'My dad got some good and fun petty Christmas revenge on my snooty aunt.'

"My dad's petty Christmas revenge story."

This happened many Christmas's ago, but still makes me laugh whenever I remember it and when this time of year rolls around. It's technically my dad's petty revenge on his older sister, but he's a technologically challenged older gentleman and has no idea that this page exists, so I am posting this on his behalf. For context, we live in the UK.

So my dad and his sister get along most of the time, but are ultimately very different people. Her and my uncle are wealthy, whereas my dad often struggles to make ends meet, even more so now that he is physically disabled. Even though he's had a harder life, my dad has always been an optimistic guy with a great sense of humour.

My aunt on the other hand, is very serious and her wealth has made her quite snooty and unable to relate to the hardships my dad deals with, which is a major point of contention between them. This always becomes more stark at Christmas time when my dad often can't afford to give gifts as lavish as hers and she acts very resentful of that.

One Christmas, my dad was looking for a gift to give my aunt and uncle, and found a pair of animatronic singing dogs in a charity shop. They were vintage, very silly and made my dad, sister and I laugh a lot. My dad knew my uncle would also find them hilarious, so he bought them as a gift for him and my aunt.

They were a hit at Christmas! We (my dad, his girlfriend, my sister and I) travelled down to my aunt's house for Christmas day and unveiled the dogs to much applause. My uncle laughed himself to tears, their cat tried to attack the dogs as they sang, which made everyone laugh harder, and we all had a great time.

My aunt, however, had a forced smile on her face the whole time and was mumbling something to herself about "not having anywhere to put them." For reference, her house is huge. Like, 6 bathrooms and a heated swimming pool, huge. There was plenty of space for the dogs. It was very obvious that she just loathed them with every fibre of her being.

When it was time for us to leave, my dad's girlfriend started packing our things into the car and we all said our goodbyes. Unbeknownst to us, my aunt had shoved the dogs into our car while my dad's girlfriend's back was turned.

We didn't realise they had come back with us until we were home. It put a dampener on our otherwise fun day. We were all a bit put out, except for my dad that is. He just laughed and rolled his eyes, clearly used to his sister's behaviour. My dad has always been a bit of a jokester, so he began to plan his petty revenge.

He found a fancy empty box that had once contained a posh, luxury brand of beauty products; something his girlfriend had received as a Christmas gift from a friend. He put the dogs inside it, along with a handwritten note. Then he packaged it up, wrote my aunt's address on it, and dropped it off at the post office.

We never knew how my aunt reacted to it, nor saw those singing dogs again, but my family and I all have a good chuckle whenever we imagine her reaction to opening what she thought was an expensive gift, only to see the dogs and read what my dad wrote:

"A dog is for life, not just for Christmas."

Here's what people had to say to OP:

G-Knit wrote:

Great story! Years ago when my now wife and I were dating, I crocheted a pair of simple curtains for my kitchen window. She didn't like them. After we married I took them down for her. I didn't care either way.

One of them got lost, but the next Christmas she found the other wrapped under the tree. It was so funny; we both had a good laugh. Guess what I got the following Christmas. This exchange went back and forth: Birthdays, Christmas, whatever. Then we forgot it for a few years.

The last was probably four or five years ago. We planned to go to Chicago to see her sister and two sons for something, her sister's birthday...I don't remember. So I mailed the curtain with a letter explaining the history and with instructions. We arrived and, after dinner, our nephews presented my wife with a small wrapped box as a gift. She opened it and pulled out a nice coffee cup, which she collects.

"Aw thank you this is nice I collect these I love it...", all the while the rest of us were trying not to laugh.

As she was removing the newspaper packing, what did she find?

"Oh Honey!" I said, "That will look great in the kitchen!"

I haven't laughed that hard since I can't remember. As I said, that was four or five years ago. I have since retained possession, storing it in my closet. Doubtful the curtain will make an appearance for Christmas '25, but it is about time to revisit this.

OP responded:

Aww I love that! Thank you for sharing. My aunt unfortunately doesn’t have the same sense of humour as my dad, otherwise we might have had a similar back and forth with the dogs haha.

random321abc wrote:

I have to admit when I got to the bottom and I read how he mailed that back to her in the box, I was rolling my eyes like, "oh, typical!"

But then the note that said a dog is for life not just for Christmas made me absolutely crack up!

OP responded:

Glad it made you laugh! I don't know how many people will know the "a dog is for life" slogan if they're not from the UK or familiar with the Dog's Trust charity, but regardless I'm happy to spread the Christmas cheer!

moose8617 wrote:

My husband's grandmother, for our wedding, gave us a box set of Irish Owls. I know you're asking yourself, what the hell is a box set of Irish Owls. Well let me tell you that they are a series of, ever-increasing in size, wood owls in various "Plastic Paddy" outfits. They are wearing rainbows, four leaf clovers, or leprechaun hats.

Very much...not our style. We laughed until we cried when we opened it up. We ended up donating most of them, but kept one small leprechaun-looking owl. And proceeded to hide it somewhere in my brother and SIL's house. It took them MONTHS to find it.

They, in turn, hid it in my parents house. It has, as of now, made the rounds several times (we got married 8 years ago, so 8 years of hiding this stupid owl). Most recently, we found it on our screened porch behind a bamboo curtain after we had a house warming for our new house.

pissedliberalgranny wrote:

Reminds me of my cousins and their petty revenge turned long standing sister tradition. For background neither my cousins are on good terms with their mother. For valid reasons. One year for Christmas the younger sister bought big sis a small teddy bear holding a mirror and wearing a red tshirt that said, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, I am my mother after all.”

Oh, the game was on! Big sister turned around and gave it to little sister on her birthday. Who then gave it back to big sister on HER birthday. It has been making the rounds every birthday and Christmas for more than 40 years now! 😂😂😂

OP responded:

That's amazing that they've kept it going for over 40 years hahaha!

equivalentbeach2377 wrote:

My best friends and I all have been passing back and forth (between 4 of us) a pretty tacky Christmas tree ornament. I started this about 10 years ago and the idea is that you have to hide it in whoever's house we're visiting or luggage when we do a girls trip and try to avoid them finding it until you're long gone & whoever is stuck with it on Christmas has to send a picture of it hanging on their tree.

There have been trips where all of us have had it in our possession more than once. I have gone as far as driving 2+ hours out of my way to hide it in the grill on the back porch right before Christmas! Totally worth it to have it not hanging on my tree and to get the call when she found it!!! (Which ended up being a couple of weeks later!

Anyway, we've been doing this for years and whenever we do a girls trip the craziness that ensues between all of us hiding it and checking our stuff to make sure we don't get stuck with it is so much fun! Maybe you could do that with the dogs and the fun people in your family!