Under the tree is a doll.  In the locket on a chain around the doll’s neck is a picture of Eric.  That’s it. Very subtle.  The doll “obviously” has proclaimed that it belongs to Eric by carrying his picture always close to her heart.

This one is probably too subtle for most.  It took a bit of dope slapping to get the point across when I did this one at my house.  But maybe you will gain some inspiration and arrive at a better solution.

Instructions

As always, the game is to create some initial guesswork among all Christmas guests. A Christmas can not be considered successful unless the following sentence is not spoken at least once during the day: “Huh!?” The gift wrap job described here definitely evoked that sentence several times, but people eventually figured it out, possibly with a little prodding from the Mad Wrapper’s “helper” who happened to be at the unwrapping ceremony. (That would be me, of course).

The doll did not take very long to create. Although relatively large, it was a rather rudimentary doll. I took a couple of paper grocery bags. Inside one bag I inserted a double record album ELO gift and padded it out with wads of balled up newspaper. (Put anything you want inside your Frankenstein creation.) Inside the other bag, I inserted nothing other than more wads of newspaper. One bag, the smaller bag containing only paper, became the head on which I drew eyes mouth, etc and glued on yellow yarn. The other, larger bag, became the body. Four readily available cardboard wrapping paper tubes became arms and legs taped on with excessive amounts of clear tape.

Now the doll must be dressed, of course. I found an old shirt and buttoned it around the torso.

And, we can’t forget Jewelry, of course. This is the most important step: I stole an old photograph taken of my brother. I carefully cut an oval around his bust and mounted it on colored matte paper. I then proceeded to build a “locket” from this. An identical oval of paper formed the lid. A strip of paper and loads of clear tape formed the sides. On the outside of the lid I wrote “To Doll, Love Eric”, and tied it around the doll’s neck. That’s it.