What’s a Christmas of Experiences? See my previous post Christmas of Experiences :: We Aren’t Giving Our Son “Things” This Year. Our family is planning to have our second Christmas of Experiences this year, and you can too!
What are the benefits of a Christmas of Experiences?
Memories. I can’t express enough how wonderful it is to be able to make memories with my husband, son, and mom. We have had so many wonderful experiences as a family already. I can’t imagine not giving the gift of experiences to them. Long after we are gone, my son will remember playing Dogopoly in the condo and ordering takeout with his Idgie (my mom) while his Mama and Daddy went to a Taylor Swift concert. He will forever remember being a “parade kid” and catching coconuts and playing with his parade route friends in the neutral ground while waiting for another parade to roll.
Anticipation. Nothing is better than planning and anticipating weekends away or big events. We make paper chains, spend days planning what we are going to pack, and make a big hype about the event. Let the excitement build.
Less stuff, more fun. Kids have all kinds of stuff these days. iPads, thousands of legos, toys that they are finished playing with by February. We are trying to have less clutter and spend more time together and have more fun, so this is ideal for our family.
How do I do it?
Investigate. Look at local events and calendars. If you are interested in concerts or festivals, check your schedule and plan to attend. Book your hotel rooms, take time off work, and buy your tickets. It’s that easy! It can be as extravagant as a trip with a flight, a cruise, or a long road trip, or it can be as simple as a day trip to a local waterpark or a family outing to a campground. Find out what fits your family and your budget and work around that.
Plan. Make a list of a few things that you want to do and try to spread them out over the year. This will allow for an entire year of fun and more anticipation throughout the year.
Wrap. Here’s the fun part: you can make a huge reveal and build up as much hype as you want depending on how you present it. If it’s coveted concert tickets, perhaps you could do a scavenger hunt to find them on Christmas morning. If it’s a trip, you can always give items useful for the trip, such as new luggage or a nice coat for a trip to New York, or beach toys and stocking stuffers of sunscreen and goggles for a beach or cruise type excursion.
Tips. Make a list of things that you may need or want for your experiences. Perhaps a new camera would be a great family present. Kids need new heavy coats? (because let’s face it… it’s not needed here in south Mississippi) Wrap them up as part of the experience. Taking a road trip? Stuff the stocking with gift cards for fast food and travel games so the kids can feel like they have something awesome to look forward to should they get bored.
Our Christmas of Experiences 2018
We have pretty much completed our list of experiences for Christmas 2018. Although who knows what may pop up over the next few months. So far, we plan to attend 2 concerts (including Justin Timberlake), 2 festivals, and take a short flight and stay at Lego Land, along with our usual Thanksgiving, Mardi Gras, and St. Patrick’s Day in New Orleans.
Some of our Christmas presents will include new luggage for air travel, swim trunks, a new parade wagon, and a few other accessories for both Quinn and the entire family, which will be great for all of our experiences. We haven’t quite figured out how we are going to reveal this year’s experiences, especially the Justin Timberlake concert tickets, so STAY TUNED!
Tell me more
Are you planning a Christmas of Experiences? I would love to hear about it!
