Timothy (53) comes across a 46-year-old gift during renovation work
8/1/2025
Translation: machine translated
Imagine being 53 years old and finding an old Christmas present that you should have received when you were six years old. This is what happened to Timothy King from the US state of Illinois.
A little treasure was discovered by US American Timothy King while he was redecorating. Behind a wall in his parents' house, he found a gift wrapped in Disney Christmas paper with his name on it. He should have received it from his parents 46 years ago.
King has his own construction company and helped his parents renovate after Christmas. As People magazine reports, King saw the gift behind a wall mirror as he was knocking down the bathroom wall. It had his name on it. He uploaded a video of the find to Instagram and added the hashtag "christmas miracle" (rsp. in the original English: "christmasmiracle")
He then opened the present he should have received as a little boy together with his mum. Inside: four colourful Matchbox Thunder Jets from 1978, in their original packaging. King also shared a video of this on Instagram - it now has more than 65,000 likes. Incidentally, his mother couldn't even remember buying the model aeroplanes.
Source: Instagram
The Matchbox aeroplanes came onto the market in 1978
King estimates that the gift fell behind the wall in 1978, when he was about six years old. That was the year the Matchbox set came onto the market. "My mum always made sure my sister and I got the same number of gifts," he told People magazine. "So we joked that I had been cheated out of a present for 46 years." His parents usually hid the presents for the children in the attic. It probably fell from there into a gap in a wall and has remained unnoticed ever since.
The set from 1978 is no longer available to buy, but if you know someone who would enjoy Matchbox aeroplane models, voilà:
Header image: Instagram
A true local journalist with a secret soft spot for German pop music. Mum of two boys, a dog and about 400 toy cars in all shapes and colours. I always enjoy travelling, reading and go to concerts, too.