April Fools’ Day, celebrated each year on April 1, is a day of practical jokes. It’s a day that some people look forward to, planning the hoaxes down to the last detail. But some people dread April Fools’ Day. These people are usually the victims of the jokesters!

One of the first jokes children learn to pull is placing a rubber band around the lever that controls the kitchen sink sprayer, so that the victim is doused when they turn on the water. As this typically happens first thing in the morning as breakfast is being made, it serves as a forewarning of how the day is going to proceed!

These are family-friendly pranks. Care should be taken so that no one is hurt, physically or emotionally. April Fools’ jokes that have proven popular over the years:

• Cover a bar of soap in clear nail polish and let dry. Leave it by the sink or in the shower.
• Put food coloring in a carton of milk.
• Place small pieces of cellophane tape over the tv remote sensors.
• Freeze a bowl of cereal in milk the night before.
• The night before, fill your child’s juice glass with appropriate-colored gelatin and add a straw.  Watch them try to drink it the next morning.
• If your children are heavy sleepers, switch their beds after they’ve fallen asleep so that they wake up in their sibling’s bed.
• Unroll toilet paper and write a message before rolling it back up again.
• Switch the bags inside two boxes of cereal.

Over the years, organizations have pulled April Fools’ Day pranks on the general public, with varying degrees of success. Many of these pranks have been documented at the Museum of Hoaxes

Greeting Card Universe April Fools’ Day cards

Greeting Card Universe’s April Fools’ Day Pinterest Board