Christmas Bear
So... my wife's late husband, who was my best friend through elementary and high school, gave her this bear in 1991. It plays Christmas music when you press its left paw. Her husband died August 1992. She and I got married in 96. This bear has the Duracell batteries he put in it in 91. It remained in a box on a shelf for over 30 years.
But, after her sister died in 2001, the bear randomly played music, while untouched and in the box sitting on the same shelf, on Christmas Eve, that year. I didn't hear it play that year and wasn't sure how that could happen. I couldn't make it repeat when closing doors, bumping the shelf, or tapping the box.
Then, the next two years I did hear it play. Same as before, still in the box on the same shelf. Then it was quiet for several years but then started again for a couple years. It has been random over all those years but always played between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day except it played July of 2023. Several times I was able to get my phone camera turned on in time to video it.
This year, my wife decided to get it out of the box and set it on a chair. It will play, with those same 33 year old Duracell batteries, by squeezing that left paw.
It hasn't played by itself so far, but now we have other strange things going on. She has a string of tiny led lights on our mantle. There is a button to push on the battery pack to turn them on and off.
No remote for these. Last Friday evening, a little after 5pm, they came on. My wife asked if I saw that. I sure did. She stays up later than I do and she always turns all the lights off later. Saturday evening, at 5:22pm, they came on again. Sunday, it was 5:07pm when they came on. Monday they did not come on again. 
But later that evening, the light on our ceiling fan came on. It has a remote that was under a notebook on the coffee table. The remote button for the light is recessed so I don't think the notebook turned it on. Once I found the remote, it would not turn off the light. I try many times before giving up. I put the remote back on the table and after about 10 seconds, the light went off.
No weirdness since then. When I told my daughter about this, she said she thinks it's still Halloween at our house.
So... my wife's late husband, who was my best friend through elementary and high school, gave her this bear in 1991. It plays Christmas music when you press its left paw. Her husband died August 1992. She and I got married in 96. This bear has the Duracell batteries he put in it in 91. It remained in a box on a shelf for over 30 years.
But, after her sister died in 2001, the bear randomly played music, while untouched and in the box sitting on the same shelf, on Christmas Eve, that year. I didn't hear it play that year and wasn't sure how that could happen. I couldn't make it repeat when closing doors, bumping the shelf, or tapping the box.
Then, the next two years I did hear it play. Same as before, still in the box on the same shelf. Then it was quiet for several years but then started again for a couple years. It has been random over all those years but always played between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day except it played July of 2023. Several times I was able to get my phone camera turned on in time to video it.
This year, my wife decided to get it out of the box and set it on a chair. It will play, with those same 33 year old Duracell batteries, by squeezing that left paw.
It hasn't played by itself so far, but now we have other strange things going on. She has a string of tiny led lights on our mantle. There is a button to push on the battery pack to turn them on and off.
No weirdness since then. When I told my daughter about this, she said she thinks it's still Halloween at our house.