Best places to hide Christmas presents in your home

Best places to hide Christmas presents in your home

When it’s time for the spread of Christmas cheer, families also have to balance the stress of making sure their presents are well-hidden. Whether you’re a grandparent, uncle, friend or parent, you need to make sure no surprises are ruined. So that’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best places to hide Christmas presents in your home to keep the magic of the season alive. 

1. In a suitcase

Typically stored well away in a spare room, attic, or high on top of a wardrobe, the suitcase definitely makes the top of the list for Christmas present hiding places. You can rest easily knowing your special gifts are kept secured as you can even lock the suitcase up with padlocks. Then all you need to do is have a good hiding place for the key and remember it, or if it’s a combination padlock, have the combination stored on your notes on your phone (that’s password-protected). Talk about festive espionage. 

2. Under the bed

When hiding gifts under the bed, it’s less of a slide-and-forget and more of a disguise-and-secure situation. And obviously, it only works for certain presents, which are smaller in size. If you have storage boxes, use them, and disguise the presents amongst miscellaneous items.

3. Hard-to-reach cupboards, shelves and drawers

Keep the little ones from snooping and use high cupboards, shelves and drawers to hide gifts. Make sure they are clean first, and use ones that aren’t going to ruin your gifts, i.e. squash them. Make sure everyone apart from the giftee(s) knows they’re in there to be extra careful.  

4. At a friend or relative’s house

If you have trustworthy friends and family, then consider using their homes to store your presents, especially large ones, such as a doll’s house or rocking horse. Or if you have a large family and are struggling for hiding places and space in general, then ask other relatives and friends for a helping hand. 

5. The attic

A perfect hiding place, the attic is rarely visited and pretty much only ever used for storage. Choose a day when you know everyone will be out of the house for you to get your presents up there safely if you’re having to go up and down a ladder. If you’ve got the time, have them wrapped first, but if you’re struggling with time, get them up there out of the way. 

6. The cellar

Not just for wine, the cellar can be used to keep prying eyes away from gifts in the run-up to Christmas. And especially if the gifts are for children, the chances are the cellar is off bounds and they wouldn’t want to go down anyway - too spooky. 

7. In the wardrobe

If you have smaller items to hide, the wardrobe is perfect as you can wrap them in the clothes that you may have folded up at the bottom or use the top shelf inside it. You could hide even smaller items in your pockets. Again, wrap them up first just in case someone wants to go routing.  

8. The garage or shed

If you’re the main user of the garage and shed, then definitely use it to store your gifts. But if your garage and shed are quite dirty, be extra careful and try to do a thorough clean beforehand to avoid any dirt marks on the wrapping paper or presents. Put the gifts in a plastic box too to add that extra hidden layer. And make sure your garage door is secure.  

9. Your vehicle

Your vehicle boot is another brilliant hiding place for gifts when you’re struggling for space inside the house. It should be a temporary hiding place ideally, as you don’t want to be driving around with gifts moving around or increasing the chances of someone finding them when accessing the boot. When you’ve come home after buying some presents, and you can’t take them in yet, leave them in the boot. Remember to lock your vehicle! 

Where can you hide big Christmas presents?

Maybe you’ve gone all out this year and splurged on some extra big gifts. This is where you may need help from friends and family, unless you have space in the garage and you can keep it locked up. Alternatively, if you are struggling to trust any relatives or friends to look after any luxury, large items, you could temporarily invest in a seasonal storage unit. 

Keeping your presents and valuables safe

Hiding your presents from who they’re intended for is one thing, but you also need to factor in hiding from potential burglars. Here are some tips you can put in place to help keep your Christmas presents secure from outside prying eyes. 

Monitor and supervise

Wherever you are keeping presents hidden - whether it’s the garage or wardrobe - have more peace of mind with outdoor security cameras and indoor security cameras to keep a watch over your home and its perimeters. You can also benefit from a monitored alarm system, so wherever you are, you can rely on security specialists to dispatch police on your behalf, if need be. 

Motion detection

Use alarm sensors to add layers of protection to your home by detecting motion. A smart motion sensor can work by only detecting the unique heat signature of humans, so your furry family members won’t trigger any false alarms. 

Marking items

Get into the habit of marking your items, especially expensive valuables. TVs, laptops, computers, mobiles, game consoles etc. Items can be marked with a special solution that’s only visible under Ultraviolet (UV) light. The Met Police say you should mark or etch your items with your house or flat number and postcode. Marking makes it harder for burglars to then sell on and makes it easier to retrieve items if the police come across any that match your description.   

Neighbourhood watch and staying vigilant

If you aren’t under a neighbourhood watch scheme already, you may want to consider setting one up. If you don’t really speak to your neighbours or rarely see one another, it’s never too late to strike up a conversation. And by bringing up a neighbourhood watch, it’s the perfect excuse. Read up on how to be a good neighbour and then start a conversation. Invite people to a WhatsApp group or email thread to discuss any concerns or ideas. The more vigilant and communicative a neighbourhood and community is, the better investigations will go if anything does happen. You can share each others’ camera footage in case you have picked up anything, like a trespasser or getaway car. 

Keeping your presents pet-safe

Don’t forget about hiding your presents from your furry family members. You may have found the perfect hiding place to keep a gift away from a partner, but is it prime for your pet to get its paws into? Cats can get pretty much anywhere, so depending on how trustworthy they are, you may need to lock some things away in a vehicle, garage, shed or friend’s or relative’s house. 

Using your home security system as a Santa Cam

Why not turn your home security into a Santa cam? You could bring more joy in the build-up to the festive day by saying Santa and his elves are watching over and looking out for snoopers. Then of course on the big day, the family may want to gather around to see if the cameras caught Santa at any point.  

Speak to the SimpliSafe’s little helpers today to see how a smart security system could work for your household.