14 ingenious places to hide Christmas gifts

Do you have some stellar, mission impossible level places to hide Christmas gifts?

I’ve always prided myself on having the very best places to squirrel presents away and after a conversation with a friend last week I thought you might like some ideas where to hide Christmas presents too.

I should mention that I have two daughters, 17 and 20 so the gifts have got a lot smaller  (and more expensive) over the years but they still look for them. It’s that thrill of the chase isn’t it? In these tips I’ll share where to hide the big and small gifts and if you have any other great places to hide them please share in the comments below.

Kitchen cupboards

How often do your kids look in the baking cupboard or behind the spice jars? I think that’s a pretty safe bet. We’ve been hiding smaller gifts up onto of the kitchen cupboards for years. Even small boxes can’t be seen from the ground if they’re tucked up against the wall – even when your daughterlings are 5”6. We’ve even added plants up there to disguise the area.

In between the layers

As you read you’ll discover that I have had a lot of success hiding gifts in plain sight. Gifts in a room where the recipient frequents but never really looks in the nooks and crannies works really well. For me – an Interior Stylist with a healthy (read: obsessive) collection of tablecloths and napkins, it’s the kitchen dresser. The bottom half has stacks of fabric that a wrapped present tucked behind or in-between layers is the perfect hiding place.

Suitcases in the loft

An oldy but a goodie. Suitcases in the loft always works well, especially if when they are opened contain books or beach towels to hide away the contents. By storing smaller suitcases inside larger ones there’s less chance for those larger boxes to be found. Also, you can pop a padlock on a suitcase.

Wedding dress boxes in the loft

Although this is very similar to the suitcase for hiding Christmas presents, this can be hidden really well when there are multiple boxes on top of the wedding dress box. I have large memory boxes for each of my girls in the loft and they are full of school books and old uniforms. There’s a few boxes up there now and it would be a real hassle to go through them looking for gifts.

In the garage

At this time of year – in freezing temperatures the garage or shed is the perfect hiding spot. If yours looks anything like mine (props piled high with randomness – just in case) it’s a bit like a Crystal Maze challenge to find ANYTHING in there, without boxes falling off shelves let alone a kid finding a gift. Always a safe bet.

The Christmas tree box.

Does your Christmas tree come out of box each year? We stash our empty storage boxes from the decorations and trees in the garage. There’s usually tons of bubble wrap and bags stuffed in them. Bingo! Perfectly messy hiding spot.

Behind books

Smaller Christmas gifts can be hidden behind books on a bookshelf. You could even get one of those boxes that looks like a book or two to really make them invisible.The kind that become part of the furniture after a few months.

Under the stairs

Another ‘total honesty’ moment. We keep all our ‘bags for life’ under the stairs along with anything that needs to go to the charity shop and a few light bulbs and tools. There’s definitely no room for a Harry Potter under our stairs. The deeper you go the harder it is to find anything in there. We have a LOT of bags! Lots of dark hiding nooks in there.

Laundry basket

Not just any laundry basket. Your kid’s! My girls do their own washing now but if I hid a gift inside a pillowcase and placed it at the bottom of their laundry bin when they were little there is no way they would EVER have found it. Like I said. Hide in plain sight.

Behind the bath panel

Oh, how I wish I had made our bath panel attach with magnets so I could access all that lovely secret, space underneath. Next bathroom renovation for sure!

In your office

And when I say office I mean the one where you don’t work from home. Maybe your partner’s office. Just an idea.

Filing cabinet marked TAX

Do you have a box marked insurance or tax? I’m pretty sure even partners would’t look in there! I don’t want to go in there and it’s my box! Perfect secret hiding spot

My favourite hiding place that they will NEVER look.

In Mr MT’s wardrobe. I’m serious. I just chuck everything behind his jumpers. I’ve been doing it for years and they’ve never found them. Why? Because it wouldn’t enter the girls minds that their dad has anything to do with their gifts… and they’d be right. Prime hiding spot.

I’ve really benefitted from this spot this year as last year some things were tucked so far in the back I missed them so I have a few extra gifts to give this year.

The Quality Street Tin trick

My youngest is studying ‘Food Science and Nutrition’ and each time she cooked/baked something large at school her teacher would give her a Quality Street tub to bring it home in. She was supposed to take them back but they seem to have stacked up. We keep them in the top of the “Tupperware” cupboard along with all the baking tins and random things we hardly use – food processor anyone?

This year I bought a tub of Quality Street early and put the full tub inside the stack of empty ones. Only myself and Mr MT knew it was there. To the kids it just looks like empty storage tins. We seem to have polished off a whole tub without them noticing. This was not my plan but it does feel sneaky having a chocolate or two with an evening cuppa without them noticing.

Next year I’m going to hide more gifts in there.

Places NOT to hide your Christmas gifts

As well as sharing great places to hide your gifts here’s a few where definitely not to.

In the car.

Thefts from cars is rife at this time of year. In fact one in every 229 people in London experienced stolen gifts from their car in 2022 acording to this news report. I remember back when my daughter was 10 one of her friends mum’s – a single mum, hid all her sons wrapped presents in the boot of her car. When she went to retrieve them on Christmas eve the car had been broken into and the Playstation, games and hundreds of pounds worth of gifts had been stolen. Gits!
Luckily, we had a Facebook group of school mums who could rally around to make sure her son had something to unwrap the next day.

And if they do find them…

Here’s a thought. What if they do find their gifts? Apart from the obvious – Santa’s not real thing, they now have the real anticipation that the present that is top of their list is coming in 5,4,3,2,1 days. Now, that is REAL excitement.

Still looking for gifts? It’s not too late to grab a great one from our gift guide. 

However you’re spending the holidays I hope you have a great one.