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Inside: Have you ever tried experience gifts for kids? Here are 5 reasons to choose them over traditional gifts this year.
When it comes to choosing gifts for friends and family, we always want to find something that will bring joy and excitement. This becomes even more important when choosing presents for the little ones.
But many times gifts only add more stuff to our homes. After birthdays or holiday seasons, kids can get easily overwhelmed by all the new toys they received. They don’t really get to appreciate them. Often all the nicely wrapped toys turn into a pile of clutter two weeks later.
Instead of bringing many hours of play they turn into one more item to clean up every day.
This is why I love the idea of giving experiences instead of stuff.
I started this tradition with my husband long before we had our son. We started to offer each other experience gifts instead of traditional gifts and they brought us some of the best experiences that we enjoyed together!
After we had our son we started by offering him toys or books. We chose things that we knew he would love and for a while, this worked well for us. But when he started receiving gifts from family members and friends as well we realized that he is just accumulating more stuff without enjoying all the toys.
We couldn’t stop other people from giving him stuff (and we didn’t want to do this), but we changed the way we choose gifts for him.
On every special occasion like his birthday or Christmas, we try to offer him experience gifts. And this has been the best decision that we could have made!
Our home has less stuff and he gets to appreciate the gifts because he enjoys trying new experiences.
This month we celebrated his 5th birthday and we chose a gift we knew he would love: a city tour in a fire truck. It was a special truck that was redesigned for tourist tours so it was an amazing experience for all of us. My son loves fire trucks and he was very happy to discover the surprise we prepared for him.
Last year we also prepared a surprise for him and it was such an amazing experience that he still talks about it from time to time.
5 reasons to choose experience gifts for kids this year
If you never tried offering experience gifts to your child before, I totally recommend you to try it! They are such a wonderful way to bring joy to kids and I’m pretty sure your child will love this idea!
photo credit: Evgeny Atamanenko / shutterstock.com
Here are the top reasons why choosing experience gifts this year might be the best option for your family.
1. You will bring more joy and less stuff to your home.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the big amount of toys that your child has all around the house? After Christmas or birthdays, things tend to get even worse if the kids get a lot of gifts. Experience gifts are a great way to prevent this!
They will help you avoid the clutter and enjoy both the gift and the cleaner house.
2. You will build precious memories with your child.
The benefit of many experience gifts is that you get to enjoy the experience with your child. You will enjoy a wonderful time together and your relationship will get closer.
My son rarely mentions a toy that he received as a gift in the past but he often talks about the experiences that we enjoyed together.
photo credit: Natalia Deriabina / shutterstock.com
3. The child will be able to focus more on the gift.
Some toy gifts tend to be easily ignored when the child receives many toys in a short period of time. The benefit of experience gifts is that the child gets the chance to focus on them and enjoy them without being distracted by other things.
4. Time is the most precious gift you can offer to your child.
Our time is the most precious gift that we can offer to our kids. And experience gifts are exactly about this! When you offer experiences instead of stuff you also offer your time and undivided attention. And this matters a lot for your child!
5. Experiences are great opportunities to bond and learn new things.
We often hear about the benefits of educational toys and how they help kids learn new things. And this is true! But children also learn a lot from what they live and experience gifts can offer great life lessons.
A weekend getaway in a national park can teach your child more than the fancy educational cards about plants. A visit to an awesome science museum can offer them hands-on experiences that no toy can offer.
Also, experiences are a great way for the whole family to bond. Some of the best family adventures that we had so far were experience gifts that we offered to our son: unique train rides, road trips to family-friendly destinations, visits to adventure parks.
I am a big fan of experience gifts and all the gifts in the last years proved us over and over again that they are great choices for both kids and adults.
Our list of the best experience gifts for kids
If you want to try offering experience gifts to your kids this year, here is a list of awesome experience gift ideas to inspire you!
I hope that you’ll enjoy them and most of all, I hope that your kids will love them!
>> Want to remember this? Share these ideas to your favorite Pinterest board!
photo credit preview photo: YanLev / shutterstock.com
