Experience Gifting With Kids

 In the spirit of giving fewer better things, gifting minimally, and striving for quality over quantity - experience gifts are favourite of mine. We don't live and die by this but we do look to it as an option whenever and wherever possible (*definitely made easier pre-pandemic).

For our son's last birthday, we took a trip to Montréal. Although we did plenty of things during the trip for non-birthday reasons, his main birthday wish of going on a ferris-wheel was met with tickets to ride Montréal's La Grande Roue.

We kept the entire trip a surprise until we arrived and kept the tickets for La Grande Roue a secret until the day of his birthday. (See the surprise in this video here). Complete with an afternoon on the canal, birthday photos around the city and of course ice-cream. He never felt like he "missed out" because he didn't get a stack of presents and we have memories (plus photos) to last a lot longer than most gifts ever could have.

The idea of experience gifting can seem short on options at first thought, but there are actually so many ideas for budgets big and small, as well as ages and interests of all kinds. With the holidays around the corner, I thought to share some favourites for inspiration sake but this really applies to any occasion for gifting.

EXPERIENCE GIFT IDEAS FOR KIDS

a trip, near or far

staycation or night at a hotel

theatre tickets (ex: movie, drive-in, play) 

memberships to museums or science centres

memberships to attractions (ex: aquariums, landmarks)

passes or plans to visit a tourist attraction

tickets to a sporting event

tickets to a concert or live show

lessons or classes (ex: dance, sports, instrument, cooking)

tickets to do an activity (ex: skating, tubing, snowboarding in the winter +

go karting, mini golfing, rock climbing, trampoline park, ferris wheel ride)

gift card for services (ex: kiddie manis)

media subscriptions (ex: magazine, music)

activity subscriptions (ex: science experiments, snacks box)

The possibilities are truly endless once you get brainstorming and the memories can be too!

(Included photos are from the birthday trip mentioned above.)

Disclaimer:

This was before vaccine passports came into play and because of the weather, we spent most of our time outdoors and maskless. Also worth noting, we stayed with Sonder for the first time and it was a top notch experience. Definitely recommend if taking a family trip for the apartment-like accommodations.

x, OM