These Christmas themed funny money gift wrapping ideas prove that a gift does not need hours of effort to get the biggest reaction of the whole holiday. These low effort DIY ideas don’t require origami skills or a crash course in paper crafting. Simple yet extremely enjoyable. You will love these.
Cash is already the gift everyone secretly wants, but handing it over in a plain envelope is about as forgettable as a gift card nobody asked for. But these ideas are so out of the box and unique that they are bound to leave an impression on the recipient.
They will forget how much they got long before they forget how they got it.
I also wanted to include a way to bring the whole family in on this. Especially, if your family already pools cash together for one big gift. Tihis time lets skip the awkward moment of everyone standing around while one envelope gets passed over. Make it a little game instead. The game is what will make the giving part just as fun as the receiving part.
Most of these ideas work across every age group too, you just adjust the details a little. For a kid, swap the handwritten note for something they will actually get excited about, something like the reindeer left this just for you, instead of a joke about being broke or grown up things they will not get yet.
For teenagers and adults, you can go full on with the humor, the puns, the slightly ridiculous packaging, all of it.
Whether you are wrapping cash for a coworker, a kid, or the person in your family who insists they do not want anything, one of these ideas is going to get a real reaction instead of a polite thank you.
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A Hilarious Santa Sack Balloon Money Gift for Christmas
This one starts with a printed picture of Santa walking away with a sack over his shoulder, and for the recipient, it ends with that sack full of real cash.
The trick is swapping his painted sack for an actual balloon, so it looks like it is bursting right out of the picture.
I loved this one enough to paint my own version, so you can grab the exact Santa image I used as a free download below instead of hunting one down yourself.
However you fill the balloon, this is the kind of gift that gets quite a reaction even befor it is opened because nobody can quite believe what they are looking at.
What you will need
- A printed picture of Santa carrying a sack, download mine below or use any similar image you like.
- An empty pictureframe, preferebly one without the glass cover
- One large red balloon.
- Cash to gift.
- Glue or tape.
- Cotton balls or a small fillable plastic ornament, depending on which stuffing method you choose.
How to make it
Print your Santa image and set it flat to work on inside the empty pictureframe. Ater that, pick whichever stuffing method feels easiest.
The simplest option is to blow up the balloon, tuck the rolled cash inside, tie it off, and glue or tape it directly onto the picture where the sack should sit, letting it spill slightly past the edge of the printed page.
If you want the balloon to hold its shape a little better and be easier to stick down flat, use a small fillable plastic ornament instead, the kind that pops open in the middle. Tuck the rolled cash inside the ornament, snap it shut, then slide it inside the balloon before you blow it up. The ornament gives the balloon a solid center to hold onto, which makes gluing it against the picture much easier.
The third option is to stuff the balloon with cotton balls along with the rolled cash before tying it off. The cotton fills out any gaps so the balloon looks rounder and fuller instead of lopsided.
Whichever method you pick, glue or tape the balloon directly onto the back of the picture with nothing visible holding it there, no string, no ribbon, just the balloon sitting right where the sack should be.
A Funny Reindeer Money Gift Idea for the Holidays
This one with a tired looking reindeer is what makes it so funny, like he really did haul this thing all the way here.
All you need is a small chariot or cart as a base, a burlap sack, and a printed reindeer to prop up behind it.
I went with an oversized sack for mine, since a huge sack next to an exhausted reindeer just makes the whole scene funnier, but any size will work. This one owill have everyone at the table laughing, the kids and teenagers included.
What you will need
- A small chariot, cart, or wagon to use as the base.
- Cotton balls, pulled apart and spread loosely across the base to look like scattered snow.
- A burlap sack, any size you like.
- Cash to gift.
- A red and green checkered ribbon.
- Thick golden cord or string.
- A printed reindeer picture.
- A handwritten note card with a funny message.
How to make it
Start with your chariot or cart base and spread pulled apart cotton balls across it so it looks like fresh scattered snow rather than flat cotton.
Set the burlap sack on top, filled with the rolled cash, and tie it closed at the top with a red and green checkered ribbon.
Tuck a handwritten note into the ribbon with something funny written on it, we used “Toys were sold out. Dough was still in stock.”
On one side of the base, lay a length of thick golden cord loosely across the snow with one end still tied to the chariot, like the reindeer just stepped out of it.
Finish by propping your printed reindeer picture upright behind the sack so it looks like he is the one who pulled it all the way here.
A Hilarious Nutcracker Money Gift for a Funny Christmas Surprise
This one pairs a classic nutcracker figure with a giant nut of his own to guard, and it works whether you want a five minute version or a proper craft project.
The nutcracker itself can be one you already have as decor, standing watch beside a nut that is clearly way too big to be real. I went the full papier mache route for mine, but there is a much faster shortcut if you would rather skip the mess.
Either way, propping a tiny soldier next to an oversized nut stuffed with cash is funny enough on its own that people will want a closer look before they even open it.
What you will need for the quick option
- A nutcracker figure.
- A plastic fillable container, something egg or ball shaped that opens in the middle.
- Brown paint.
- Cash.
- A handful of small chocolate balls.
What you will need for the full craft version
- A nutcracker figure.
- A large balloon.
- Glue and strips of plain paper or newspaper.
- Brown and darker brown paint.
- Cash.
- A handful of small chocolate balls.
How to make the quick option
Paint your plastic container brown, adding a few darker stripe lines across it once it dries.
That way it looks like the shell of a nut rather than a plain ball.
Fill it with rolled cash and a handful of chocolate balls, then snap it closed and stand your nutcracker figure right beside it.
How to make the full craft version
Blow up the balloon to about the size you want the finished nut to be.
Cover it in layers of glue and torn paper strips, building up several coats until it feels sturdy, then let it dry completely.
Once it has hardened, pop the balloon and pull it out from inside, leaving the paper shell behind.
Paint the shell brown, then add darker stripe lines to give it that ridged walnut look.
Cut a lid shape into the top, fill the inside with rolled cash and a handful of chocolate balls, then glue the lid back into place so it looks sealed shut.
Set it beside your nutcracker figure to finish the scene.
A Funny Money Gift Book for the Holiday Season
This is one of my favorite ideas because a plain notebook will instantly become a whole string of surprises instead of just one.
A spiral notebook works best here, since the binding flexes enough to stay closed even once you start taping cash and gift cards onto the pages.
Any size works, and you can dress up the cover or just use it plain, it looks just as good either way.
For mine, I painted a little watercolor money tree and glued it to the cover with the line “They said money doesn’t grow on trees. This year, it did,” but a plain cover will work just as well if you want to keep it simple.
What you will need
- A spiral notebook, any size.
- Cash and small gift cards.
- Clear cellophane sleeves for the cash.
- Tape or glue.
- Blank labels or sticker paper if you want printed pages, or just a pen for handwritten ones.
How to make it
Start with a plain spiral notebook. If you want a designed cover, print one to fit and glue it on, adding the recipient’s name for a personal touch.
A plain cover works fine too if you would rather skip that step.
For each page, write or print a short line about what the money is for.
Fold each bill and slide it into a small cellophane sleeve, then tape it to the page just below the label.
This is the part where you make it specific to the person you are gifting it to. Swap Sephora for wherever they actually shop. Swap gas money for a train pass or a monthly bus ticket if that fits them better. Swap ice cream for a movie ticket, a Steam card, or an iTunes card if you are gifting a teenager.
The funnier and more specific the labels, the better this works.
Think about what they always complain about needing money for, then write the label around that joke.
A Hilarious Family Christmas Money Game Everyone Will Love
This idea works best when the whole family is chipping in on one big money gift together. Instead of just handing over a stack of envelopes, set it up as a game the recipient has to earn their way through.
Everyone gets involved in making it, and the recipient walks away with an experience they will talk about for years, not just a pile of cash. There really is not a funnier way to hand someone money than this one.
How it works
Print or write a set of cards, each one a funny “most likely to” line about a specific family member. The recipient draws a card, reads it out loud, and guesses which family member it describes.
Once they guess correctly, they go collect a money envelope from that person.
Let everyone decide their own amount
Each family member decides how much they want to put in their envelope, whether that is twenty dollars, fifty, or more. Nobody has to match anyone else.
You can also split a contribution across a couple of cards instead of just one. Say someone wants to give twenty dollars total, they could split it into two ten dollar envelopes tied to two different cards about them, like most likely to sleep in past noon and most likely to wear red shoes to church. It stretches the game out and gives the recipient more cards to work through.
Make it your own
The deck can be as long or as short as your family wants, and the funnier the lines, the better this works. Half the fun is everyone arguing over who a card really describes before the recipient even guesses.
This is the kind of thing that becomes a tradition fast, one your family will want to bring back every single year.
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I hope you enjoyed all of these ideas and found the one that works best for your situation or the person you are gifting to. Happy holidays, and have fun putting these together, whichever one you pick is going to make giving cash feel like an actual gift instead of an afterthought.
Also Check Out:
If you want even more ways to make a money gift feel special, check out my post on creative ways to give money as a gift for even more ideas to add to your list.
