Footage from California of a Christmas prank gone badly wrong when a father accidentally hits his son with a present.

The video, captured at a home in Temecula on Boxing Day last year, shows the man throwing a box from close range at his friend's head.

His friend is wearing a motorcycle helmet.

"I had the bright idea for my friend to put my motorcycle helmet on so I could hit him in the face with a box," he later wrote online.

But things go badly wrong when the prankster repeats the daft stunt but the box ricochets and hits the man's young son in the face, who starts crying uncontrollably.

"It took me a second to realize what had happened.

''My son was fine, just a little bruised right above his eye but definitely a Christmas I will never forget,'' he added.