With the chill of winter surrounding us and every retail outlet playing holiday tunes, many begin to think about family and gathering with family members for the closely-clustered holidays between November and January. However, it is important to never forget that some people are forced to go through the holidays without loved ones to reconnect with.
Even a single gap in appearances can be enough to remind us of how much a person matters to us, whether or not such an appearance is the result of discord and arguments between family members during a big gathering. Others are forced to avoid time with family due to duty with the armed forces; ask any military family and they will tell you that the holidays just aren’t the same when family has to leave the country to serve.
Terra Casey is a woman who has spent a quarter century of Christmases away from her father. Despite living on opposite coasts and getting to see each other on multiple occasions throughout the year, Christmas just never seemed to work out with their plans after Terra’s fourth Christmas. Terra decided to surprise her father and prank him with a yuletide trick that would live on long in both their memories.
Terra began by sending a text message to her father that included an image of her apartment’s perspective; this was intended to lure her father into believing she was still in her area of the country. Next, she sequestered herself away inside of a giant-sized gift box, complete with discrete air holes and, placed her cellular phone on its mute setting and waited around for the moment when her father would unravel the massive present while in the presence of their entire family. Wary but incredibly curious, Terra’s father opened the present; the expression on his face after seeing his adult daughter as the sole cargo was thankfully preserved on video. Because the family saw fit to record the results of Terra’s shenanigans, her family has another memento to enjoy over the holidays to come and the rest of us have yet another heart-warming video to share and enjoy with our own family members.
Anyone inspired to pose as a Christmas present for a similar harmless prank should be mindful of several factors:
- The dimensions of the cardboard box you intend to use. It is always better to err on the side of the box being too large than it being too small. Hopefully you can find a way to test it out before applying all of the festive wrapping paper and other ornamentation that will serve as additional camouflage in your yuletide prank.
- How long you may need to wait around in the box.
- How long you can comfortably remain crouched or otherwise compact in the box without giving yourself away.
- Your comfort level with hiding out in a relatively small, enclosed space.
- Ensuring that any breathing holes are properly obscured, adequately sized and numerous enough to serve their purpose. One option is to place them in the top lid of the box, obscured by a thin ribbon or large bow.
- Whether or not the pranked family member has a heart that can survive sudden surprises. You do not want a potentially heart-warming moment ruined by an emergency trip to the hospital.
- Be mindful of how the family pets may react to the box and remove them from the immediate area if necessary. You do not want a cat tearing things up or a dog marking the box while you are inside of it.