Giving the Gift of Experiences This Christmas

Earlier this year, I decided we were done with unnecessary clutter and things we didn't need. We were drowning in it. Every place we went seemed to result in bringing home more things - whether it was a trip to the store or a family member's house, we came home with 'stuff'.

I wanted to try and commit to an entire year to saying 'no' to stuff, especially for holidays and birthdays. We did a test run for my daughter Abbie's birthday asking family and friends for gifts of experiences and it was a huge hit. I took her horseback riding, something we had talked about doing for ages. Other family and friends jumped on board by also giving gifts of fun activities. I thought, 'this was easy! Why haven't we done this before?'

Then summer subsided and the excitement of the holidays started to fill the air. And we began to be bombarded with Christmas catalogs, commercials, toys around every single corner. Both of my girls started making a Christmas list a mile long. I started to panic thinking about my commitment to a year free of 'stuff'. I thought how in the world are we going to get out of opening a mountain of Christmas gifts and ask family and friends to not give us 'stuff'. Christmas being my absolute favorite holiday, I worried I would be the biggest offender... I came to realize, avoiding the 'stuff' during Christmas was going to be much harder than I anticipated.

I almost caved, guys. Truly. Thanksgiving day, all day, I weighed the pros and cons of Black Friday shopping, trying to decide if I would brave going into the fray so I could do Christmas the 'right way' and check off all the 'stuff' on the lists. But I decided against it. I said, 'no'. I know I will regret getting one more noisy toy that my kids will lose interest in well before the snow melts. I know I will regret taking this year's trendy 'whatever' to the Goodwill after seeing my kids play with it only a handful of times. But I know I won't regret spending time with them during the experiences I give to them.

I brainstormed a list of fun, local things to do and I think I came up with a few ideas that will make our 'stuff' free Christmas well worth it. So, I wanted to share with all of you, in case you too are drowning in 'stuff' and looking for ways to make Christmas out to be more than the packages under the tree.

Memberships

Minnesota State Park Annual Permit

Kidstir subscription box (Ages 4-12)

Tickets to an Event

Children's Theater show

Movie theater

Sporting event

Mall of America