These Kids Wanted Cash For Christmas, So Their Uncle Decided To Troll Them

The best Christmas presents aren't the most expensive ones. Rather, they're the most thoughtful ones. And Twitter user Donnachaidha O’Chionnaigh put all of his heart into creating something special for his nephews and nieces.

While the presents themselves were practical ones -- dollar bills -- their packaging is what made them unique. "[I] found pics of 80s action figure packages on Google (the old ones with the figures in plastic bubbles glued onto cardboard) and recreated them or heavily modified them in Photoshop," Donnachaidha O’Chionnaigh wrote. He then printed them on card stock and cut them to shape. "[I] used plastic boxes to put the cash in [and] glued them on."

Donnachaidha O'Chionnaigh made them sized to print on 8.5"x11" paper, except the Funko one, which he formatted for 11"x17". "Actual Funko boxes are bigger than that, but I wanted the bill to fill the window."

And all his effort really resonated both with the kids and the internet. After Donnachaidha O’Chionnaigh tweeted photos of his presents, they got over 534K likes in just one day!

More info: Twitter

Joel Waldfogel would be very glad that Donnachaidha O'Chionnaigh chose to give his nephews and nieces cash. Some time ago, Waldfogel published a paper in which he estimated that the deadweight loss from gift-giving is one-tenth to one-third of the gift's value. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spend about $630.5 billion during the holiday season, so if Waldfogel's numbers are correct, that means $63.5 billion to $210 billion of that spending will be wasted. As Ana Swanson wrote for The Washington Post, that's more than it would cost to give every homeless person in America a house. Or everyone in the world safe drinking water. So, as a solution, some economists propose that instead of some thing, you should give cash instead.