Hey, everyone! Welcome to my first post of 2026 (I know I spaced out on the January 1 post, but so much was happening)! This post, even though I know I’m late for the Christmas season, deals with a tale of humans’ favorite activity at Christmastime: regifting.

The Pesky Pants prank was a regifting joke that happened from 1965 to 1989. Larry Kunkel and Roy Collette, two brothers-in-law, regifted the same pair of moleskin pants in increasingly absurd ways until an accident destroyed them. But let’s start at the beginning.

In 1964, Larry Kunkel was given the pants by his mom. Kunkel didn’t like the pants because they became stiff during the brutal Minnesota winters. The next Christmas, he regifted them to Roy Collette, his brother-in-law (in case you weren’t following), but Collette also didn’t like the pants, and thus started the Pesky Pants War (okay, it wasn’t really a war by any means, but it’s fun to type it like that).

To be honest, the whole thing didn’t start until 1973, when Collette stuck the pants in a 3-foot-1-inch tube so that Kunkel didn’t know what was in there. In retaliation, Kunkel used wire to fold the pants into a 7-inch cube. They agreed upon some ground rules, like that they’d only use junk and donated materials, that the tradition would end if the pants were destroyed or became unwearable, and that the object is to deliberately make it so that it’s harder to open and get the pants.

The methods they used were so insane, here’s the highlights:

• 1977: Bucket of 5 gallons of concrete
• 1980: Steel safe, without the dial and with a welded door
• 1981: Crushed 1974 AMC Gremlin (the pants were in the glove box)
• 1983: 17.5′ tall rocket ship, with 6 tons of concrete inside
• 1984: Concrete-filled 1974 Camaro
• 1987: In an attempt to destroy the pants, two SUVs pulled both legs. Kunkel got the rope with the pants and made off with them.

Unfortunately, in 1989, while encasing the pants in 10,000 pounds of molten glass, the pants accidentally burned up. An urn of the pants ashes was given to Kunkel by Collette, thereby putting an end to the Pesky Pants War.

In summary, whether you see this story as a piece of infotainment, a strange tale, or something you will absolutely do next Christmas, one thing’s for sure: they sure love concrete!