Table Presents

Table Presents is a family tradition that I married into when I shacked up with Hilary. I'm not 100% sure of the origin of the tradition but I'm guessing that it started for someone's birthday in an attempt to keep the non-birthday sibling happy with the idea that they weren't the one getting all the prettily wrapped boxes. Me, I was an only child so ALL the boxes were ALWAYS mine. Funny, I still don't share well......

Somewhere along the line Table Presents went from a birthday dinner tradition to a tradition for any occasion that involves a big family meal. In our household that includes Birthdays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Dinner, Easter, Thanskgiving and Anniversaries. We are all about giving (and getting!) presents as often as possible.

The trick with table presents is that they aren't "real" presents. They are usually fun little things, like the Thumb Wrestling Ring.

Other presents of note over the years have been a banana guard (which was very fun to wrap), bacon flavoured mints and magnetic cars that climb the fridge.

The banana guard

For me, they are a lot of fun to shop for and I am always keeping an eye out for that perfect gift. You really have to know the recipient well to pull off a great table present present. Lame fall backs from the last minute shoppers include candy and booze. Both great presents, but not in the right spirit for a table present. Unless it's a specialty item like Peeps at Easter (my FAVORITE Easter treat that my Grandpa used to buy me that we could not get in Canada for many years)

It's a tradition that Hilary and I have celebrated for nearly 15 years. It is one that Liam now enjoys and one that we have shared with my family and all of our friends that we share big family dinners with.

Do you have any neat traditions that you want to share?