Before Christmas last year, I overheard my son tell my daughter that he wakes up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve and looks at his gifts from Santa. Then he sneaks back to bed. Santa doesn’t wrap his gifts for our house so there would be no surprises for my son on Christmas morning. I thought of an easy way to stop my kids from peeking at their Christmas gifts. I used leftover wrapping paper and (affiliate link) painter’s tape to create a gift wrap barrier to our great room where all the gifts are under our Christmas trees.
Before the kids went to bed, I told them that I was going to block the hallway so that they couldn’t peek at their gifts. They didn’t know what I was going to do though! I said that if they were sick or needed us in the middle of the night they could just walk through it and come to our room. Otherwise, they were to stay in their rooms until we said they could come out in the morning.
Things to note about this gift wrap barrier:
- The festive side of the wrapping paper is facing towards the kids. That makes it a little more fun.
- I left it open at the top for air flow. There were no chairs or anything in the bedrooms that the kids could stand on to peek.
- I taped the bottom to the carpet. Painters tape holds well to carpet too!
- There is a bathroom in that hallway so my kids were able to use it if they needed to before we got up.
My husband and I woke up to whispering on the other side of the barrier. The kids were trying to figure out how to peek without letting us know. It was hilarious! In the picture below, you can see my son’s hand as he feels around for a weak point in the gift wrap barrier.
We got out of bed and told the kids they could come out and this is what happened!
