For years, we’ve done experience gifts for kids for their main holiday gift. These have been a great way for our family to enjoy some special activities that we wouldn’t choose otherwise in terms of time and money, and to … Read More
This post is sponsored by OwlCrate Jr. All opinions are my own. Life with 5 kids can get awfully busy sometimes, and I definitely have my fair share of moments when I feel totally overwhelmed. There’s just so much noise! … Read More
During this holiday season, it’s so important to teach the real history of Thanksgiving for kids. It can be so tempting to go along with fun Pilgrim and Indian activities with family or at school. But when we advocate for … Read More
One of my favorite projects I’ve EVER done is the Global Children’s Book Club. Spurred by pervasive individual and systemic racism in the world, I felt the best place to start was with education. I knew that to be … Read More
You guys know how much I love STEM activities, and the Kiwi Co subscription boxes are the gold standard. This is one of the very best deals I’ve seen on them! The boxes send all the supplies you need for … Read More
I haven’t always been a board game lover. I pretty much only played the eye-stabbingly boring Monopoly and Candyland growing up, so I was never super into them. But it turns out when you have good ideas for board games, … Read More
Diwali, or Deepavali as it’s typically known in South India, is the Indian festival of lights. It’s typically a 5-day long celebration of “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.” It’s one of the most … Read More
For the last several years, we’ve done consumable gifts and experience gifts for our kids’ big holiday present. With lots of little kids, I feel like we have more than enough toys and activities and don’t need much more. We’ll … Read More
This post is sponsored by Piccolina It’s really important to me that my kids learn about success and accomplishments in a wide variety of ways and through a representative set of people. Unfortunately, traditional schooling typically has focused on white … Read More
Before I jump into a bunch of gift guides, I wanted to share my very favorite Christmas gift for a dad or mom. It’s a Christmas gift I’ve given my husband four times already, and am planning to give it … Read More
As a kid, I had a voracious book reading habit. I vividly remember my 4th grade teacher requesting a special conference with my mom because I would regularly read a book during recess time instead of playing with the other … Read More
For each of our babies, we’ve held a special naming and blessing day. On this day, we’ve performed both an Indian cradle ceremony and a baby blessing as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s … Read More
For years, we’ve done experience gifts for kids for their main holiday gift. These have been a great way for our family to enjoy some special activities that we wouldn’t choose otherwise in terms of time and money, and to find unique events that would appeal to our individual kids. Especially with 6 kids, we have the toys that are useful and needed in our home. Instead, we love being able to gift special experiences for Christmas gifts and for birthdays.
Our family experience gifts sometimes include a trip, but other years are smaller experience gift ideas for kids to create beautiful memories together and to provide opportunities for connection. It’s been so special to prioritize these activities with our gifting budget.
I compiled over 100 ideas for experience gifts for families, including toddlers, kids, and adults so there’s something for everyone. I hope this list gives you some ideas for providing the gift of time and connection!
Classes for Experience Gifts
Classes are one of my favorite experience gifts to give. There are so many wonderful options for kids to learn, grow, and explore the world. I love being able to put gift money towards a class that will be interesting and fun long beyond Christmas day. This is also a great opportunity to have extended family or friends contribute to something really meaningful!
Some of these will depend on availability in your area, but I hope these suggestions for classes for experience gifts spark some ideas for you.
Art Classes – painting, drawing, pottery
This online watercolor class for kids is a great choice if you don’t have lots of availability in your area, if in-person classes are cost-prohibitive, or if they simply don’t work with your schedule. We gifted this online class a few years ago along with this beautiful watercolor set and it was a big hit. It’s been one of their top 10 experience gifts and they’ve returned to the lessons multiple times.
Craftsy membership – an annual membership gets you access to hundreds and hundreds of fantastic classes at a really inexpensive price
There are so many different online and in-person classes, and it can be fun to gift it along with a set of lovely art supplies, like this beautiful watercolor set that we love or our favorite fancy colored pencils.
Dance Classes
Ballet
Hip hop
Jazz
Tap
Swing
Cultural dance (like bharathnatyam, Celtic dance, etc.)
We love doing a special family experience as a gift. In fact, since we just moved to London a couple months ago, we kept birthdays really low-key this fall. A book, a small need for their rooms or play, an individual experience, and a special experience as a family. We’ve done things like attend afternoon tea, go ice skating, visit a historic building, a special YES DAY (where the kiddo gets to choose the food, friends, and activities within a set budget) and more. It was really special to just focus on the time together!
Boat tour (this one near our old place in CA looks so fun!)
Fruit picking
Camping Trip
My kids LOVE camping, so they’d be delighted with a planned camping trip, especially if it were to their beloved Yosemite. You could include some camping gear like a kids sleeping bag if you don’t have any. Or you could just wrap up a s’mores kit with graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows. One of the best experience gifts for kids who love the outdoors.
National Parks Annual Pass
Why visit just one park when you could visit as many as you’d like? For $80, the annual pass allows you into as many NPS sites as you’d like in a year. You can also get a free pass if you’re a current member of the military or if you have a 4th grader at home (and for this year, it’s free for 5th graders, too!). One of my favorite family experience gifts!
Gifts certainly don’t need to be expensive to be valuable. The gift of time, especially together in nature, is incredible! Plan a weekly or monthly hike for the whole family. It would be so fun to give this along with the best kids hiking backpack and other kids hiking gear.
Trampoline park (or a bigger gift would be to gift your own trampoline. Ours in California got used nonstop by our kids and friends and was one of our favorite experience gift ideas for families.)
Family basketball tournament at the park (or you could consider getting your own basketball hoop – we had and loved that one in California and used it daily)
Roller skating or ice skating
Pogo stick tournament (just get one and take turns to see who stays on longest)
Building climb – lots of cities do these on different tall buildings!
Audible membership (one of my favorite useful experience gifts)
An AARP membership – did you know there’s no minimum age and it has all kinds of terrific discounts on hotels, rental cars, restaurants, and more? Especially great for travel lovers in your life.
FREE Experience Gift Ideas for Kids
I included some of these in other sections, but also wanted to compile them here to make it easy to find inexpensive experience gifts! It’s definitely possible to gift experience gifts on a budget. My kids LOVE special one-on-one time so any of these could also be used for an individual date with a child. It will definitely feel special and the gift of time is so precious!
There are a lot of subscription boxes out there, but KiwiCo is one of the very best as far as I’m concerned. The monthly STEM-based boxes are perfect for inspiring curiosity and fun in kids. They’re great for learning in a really enjoyable way, and won’t clutter up your home. There are boxes for every age from babies to adults! I especially love the original Kiwi Crate, the Tinker Crate for slightly older kids, and the Atlas Crate for families who love learning about other countries and cultures. I’d also love to try the Yummy Crate! Definitely one of my favorite experience gift ideas for kids!
It’s really important to me that my kids are familiar with coding principles and are comfortable with the basics. BitsBox is such a great tool that helps kids learn to code in a fun and exciting way.
We care a lot about global education over here, and there’s no better box than Little Passports to learn about the world.
OwlCrate Jr.
A literary subscription box aimed at kids 8-12 with a new book each month plus some bookish goodies. Great for any family that loves books. Use the code PASSPORT15 to save 15% on any subscription!
Experience Gifts for Men and Gift Experiences for Couples: Husband Gift Guide
It can be tricky to think of gifts for men sometimes, so I really love these gift experiences for him. These would also make great birthday experiences for him or other gift experiences for her!
Any of the adventure gifts listed above would be great – paragliding, ziplining, etc.
Any of the tickets or classes from above depending on their interests
Storyworth is the very best gift for parents and grandparents, in my opinion – they send weekly questions about the person’s life, childhood, etc., then compile into a book at the end of the year. It’s so special and I’m so grateful we gifted it to my dad a few years ago before he passed away.
We did this a couple years ago but got them a Google Home with a screen to display our Google Photos
DoorDash gift card
Whether you give experience gift cards or print out a voucher for fun experience gifts for kids, I hope these are helpful in focusing on connection and time together without accumulating too much stuff!
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