Ha! That kind of stuff is so fun to me.

Not sure this is what your looking for, but .... I have a cousin who upon graduating from college in the early 90's with a degree in engineering, decided he wanted to play poker for a living. It was the subject of many disapproving conversations among the family "elders". It only lasted for a few years, but to this day he gets at least one -- usually several -- "dogs playing poker" framed pictures for Christmas. He actually has a gallery of them in his home den. Wish I had a photo to post, 'cause it is a sight to see ...

I love this stuff.

When I was a kid, my mom took a label off a bird of paradise plant, and I put it back on. She took it off, threw it away, I found it, put it back. Tore it up - taped it together. Until she tossed it into the fireplace.

A few decades later I did the same thing with a friend and a picture of Ryan Seacrest. It went unnoticed, framed, in her home office through a move(!!!), but once it was found it became "an object in play". That picture was hidden (frame and all) back and forth between quite a few friends (our dear friend Emily Hurley being one), and remains in play to this day. Since then we've all added some stuff into the mix, and there's even an item here in the Houzz office that's hidden somewhere anytime someone finds it.

No, but this sounds like fun and I think I'll start one!

Add this bunny to the collection. How long till they notice!

I'm not sure this counts, but at my husband's company's Christmas party several years ago, one of the attendees brought his stuffed squirrel as his White Elephant gift. In succeeding years it was brought back by the previous year's recipient until my husband received it last year. When we moved this summer my husband told his friend he had lost the squirrel in the move. The poor man was hurt but tried not to show it. It was his very first hunting "trophy" as a young boy and had had it for over thirty years. My husband puts it in an inconspicuous spot and takes a picture which he texts to his friend on the pretext of showing him something interesting he saw while out working. His friend always texts back that he thinks he sees the squirrel, he KNOWS he sees the squirrel, he REALLY BELIEVE HE SEES THE SQUIRREL, to which my husband always responds, remember I lost it in the move! This year the squirrel goes back to the party as my husband's White Elephant gift. How he'll pull off making sure his friend gets his squirrel back is going to be tricky!

At a place I used to work, every so often a certain co-worker would buy a bouquet of fresh flowers and display them in reception in a vase. She worked very hard to make them last as long as possible. That in itself was a game. But it got better when, as the flowers began to die one at a time, when she wasn't looking, we would sneak in an identical fresh stem. She finally got suspicious when she counted back the number of days on the calendar since buying her bouquet, and couldn't believe that her fresh flowers had lasted over a month! She was always pranking the rest of us somehow, so this was sweet fun.

That is fantastic. I actually have a friend who received a container of Moolicious Hot Cocoa one Christmas and then proceeded to hide it in her parent's home. Every time the parents visit or they visit the parents, Moolicious is snuck back into the other house. They have never spoken about it or acknowledged that it is happening at all, but it keeps on going and it has been YEARS.

On one visit, she looked everywhere and thought she had escaped but then found it masking taped to the underside of the bed in her guest room. Kills me!

We have a friend that has a large room that is decorated with Dept 56 Christmas village. Her son bought a dozen pink flamingos and placed them randomly in her village. She was so mad she was pulling them out and throwing them away. He kept putting them in her village all night. She had about 100 people go through to tour. It is a very extensive collection.

A group of my friends has a watermelon tradition. We all go to a house in a remote town for a long weekend each summer, and various people try to sneak a watermelon into someone else's luggage or car so it won't be discovered until they get home. This has expanded to watermelon-flavored items like soda and candy, and decorative watermelon-themed items as well. The we take our watermelon and photograph it posed in various locations, and send it to the perpetrator.

It's not exactly a prank, but once when I was housesitting for a friend on vacation, I redecorated her boring white laundry room. I was inspired by a pretty wild room on HGTV; stripes and stamped flowers, but tastefully done in three shades of brown. Then I hung framed posters of Maxine, you know, the Hallmark curmudgeon with the little dog Floyd. I figured the worst that would happen is I'd have to repaint, but she loved it.

groveraxle ... I'm going on vacation next month ... care to house sit for me? ...

My Husband and I share the housework & laundry. Sometimes if we can't find the odd sock etc it gets left on the other persons side of the bed to sort of say "Have you seen the the matching sock?"
Most items usually find their partner or their rightful home without us even saying a word.
One lone sock has now become quite well travelled since we first got married. It was moved from his side of the bed and back again for a while. Since then it's been on the phone, computer desk, steering wheel, in suitcases, to board meetings, shopping, to weddings etc.
But we have never spoken about the one, we'll travelled sock.

I dunno, Brenda. Do you have dogs? I might be persuaded to sit for a couple of goofy, slobbery, fat happy dogs...

When we got married, I didn't know my husband's family or friends well. You can imagine how stunned I was to get a gray ceramic goose/swan vase with fish eyes for a wedding gift!! It was horrible. So we gave it to my brother in law when he got married. Then he gave it to his sister at her wedding. Then she gave it to our good friend (whose new wife was also horrified!). Then they gave it back to the original gift-givers on their anniversary. This took over 20 years! I later found that the goose was originally a real wedding gift to them - they had given it to us as a gag. And the gag continues, as it's making the rounds through the next generation!! The gray goose now has center stage in any house it gets to live in.

We have a bust of John Wayne that gets stolen during family visits. It's a game to find it in someone's house and then successfully steal it when you leave.

Several years ago, our neighbors took a clear plastic candy dish and found some wonderfully tacky ornaments to glue on including letters of our street. Then, at the block party, it was given as a trophy to the winners of the game (Trivial pursuit for the first year)

Hubby and I were on the winning team and we ended up with the trophy the following year so I got to do the game to find a new home for the travelling trophy. I had lots of fun asking questions about the neighborhood...like which garage has a car older than the house and which neighbor is a scuba diver. The fun thing is we all learn about each other...as it turns out, one of the other neighbors I don't know well is also a scuba diver.

This year we had our first block party in several years and, sure enough, the trophy reappeared and went to dwell in another house until the next party.

Back in the late 90's I had a little sign that said ,gone to wal - mart ...my mother went on a trip and took it with her taking picture with the sign at all her stop's . I never noticed it was even gone,funny I guess I I'd go there a lot back then

How did I miss this thread? This kind of stuff goes back to the 1950's and '60's, when my parents would have their boozy mad-men style parties. Mom would have the house looking perfect, and as she went to the door to wish her last guest good-bye, would discover that my Uncle Dee had decorated the front walkway with what were then those "gaudy new plastic flamingos."

Until dear Dee's death a few years ago, he and dad would each bring something awful to the others' home to display, and it was never acknowledged or spoken of during the visit. I remember passing a yard sale and my dad saying, "Stop the car! Stop the car!" and before I knew it, we were stuffing this massive maroon velvet and gold plastic framed thing into the trunk of my car, with a clock embedded in the center of the velvet flanked by two plastic gold and crystal sconces...and it hung on Dee's wall "unnoticed" the entire weekend.

Among my nuclear family was passed a "coconut man" that you'd find in your boxes or luggage any time you'd had a visit.

I have so much to add to this thread!

oh the fun my family members have with this old gals "ocd". everything just so, tweaked to the max, until someone giggles and moves it a hairsbreath off kilter....ah the agony! (the decorated christmas tree is a yearly blitkrieg) :)

One of my friends/co-workers had a digital picture frame in his cubicle. One of our mutual friends/co-workers who had moved away came by for one of his typical quick stops while driving in to visit the family at holidays. Friend #1 wasn't around so I took a picture of friend #2 sitting in his cubicle and we added the pic of him waving hello to the picture frame's playlist. Took a bit of time before he happened to glance at his frame while that new pic was showing, was a fun surprise tho, we had a good laugh about it.

Really enjoyed this thread! Your families are so much more fun than mine. But you have given me some good ideas.... :)

Too funny!

In honor of Halloween, I would like to revive this thread about pranking.

Love this. Our dog Riley has a chimp stuffed animal.
It shows up driving the car, on my pillow at night. It can't help but make us laugh. This reminded me to start it again!

beth, your post just reminded me of some people who took Elf on the Shelf to a whole new level:

http://www.alagraham.com/2011/12/kir-royale-and-little-elf-on-shelf-fun.html