Our family is on day 6 of a seriously annoying anonymous 12 days of Christmas attack. I did not tell them to stop because I liked the advice of the RfMer who said "Take the presents and ignore them. It will mess with their minds that the show of friendship didn't make you want to come back to church." Other than one small, rather fun, Christmas ornament on the first day, pretty much everything else has been cheap candy items from the dollar store, which I've just thrown away. One day they brought cupcakes though and it occurred to me - if I don't know who made these, how do I know they aren't gross, dirty or full of crap ala The Help? The guy down the street doesn't like us much since we had the police come and drag him off our property when he passed out drunk, walking home from a party at Thanksgiving. What if he's dropping stuff off out of revenge? I don't know.

Here's the creepy thing though. I've been trying to catch the person, w/o a video camera which I really need to set up. I realized they must be putting stuff on our doorknob in the evening, since it's already hanging there when I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Last night, DD had a huge assignment due and our lights didn't go off until 12:30 p.m. I checked the door - no bag of cheap candy. I figured they gave up on us, being up so late, and would drop it off early in the morning. But when I got up at 3:20 a.m. I decided to look and sure enough - the bag was there. Someone was up in the middle of the night, watching our house to see if we are asleep. It's such a Mormon thing to do and we do have at least three families, capable of such a stunt, living close enough that driving something over wouldn't be a huge deal. But still - between 12:30 a.m. and 3:20 a.m.? Ick!!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2013 04:52PM by CA girl.

Dear Lord,do these people have nothing better to do!

And surely they're contradicting the word of wisdom with all that candy,tut tut...


Have you not been out of the cult for some time now?



You should nail a cross to the door or some other Mormon repellent...

There it is - they love bomb you and now the bishop is summoning you because they want something from you.

There is always a catch with Mormon gifts,never anything good.

BTW, the word GIFT means POISON in German.

I hate that I did one of these once. When I was in YW we got a 12-piece nativity set for each of the inactive girls in our ward. We wrapped each of the pieces separately and left one piece on their porch each night for 12 nights. So the first night they got a sheep, the next night a wise man, etc.

We planned it so that it would end on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day, and that the last piece was baby Jesus. But then when Christmas Eve rolled around, we didn't deliver the last piece. Christmas Eve there was no present on their step, and Christmas Day there was no present on their step. We waited until the day after Christmas to leave the baby Jesus figure with a note saying something about how Christmas just isn't the same without Jesus, and didn't they miss having him there that year, and wouldn't they love to return to church so they can have Jesus year-round?

Ugh. Thinking about it now just makes me sick and ashamed. What a horribly passive-aggressive dick move to pull on some kids at Christmastime.

Wow - I suddenly feel better about my dollar candy with attached scripture. If someone gave me that manger scene, I'd have gotten the nerve to say something rude. Sometimes I'm too nice to people with good intentions and bad outcomes.

I am cracking up with laughter. That is sooo Mormon and horrible.

+1

Judyblue, who came up with that idea? The YW's president? The bishop? I like that the first gift was a sheep.

CAgirl, they really just don't want to let you go. You are a patient woman. All that passive-aggressive fellowship-lovin' would irritate me so much that I'd sit in the dark and wait for them to deliver the gift. Then I'd insist they come in and chat and chat...and chat...and chat. So many Mormons who do these secret projects do not want the burden of face-to-face interaction. After a few hours when I finally let them leave, I'd tell them I was looking forward to the rest of our middle-of-the-night chats until the 12 dollar-store-days-of-Christmas extravaganza came to its inevitable end.

I think it was the YW presidency, but it was half a lifetime ago so don't quote me on that.

Yikes, poor people. But your story did just make me laugh a little.

judyblue Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I hate that I did one of these once. When I was in
> YW we got a 12-piece nativity set for each of the
> inactive girls in our ward. We wrapped each of the
> pieces separately and left one piece on their
> porch each night for 12 nights. So the first night
> they got a sheep, the next night a wise man, etc.
>
> We planned it so that it would end on Christmas
> Eve instead of Christmas Day, and that the last
> piece was baby Jesus. But then when Christmas Eve
> rolled around, we didn't deliver the last piece.
> Christmas Eve there was no present on their step,
> and Christmas Day there was no present on their
> step. We waited until the day after Christmas to
> leave the baby Jesus figure with a note saying
> something about how Christmas just isn't the same
> without Jesus, and didn't they miss having him
> there that year, and wouldn't they love to return
> to church so they can have Jesus year-round?
>
> Ugh. Thinking about it now just makes me sick and
> ashamed. What a horribly passive-aggressive dick
> move to pull on some kids at Christmastime.

I would have chopped the first animal in half and wrapped it up in two packages with a note that it was for the secret santa. Imagine if they unwrapped it and found half a sheep! THAT would have put a stop to it. Only satan would do such a thing.

my inlaws did this too. got my kids 12 presents for every day until christmas. and it is all dollar store crap that breaks in five minutes and makes the kids cry or i have to take it away because it involves markers, or it is sticky candy. one more thing to make the holidays stressful. not to mention the fact that the 12 days of christmas does not in fact start until christmas, and goes to epiphany. its sad how ignorant mormons are about other churches. they won't make the effort to learn because all other churches are beneath them.

Is this a Mormon-thing because my inlaws do that too. 12 days of Christmas every year & its always cheap stuff that breaks and ends up in the trash.

I would relax and not worry so much. It's not a big deal, and maybe somebody else's idea of Holiday fun is not yours. You should go read "A Christmas Carol".

Do you have small kids. We did this for some of my kid's friends when they were about 4 or 5. They were not mormons and we did not do anything related to Church stuff. We lived far far from Utah. It took a couple of years but one friend figured out that it was us, and she told us how much her kids loved it, so relax a bit.

Please look up love bombing and learn that this kind of unwanted attention is actually quite harmful. It doesn't sound like this is being done by an actual loved one, but the OP has instead been turned into a ward project.

Would you tell someone who's being stalked that they should be flattered and just relax and not worry about it and to read a book? Do you tell your kids to eat candy from strangers and unknown sources? Because that's what you've just done here.

I think you're saying those who like anonymous cheap religious comeons dumped on their porch are better people than those who don't.

That's a ridiculous conclusion if that's your point.

First of all, just in case no one taught you this, you don't tell someone else to relax - it's patronizing and rather rude.

Second, do you honestly expect me to believe that if someone were watching your house late at night (i.e. after midnight) waiting for your lights to go out, that wouldn't freak you out a bit? Because if it wouldn't, that makes you pretty weird.

Third, blanket statements like "looking for the bad in everybody" are childish and provoking. Commenting on the one creepy weirdo stalking my house after midnight - not commenting on the human race. Why do you hate everyone on RfM who has problems with love-bombing because you disagree with me?

Fourth, my guess is that you are being super touchy because you did this to someone. In your case, because there were little kids involved and, I'm guessing, they were pretty close friends, it worked out OK. But my kids are teenagers, there are scriptures attached to each gift and the sugar gifts are entirely inappropriate since half my family can't tolerate sugar well. Anyone who knew us well enough to pull a stunt like this would know that. So this must be a relative stranger and most people know not to take candy from strangers. Especially strangers casing your house after midnight

Weird but probably harmless. Have you thought of installing a floodlight with a motion sensor on your front porch?

that will bug Creepy Person but not you.

I'd put up a sign that read, "I've called the police, and they dusted for fingerprints. Ho! Ho! Ho!"

LOL. that would be funny.

You mean that you didn't feel the spirit and immediately want to return to TSCC. I just don't understand why not.

I'm making a comic about this. So hilarious.

Why not just leave the crap still sitting on your doorstep. Maybe sitting in a paper bag, where then can see it when they try to drop off the next night's "gift"

I thought about that but all of the most likely families have small children and I could just imagine those kids feeling crushed at still seeing the gift on my porch. Stuff like this is why my husband thinks I'm too sweet sometimes. But only sometimes. :)

Of course if they are delivering it after midnight, that's probably not an issue.

Good idea. Put a trash can on the front porch. Put a sign on it telling them to leave their 12 days stuff in the trash can.

I also, honestly thought I'd figure out who it was by now and was planning to leave an anonymous gift basket with rum balls or mocha cookies or something like that on their doorstep. Which would be particularly funny if they couldn't taste the rum or the coffee and (if it's the family I think it is) would crack me up the next time they bragged about having never even tasted Pepsi, much less anything worse.

This is just crazy. I'd be tempted to put a box on my doorstep with all of the "gifts" that have been previously left for this person to see. Maybe add a note, in very large letters, saying you don't want these gifts and to stop.

How about this. Collect all the gifts, put them in a bag, and leave the bag on the church's door.

I was also thinking, motion sensor lights. The person sneaks up in the dark and flood lights go on.

Being up that last is not weird (as least to me, the nightowl). But delivering things to people who don't want them in the middle of the night is creepy and a waste of time.
CA girl's idea is good. If you are in Utah, go one better. Take a mini-bottle of vodka or whiskey to the Mo houses with a candy cane tied to it with a pretty red/green bow, looking all festive. Do it in the middle of the morning say 10 am. Make a statement that you are NOT hiding your gifts. Why they feel a need to hide cheap toys and cookies is beyond me.
Around my neighborhood, they'd be in trouble with Animal Control because food outside at night attracts bears and mountain lions, raccoons, skunks etc. They'd be issued a ticket to stop doing that.
That's why the mini-bottle of booze is good. It is sealed and won't attract animals.

I usually stay up late too but I'm not monitoring other peoples' homes. That mini-vodka bottle idea is a good one - I didn't think of that. Or maybe a gift bag with beer bread mix and the beer to make it.

The sad things is this family doing the Santa gifts has no idea how creepy their actions are. Instead, they're probably invisioning being the subject of a story in the Ensign: "The Christmas We Loved Our Neighbors Back to Activity."

It's easy to assume they mean well or that little kiddies are involved and would be sad that the junk is being tossed in the garbage. However, doing nothing gives the love bombers free rein to write their own scenario about how excited and grateful a family is when bombers creep up on the porch in the dark, leave worthless trash, and run away cackling into the night.

Mormons are driven by their brainwashing. Most likely when dealing with them, they are being devious, manipulative, judgmental or a combination of all three.

Little kiddies and nice old dupes never learn if they're protected from knowing that their words or actions are annoying or hurtful.

Cheryl, this is what my husband says. That I have to stop being so soft-hearted about hurting peoples' feelings when those same people aren't thinking much about my feelings. Which is kinda funny because my husband gives people way too much leeway for their "good intentions" which is almost the same thing, IMO.

Well. I think it is totally worthwhile to stay up that late and wait for them.

I would turn off all the lights as if I was going to bed and then sit vigil near a window until they showed up. You know it's between 1-3 am -ish, so you won't be up all night. The minute they get to the doorstep, whip the door open and yell, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!"

Invite them in and offer them some hot coffee or a nightcap cocktail and I guarantee, you will have scared the pants off your mystery "guest."

If you care about me enough to deliver a Christmas gift, you can damn well knock on the door in broad daylight like a normal person. Preferably after a heads-up "are you home?" phone call.

Final Note: My stepmonster once made candy buckeyes and stuck them in an empty checkbook box, which was packed into a larger box of holiday gifts for me. Mailman left it on my front porch, as mailmen do. By the time I got home from work that afternoon, fire ants had found that thing and had gotten into the candy. Aaaaand everything else. I had to open all my now-booby-trapped fire ant-infested gifts in the front yard, carefully, shaking and picking off fire ants as I went.

Never, ever leave sweets at the front door of someone who lives in Florida. You might as well just lay down a big platter of Ant Food.