article, the iPad box serves as the decoy box, in which the iPod gets placed.) Bear in mind, though, that if you put a cheap gift in a box that suggests a valuable or much-desired gift, the recipient may be disappointed and upset - hopefully that's not the effect you want.
- Check that the boxes each fit into one another. Just doing this by sight can be deceptive, so be sure to check that each box fits into each bigger box until your main, final box. If not, hunt around for more fitting boxes or visit your local grocery store for some more.
- Begin by wrapping the small item itself in the Christmas wrap. In this example, an iPod.
- Put the item in a small box. Since this prank is a "double prank" because the iPod is being inserted into an empty iPad box to make the poor recipient think that they've finally got to their gift of an iPad, the small first box is one in excellent shape. (This is a rather mean trick which you might prefer to avoid, and use a plain box or one that suggests some cheap contents.)
- Wrap the box holding the initial gift in wrapping paper.
- Insert this small box into the next biggest box.
- At this stage, you may notice the potential for rattling to occur. If this is the case, include scrunched up tissue or newspaper, or foam peanuts. These will serve to prevent the box from moving, as well as being even more effort for your recipient to unwrap! Make use of such stuffing in every level of the wrapping where you're concerned about the potential for the gift to rattle around.
- Wrap this box.
- Place this wrapped box into the next bigger box.
- For the purposes of this article, a box with a hole in its lid was chosen so that you could see the earlier box tucked safely inside. This is how the layering should look if you could see through the box with X-ray vision.
- Wrap this box. At this stage, you've got the idea by now. Basically, continue the process of wrapping each successive box and placing it inside the next biggest box, adding stuffing if necessary, until you've reached the dimensions wanted.
- You can also include additional layers of wrapping in between boxes, or every few boxes, to make it even more frustrating and effort inducing!
- Snap a photo of the sheepish look when the recipient finally reaches the real gift. Pin the photo up on the work bulletin board or family fridge with a caption for memories of a Christmas party that was a little more amusing than normal.
- A video is also a great way to capture the mounting frustration slash excitement that builds with a layered Christmas gift!
This video will show you how to do it right.
Tips
- If you want, you can leave a small note to your friend; something like "you're almost there", or "a long way to go", etc.
- The more layers you add, the merrier your other friends will get. And likely noisier too!
- Try using different colored wrapping paper to layer for variety.
- You can even make almost every layer a gift itself. Start with something incredibly small like a gift voucher and place it inside a plastic pocket. Continue to place this inside a card, inside a decorative envelope, inside a card wallet, inside a purse, inside a bag, inside a larger bag, inside a small storage chest, inside a large storage chest, etc., until you run out of items, money, strength, paper––or all four!
- You could have one of the layers be a shoe with a tag, "Thought you'd get a kick out of this." Use only if you have a nicer gift inside.
- If one of your boxes is a lot bigger than the previous one you could wrap the smaller box in layered duct tape.
- A creative idea for a layered gift could be wrapping a box on top of a chair.
Warnings
- This prank is only fun if the gift reached at the end pleases the recipient rather than being a disappointment. It doesn't have to be expensive, but make sure they're rewarded for their patience with something nice! This is especially true if the recipient is a child.
- It's not a good idea to give this to a person who is short tempered or impatient. They may simply abandon it and walk off in a huff. Then again, maybe that's the effect you're after...
Things You'll Need
- Gift to be put in
- Small box, and larger boxes; if you can, include a decoy box, like the iPad box in this article
- Lots of wrapping paper
- Tape or Christmas tape
- Scissors or a long ruler to cut the paper
- Gift tags
- Camera or video camera
