Parents reveal the best places to hide Christmas presents from the kids

Hiding away that all important Christmas gift From nibbling carrots, to leaving snowy boot prints through the hallway, Christmas Eve is often an evening spent quietly hot footing it around the house playing Santa, unearthing the kid’s hidden presents. But how many times have you forgotten where you’ve stashed the stocking fillers whilst tip-toeing around the house or spent an age trying to retrieve gifts from the unlikeliest of places? With research showing that 44 per cent of parents wait until after 11pm to go into Santa mode and a further 70 per cent getting fewer than six hours sleep ahead of the big day, bed specialist Time4Sleep has shared the best spots to hide your gifts and rounded up case studies of parents sharing their tried and tested methods... Best spots to hide your gifts 1. Loft/Basement 2. Garden shed 3. Neighbour’s house 4. Spare suitcases 5. Shoe boxes 6. Handbags 7. Storage beds 8. Back of the wardrobe 9. Out of reach cupboard 10. Inside shoes Tales of present hiding at its finest Alice Thompson shares her story of hiding presents in her two bedroom flat: “ Our flat had limited storage and zero loft space! Therefore, we had to get extremely creative and pretty much anywhere was fair game when it came to present hiding. Stocking filler gifts were stashed in wellies and shoe boxes… We even went to the extreme of removing the back of our wardrobe and stashing wrapped gifts behind it!” “Being slightly sleep deprived from retrieving these gifts on Christmas Eve, we ended up forgetting about some of the hiding places until our little girl was already up and opening presents, meaning we had to perform a bit of distraction magic to get them under the tree without her noticing.” My best places to hide presents Sarah Pearson, mum of two, went to a new level of sneaky to make sure her kids didn't find their Christmas presents, she said: "When they were old enough, both of my children loved rummaging through cupboards and boxes to find something new to play with, as most kids do, so we knew we would have to be smart when it came to hiding Christmas presents. "We didn't have space under our beds or a cupboard out of reach so we had to think of something different. Luckily our next door neighbours are more like family to us and with their children having grown up and moved out, they were more than happy to let us store the presents in the loft and wrap the presents in their house. "This meant that we didn't have to constantly be on watch to make sure they didn't spot anything and avoided waking them up to access our own loft. On Christmas Eve we would collect the presents from our neighbours house, arrange them in the living room and head back to bed - the kids never found out and couldn't believe what we'd been doing when we finally told them!" Presents hidden in suitcases Katie Peters reveals her hack of hiding presents in suitcases: “We pretty much all have suitcases in our loft or cupboards taking up space so we decided to put them to good use to hide our four year old’s presents as we knew he wouldn’t ever think about the cases. We then told our friends about the hack and they took it to another level, putting a lock on the case for extra security. Genius.” Little white lie Jane Roberts from South Manchester shares how a little white lie helped her hide presents, she said: "We could only find space to hide Christmas presents in the wardrobe of our second bedroom so we had no choice but to tell our daughter where they were as she would no doubt find them herself or see us store them away at some point. But to keep her from taking a sneaky peek we did tell her a little white lie… "To try and make sure she wouldn't completely ruin the surprise on Christmas Day, we told her that the wardrobe was booby trapped. We honestly didn't think this tactic would work but she never chanced taking a look and now at 23 she says she genuinely bought it, she even reminded me that we also said the wardrobe had cameras inside so we would know if anyone went snuck in - sometimes you have to be inventive!" Common spots to hide gifts Tom Hemingway, dad of two, revealed how sticking to ordinary hiding spots can work, he said: "I think our kids are more aware of the lesser known places to hide Christmas presents thanks to films and TV shows so we tend to stick to the more common spots to hide gifts. "The main place we use to stow presents is our storage bed, the kids know that we just store spare bedding and towels there and it's difficult for them to access anyway so they don't bother. With space for larger items that would be difficult to hide elsewhere, it's a great option for us. "We also utilise a suitcase that's in our room that they're used to seeing stored with another suitcase inside, so again they wouldn't think to check - admittedly they're not very inventive but these tactics have worked well so far!" Handy tip Jonathan Warren, bed specialist and director at Time4Sleep, said: “It can be difficult to find enough space around the house to store Christmas presents as well as other seasonal items that need to be set aside throughout the year like decorations and clothing. “With plenty of room to store everyday items like extra bedding as well as Christmas gifts of every size, consider a storage or ottoman bed as a discreet option to conceal your belongings from the peeking eyes of children as well as guests.”