A Hilarious Way to Give Cash as a Gift This Year

Even though most of our content is about establishing relationships and welcoming strangers through food and hospitality, sometimes we just try to make our friends and family laugh. 

We originally shared an idea about how to give money to the kids in our extended family in a fun way during the pandemic, but we’ve updated the post since we are no longer in that whole mess and we needed another amusing way to give cash to our family! Hopefully this will help you too! And don’t worry, the pandemic related idea is still down below.

👉 New this year: Check out the escape room–style puzzle cash gift idea we did this Christmas here.

This post contains affiliate links. We may earn compensation when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.

In our family, we have oodles of nieces and nephews… and limited funding. Since we don’t have the finances to spend what we would like on each of them, we find hilarious ways to give our siblings’ children cash as gifts every year. We get bonus points for making our siblings laugh. (These points are self-appointed). In the past we have hidden money in rice, built it into a lego box, put it inside a bar of soap, and then into slime. One year , we printed money from a blank piece of paper (a fun magic trick).

My favorite idea so far was when my husband got a bag of shredded money from the Denver Mint U.S. Department of treasury. We gave each child a bag of shredded money and attached a roll of tape. Don’t worry, we gave them a fully intact bill as well. In 2020 we did a spoof on all the things happening in the world and made their money quarantine for 2 weeks… see below.

But, this year we decided to go big, and it was so easy to do. We created our own Crypto Currency! Here is what it looks like and I’ll show you exactly how to do it yourself!

Give Cash Inside of Crypto Currency

I have always been fascinated by Crypo currency— especially the part where it is mined from the air. So… money is just flying through the air and if you catch it, you get to keep it? It makes no sense to me. Anyway, this is what we did for the kiddos this year!

***Please note— this is in no way real currency. It is all pretend and just for a laugh. This post doesn’t actually describe how Crypto currency works. If you want to learn about that, this is not the place. We like to make our family laugh.The only thing that has any monetary value in this gift is the actual money we give our nieces and nephews.

Okay

Here are the supplies you will need for a hilarious way to give cash as a gift:

First, we made a coin in Canva. Canva is free and super easy to use. You can do this yourself easily, but if you don’t want to, I made a generic coin that I am happy to share!  At the bottom it says in Latin “Omnino Nequam”, which translates to “absolutely worthless”! 

You can download some generic coins here if you don’t feel like making your own!

Next we printed our coins onto card stock, six coins to a page. We cut them apart and put two back to back. Note… while I was planning out the best way to cut them, my husband just went for it USING SCISSORS! No paper cutter… no straight edge… nothing! He insists that the kids won’t care. They probably won’t care, but it made me twitch a little. 

And here is the letter that we attached.

You can download this as well!

It reads:

Dear family and friends,
In years past, we’ve sent small amounts of money to our loved ones around
Christmas. This year, we’re changing our strategy. We’ve invested the money we
would normally send in a new Crypto Currency. You all are the recipients of One
“Krypto Koin.” We invested $10 of US currency to obtain the Krypto Koin.

Krypto Koin is unique in that each purchase contains the original purchase price inside of the coin. Scientists could agree that the value of this crypto may increase exponentially. That has happened with some Crypto Currencies; it could happen here. Apparently, you just start “mining” the crypto from the air, and the value goes up…because money just flies through the air now. We’re not sure how it all works, but we do know that if you cutthe coin open and remove the original purchase amount, the coin loses all its value, so make sure you don’t cut on the dotted lines to open the coin and remove the $10 from inside.

Warning: Crypto-Currency is known by the State of California to either cause or not cause ! diseases in some laboratory species. are two on each page. Be sure to sign your name.

We taped the money in between the two pieces of cardstock. I don’t think you really need to do this, but we were afraid it would move, and the kids would accidentally cut their money when they tried to get it out. 

The instructions on the letter say to cut on the dotted line. Make sure the money is not behind that dotted line!

Next, we placed it in the laminating sheet, so that it could be sealed together.

Then I used my handy dandy laminator. I love this thing. We laminated each one so that you can’t see that it has money in it. 

We cut them apart and attached a note

And put it into an envelope. 

That’s it!

Now… If there happens to be a pandemic, this is another easy way to give cash as a gift!

This is what we did in 2020… and lucky for you, we are willing to share. We have used this idea as “quarantine birthday gifts” this year as well.

Here is a hilarious way to give cash to those in your life in this unprecedented year that seems to never end. Since we happen to be in a pandemic, we thought it appropriate to put our cash through a rigorous sanitization process and document it for our family. This was the easiest cash gift thus far… and it will be even easier for you, since we are sharing our printable. You can download it for free at the end of the post.

Laundering The Cash Gift

First, we laundered money. Please note that this is the kind of laundering implemented using a washing machine and not the kind that criminals do. We are law-abiding citizens, and I am a complete rule follower. Putting the bills into a lingerie bag helps keep them safe in the wash. This bag is also what we use for washing masks. I’m getting one for each of my boys this year to try to keep their socks together since somehow neither of them have a single pair left.

Hanging the Cash Gift Outside In the Fresh Air

Next, the cash was hung out to dry. Using a travel clothesline, we made sure that each bill maintained at least 6 ft. of social distance from all other bills. If they were unable to do so, we would have asked them to please wear a mask. Luckily, there was plenty of space and none of the bills gave us any trouble.

Cash Gift Submerged in Sanitizing Solution

Our next step in the process of sanitizing our cash gift was to submerge the cash in a sanitizing solution of at least 72.4% alcohol content by volume. We chose a bottle of rubbing alcohol, but there are many options on the market today. It might also be water in the jar with an alcohol bottle nearby. It’s hard to say. (Nope, it’s not hard to say… the liquid in the jar is actually water)

Temperature and Symptom Check of the Cash Gift

Before we placed each bill in quarantine, we did a symptom and temperature check. Thankfully, none of the bills had a temperature of above 100.3, sore throat, cough, body aches, or any other symptoms that may be concerning. Consequently, we felt very comfortable moving them on to the next stage. (So… the money wasn’t actually 98.3 degrees, but the human holding the thermometer was; in case you were concerned about that)

The Hilarious Cash Gift in Quarantine

Once the above steps have been completed, the cash gift enters quarantine. Currently (as of publishing date), the CDC recommends 10 days of quarantine after possible exposure to COVID-19. Although we have no idea if the money was exposed, we want to be on the safe side. Therefore, we quarantined our cash just in case. The cash will be released and ready for use at the end of the 10 days.

We made sure to make this date after Christmas to make our loved ones wait a bit, knowing full well that some will find ways to get the cash as quickly as possible. They did this with the soap. No child washes their hands enough times in one day to get to the money… but somehow, most of them did. It was quite suspicious! However, they were more prepared for the handwashing they would encounter in 2020 and, hopefully, continue forever.

Get The Free Printable

This is a printable that we made and laminated so they can save them for years to come and always remember how hilarious their aunt and uncle are. I used the Scotch Thermal Laminator. My laminator comes in handy all the time to make things last. For everyday keepsakes like documents, I use 3 MIL laminating pouches. When creating items for my classroom that need to be a little more durable, I used 5 MIL laminating pouches. This laminator has settings for both sizes, but 3 MIL is plenty strong in most cases.

Putting The Gift Together

Once we laminated the description sheets, the money was quarantined in snack bags (they are a perfect size). Then, the bag and printout were stapled together. Make sure to staple the top of the bag so that you don’t puncture it and compromise the safety packaging’s integrity by letting contaminated air in… nobody wants to start the process all over. Then we placed them in a 6 X 9 clasp envelope. Since we used half sheets, they fit like a glove.

Originally, I planned to package them in a roll of toilet paper with a hand sanitizer bottle to get the full 2020 vibe, but then I remembered shipping costs. The envelope works nicely and ships much more easily. And… lucky for me, 2021 was just like 2020, but without a toilet paper shortage. The gift still works! Be careful if you are shipping cash, though; bad guys like to steal them this time of year.

Download printable by clicking here

If you are looking for more funny gifts, Facebook gave me some hilarious suggestions. You can read about them in this post. Funny gift ideas that Facebook nailed.