I have mentioned before that I am a great believer that experiences bring more happiness than things and this year we are going to be giving our boys a year of experiences. This will be a great alternative christmas gift for us all as a family and I have been thinking of a special way to do this.

We have been focusing on simplifying Christmas for the last few years and you can found out Christmas rules below. So we are giving the gift of our time and experiences with the kids.

Alternative Christmas gifts – A year of family experiences

A visit to a football match with Daddy
A family visit to the Cinema
Sunday dinner out with the family
A trip ice skating with Mummy
A trip to paint your own pottery
A family visit to Footgolf
A trip to a theme park
Rock climbing
A visit to a water park
A family bowling trip
A garden camping night
A mini golf adventure

Other gift Experiences

Horse riding lessons
Martial art lessons
Art classes – we have enroled on Jennie Maizels online sketchbook classes as a family and love it!
Craft classes – sewing, knitting, crochet or even woodworking or pottery making
Season pass – to a local venue such as forest discovery pass (we have one to Dalby Forest), National Trust, soft play, zoo, petting farm, English Heritage etc
Subscriptions – magazines (Mini gets an annual subscription of his grandparents for a magazine and he loves it), cinema,
Circus skills lessons
Balloon modeling lessons
Skateboard lessons
Surfing lessons
A family visit to Go Ape or another outdoor adventure
A family trip to a festival or music gig
Photography lessons
Powerboat trip
A tour of a football ground
A trip on a steam train
A sleepover at Whipsnade Zoo
A family weekend away

What gifts would you like to receive as a family?

16 thoughts on “Alternative Christmas gifts – A year of family experiences”

Helen Neale November 15, 2015 at 3:48 pm

This is truly brilliant! You could write these things on a pieces of paper and make it as a coupons. Cheers

louise November 15, 2015 at 4:24 pm

Experiences are a brilliant Christmas gift – the family sketchbook classes sounds great. I usually get my hubbie an experience like a cookery class.

Mums do travel November 15, 2015 at 4:38 pm

i agree, I’d much rather have experiences than things. Your lists are great.

Ness November 15, 2015 at 5:15 pm

The one thing both of mine want to do is to go to the Harry Potter experience. We’re currently saving up for it!

oana79 November 15, 2015 at 9:09 pm

Photography lessons and a weekend away as a family would be the absolutely perfect gifts for us!xx

Cass@frugalfamily November 15, 2015 at 9:17 pm

I’m all about experiences this year too and I’ve just been writing about some of the experiences we’ll be giving for Christmas this year.

They’re so much better than gifts if you choose the right ones for your family x x

Michelle Twin Mum November 15, 2015 at 9:42 pm

My girls have got a girls weekend away in a caravan with Mummy and Nanny as their big gift this year. I’m bg on creating meories rather than piles of stuff. Mich x

Rachel November 16, 2015 at 11:07 am

I have just Googled Footgolf and this sounds so much better than actual golf, I am absolutely hopeless at anything golf related x

Kara November 16, 2015 at 2:25 pm

Some fabulous ideas here, I am actually doing something similar with my teens

Ami November 16, 2015 at 4:51 pm

Our gifts are tangible, but tend to be experience-related: crafts, dress-ups, etc. My little artists are getting an entire case of copy paper this year (so they can stop stealing it out of my printer). They love to cook with me, so each is getting the utensils and ingredients to make something with me (bonus: I got to replace my old cookie sheets and the pyrex dish that cracked, and call it a gift). Grandma is making them each their own cookbook to add recipes to throughout the year.