My children love surprises during the holiday season. After watching the Christmas gifts slowly accumulate under the Christmas tree throughout the month of December, an idea struck me quite unexpectedly at approximately 10 pm on Christmas Eve.

christmas tree with birds — via The Old Design Shop

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For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty founder was a child Himself.

charles dickens

Our Christmas Surprise

Rather than heading to bed as I had planned, I sneakily gathered supplies and shared the latest development with my husband.

Feeling quite clever, my husband and I waited, with great anticipation, for the children, who were curled up on their mattresses next to the Christmas tree, to fall into a deep sleep. Two hours later, we giddily tiptoed, quiet as mice, around the children.

One by one, we removed each gift from under the sparkling Christmas tree and place them in our bedroom closet.

I then left several carefully prepared, poetic clues around the house for the children to discover Christmas morning. It was to be a surprise Christmas Scavenger Hunt!

Imagine the children’s sense of SHOCK, upon waking Christmas morning, to discover that all the gifts were GONE! What in the world?!

Christmas Scavenger Hunt Poem

I no longer have the poetic clues I left for them on Christmas morning, but this poem details the events as they occurred that day:

Oh no! The Grinch hit our house!

Did he hit yours?

He locked all the gifts

Behind closed doors.

The children looked around and found a note—

Apparently one that the mean Grinch wrote.

They were shocked! This was bad news!

But fortunately the Grinch left some clues.

If they would look under a bed

They would discover what Clue #1 said.

“Do a secret service” was the message written in blue,

Do something you would want someone to do for you.

So off they went, to their own allotted places,

To perform their secrets that would bring smiley faces.

Clue #2 was a reminder to pray

And to read the scriptures to see

What the prophets have to say.

The stockings were empty, completely empty–all three,

With the exception of a clue that would help lead them

To where the presents would be.

The final clue, found sleeping in the Q-Tip box,

Brought kind words of wisdom and lots of good luck.

For Grinch had apparently softened his heart,

A move that the children thought was rather smart.

He told them to wake their parents (who just had an extra hour to sleep in!)

They would know where the gifts were, so now the present-opening fun could begin!

Author: C M

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Moral to the Story

The moral, of course, it that Christmas entails so much more than simply presents and “getting”. Rather, Christmas is very much about being present and “giving”, as this classic poem denotes:

“Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small,

Was singing! Without any presents at all!

He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!

Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,

Stood puzzling and puzzling: ‘How could it be so?’

‘It came without ribbons! It came without tags!’

‘It came without packages, boxes or bags!’

And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!

‘Maybe Christmas,’ he thought, ‘doesn’t come from a store.’

‘Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!'” (Source)