At some point, I realized I wasn’t just running out of gift ideas. I was feeling overwhelmed trying to come up with unique and meaningful gifts for three kids spanning tweens, teens, and now young adults.
Like many families, we’re incredibly fortunate. Our kids are surrounded by loving grandparents and extended family who are generous and thoughtful. Birthdays and holidays are full of excitement, wrapping paper, and often more gifts than the kids truly need.
While we’re deeply grateful for that generosity — and have always tried to raise our kids to be mindful and appreciative — abundance has a way of blurring perspective. Even when good habits are in place, it’s easy to lose sight of what really matters when “more” becomes the norm.
Do they really need more stuff?
That question is what nudged us toward choosing experiences over material things — and it’s been one of the most meaningful decisions we’ve made as a family.
Why Experiences Are More Meaningful Than Things
Toys are exciting… until they aren’t. We’ve all seen it — the box becomes more interesting than what was inside, and a week later, that “must-have” item is already forgotten. Toys and gadgets lose their shine quickly — one of my pet peeves. You’ve spent your hard-earned money on things that end up forgotten in a corner, gathering dust — and that feeling never sat well with me.
Experiences, on the other hand, tend to linger.
They create anticipation before, enjoyment in the present moment, and memories that resurface over and over again long after a toy has been donated or outgrown. An experience becomes part of a shared family story.
And the best part? Those memories grow and gently evolve as the kids grow. What they remember at six looks different at sixteen but the feeling of being together always stays the same.
What Choosing Experiences Has Meant for Our Family
For us, choosing experiences has been an intentional choice. It means more time together. Not just being in the same place, but actually doing something side by side.
It means shared moments instead of separate toys. More “Remember when…” conversations that resurface months or years later. More laughter over inside jokes or gentle teasing. It also means less clutter — fewer things competing for space and attention — and more intention around how we celebrate. Experiences have slowly become the fabric of our family, woven into how we mark birthdays, milestones, and special moments.
And sometimes our favorite memories didn’t come from big, elaborate plans. They came from simple outings, local adventures, or trying something new together for the first time. We’ve learned that almost anything can be turned into an experience gift.
The Thoughtfulness Behind Experience Gifts
One thing for certain is that experience gifts require a little more thought and a lot more planning — and that’s not a bad thing.
They invite you to consider and observe:
- What does my child actually enjoy?
- What stage of life are we in and how can we honour that?
- What would bring us together, not just keep someone busy?
Sometimes that planning feels like extra work, but it’s also what makes the gift feel more personal. I know that I can spend hours trying to plan the perfect outing or the funnest trip. But, experiences can be big or small, close to home or further away, planned months in advance or decided on a whim. What matters isn’t how big or perfect it was — it’s the intention. It can also end up being messy and disappointing but that is how life unfolds and allows us to recognize that meaningful outcomes and memories can still come out of disappointments.
The Challenges (Because It’s Not Always Simple)
Of course, experience gifts are not without their challenges.
When your kids are different ages, genders, and personalities, finding something that excites everyone can feel tricky. What one child loves, another might tolerate. Schedules get busy. Logistics get complicated.
And sometimes, despite our best efforts, an experience just doesn’t land the way we hoped.
And I have to constantly remind myself that that’s okay.
We’ve learned to stay flexible so we can navigate those challenges successfully. Sometimes that means choosing an activity within city limits. Sometimes it means pairing a few different activities with a small personal touch for each person. And, as the kids get older, it means letting them have a say. This actually helps getting buy-in and makes them feel like their opinion and thoughts matter. We’ve encouraged this and this has helped make the experience more meaningful when you see your plans come to fruition.
I’ll be sharing our favourite experience gift ideas in future posts, but here are a few to get the ideas flowing:
- Family experiences like corn mazes or snow tubing (shhh, this will be unwrapped in less than a week!)
- One-on-one parent-child dates like the Pet Expo
- Learning-based experiences like cooking classes
- Travel-related gifts like a mini ski holiday
We’ve also learned to let go of perfection. Not every experience needs to be a highlight-reel moment to be worthwhile. Even the less-than-perfect ones become stories we laugh about later.
Every Season Looks Different
Choosing experiences over things isn’t about doing it “right” but simply, about noticing what matters most to your family in this season of life and leaning into that. For us, it’s connection, shared memories, and time together — the kind that doesn’t come with batteries or instruction manuals. Knowing that time feels even more precious once they reach their teen years, this has become increasingly important to us.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in your home, or wondered how to make celebrations feel more meaningful, consider trying just one experience gift and see how it feels.
Years from now, I don’t think our kids will remember every toy they unwrapped — but I know they’ll remember how it felt to do life together.
