A mum said her ‘blood went cold’ when she realised what had happened with her son’s Christmas present just two days before the big day – and it was his main present
A mum has issued a warning to other parents ahead of Christmas, as they may already be considering ordering their child’s “hero present”. Gem, who posts on TikTok as @the_organised_mum, shared her “cautionary tale,” highlighting what could happen if you did what she did one year, when she almost caused a “Christmas nightmare”.
Gem said if you have “any believers in earshot,” it’s best not to watch her video in front of them, and to “save it for later”. She then continued: “If you’re following organised Christmas [her method of being ahead of the game for the festive season] then you’ll know that this week we’ve done budget, and we’ve started to buy presents”.
Gem explained that one year, on the 23rd December, she had a “nightmare” with her son’s Christmas present, which left her horrified.
She said: “So we bought a present for Ben, his main present. It was the hero present of the year. We had ordered it weeks ago, it had arrived.
“Mike, I’m not blaming Mike, took the parcel in, didn’t think to unwrap it and check it… you know where I’m going. Very often for hero presents, we will set them up so on Christmas morning you’re not having to like, faff around and get batteries and set up all the tech”.
Gem shared that this year, it was a “tech present” they’d purchased for their son, so they hadn’t wrapped it “with the intention of setting it all up on Christmas Eve” so it was ready for him to play with.
However, on December 23, Mike phoned her when she was out walking the dogs, and she heard “panic” in his voice.
Turns out that the seller had actually sent a box “full of dog biscuits,” rather than the device they were expecting.
“When I say our blood ran cold, I ran back, we were like ‘Where are we gonna find this device from on the 23rd of December?’ He asked Father Christmas for it, he’s convinced he’s getting it,” she explained.
“Luckily,” they managed to find the same item, but they had to “drive” a decent amount of time for it; but Christmas had been “saved”.
She urged people to “just check” their presents, and not to just assume everything is okay.
In the comments, another mum wrote: “I would also add, don’t take a believer to see Santa close to Christmas. My son asked Santa for a pogo stick on Christmas Eve… Had he written it on his list, no! Had it mentioned wanting one even once, no!
“But when meeting the Santa in his grotto, he said all he wanted was a pogo stick. Luckily, we sorted it and he still talks about how awesome Santa was for sorting it at short notice”.
A distraught mum said: “We had bought our daughter a Barbie dream house, it got delivered to the house not in an external box but in the Barbie box with a postal sticker on it… she saw it as soon as we got home from school”.
Some asked about what happened with the company they purchased the item from, and Gem said: “We let the company know, they reimbursed us, and I assume they followed up”.
