You racked your brain thinking of the perfect gift for your child and wrapped it up, knowing they’d love it. Then finally on the big day, they open your present and their face lights up.

Mission accomplished.

But then a couple weeks later—or even days later—you happen to notice your thoughtful gift on a shelf, in a corner, or under a bed, collecting dust. And that’s when you realize that lately, you haven’t seen your child playing with it.

Unfortunately, many gifts of “stuff” end up forgotten or abandoned, and the reason has nothing to do with a lack of gratitude from your child.

Here’s Why

The reason this happens is due to a quirk of how the human brain works called adaptation. It means that when we’re exposed to something on a regular basis, we adapt to it.

When your child gets used to something new, adaptation kicks in and that object is no longer notable or interesting. It blends in like wallpaper.

This isn’t anything “wrong” with your child because it happens to everyone.

The Best Gift for Your Child? An Experience Gift

All those toys and gadgets on your kid’s wish list are kind of like junk food. They’re fun for a bit, but the novelty will wear off and then your child will be left feeling empty.

If you want a gift that will stick with your child, get them an experience gift.

In the same way that a diet of healthy food will stick to your kid’s ribs and give them the nourishment they need, an experience gift will build memories and stick with your child for the rest of their life.

What Is an Experience Gift, Exactly?

When you give a child an experience gift, the goal is to create an enjoyable or memorable experience for them. Depending on the gift, you might also include a physical item the child can use during that experience.

You may have also heard these kinds of gifts referred to as activity gifts for kids, unstuff gifts, or non-toy gifts.

Experience gifts have gained popularity in recent years because they offer several benefits:

• Experience gifts make you happier than material gifts.
• Your brain quickly gets used to new material gifts, so the pleasure you derive from them fades quickly. On the other hand, experience gifts create happy memories that endure over the long term.
• Experience gifts strengthen the relationship between the gift-giver and the recipient.
• Physical clutter can add to your stress and increases your levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. When you gift an experience, you help reduce clutter-induced stress.

To be clear, I’m definitely not suggesting you skip all “stuff” gifts for your child forever and ever from here forward. Go ahead and get your kid that awesome toy they’ve been pining after! But keep in mind that the more toys you get them, the less they’ll appreciate any of them.

The Most Epic List of Experience Gifts for Kids

For the past few years, I’ve been gathering this list of the best kids’ experience gifts, scouring every list I came across and collecting ideas from friends and family like a squirrel stockpiling nuts.

Today, I’m sharing this massive list of experience gift ideas for kids with you. But in the list below, you won’t find cheesy or lackluster gifts to make your child roll their eyes. You’ll find the experience gifts your child will adore.

If you know of another experience gift idea that belongs on this list, let me know in the comments and I’ll keep this guide updated to be a resource for all of us.

When you need an idea for a gift that will delight your child and stick with them for years, browse this list of experience gifts for children.

Want to save this for later? Pin this on Pinterest, bookmark this page in your browser, or email it to a friend (then you’ll be able to search your email for it later).

But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience?

Sometimes it can be tricky to wrap an experience gift, so each gift in this list also includes a simple idea for a physical way to present that gift to a child.

In many situations, you can create an invitation or gift certificate for an experience gift, then print that and wrap it. Here are a few ideas:

• Find a gift certificate template in a free design tool like Canva, then tweak it to your needs.
• Use a word processing app like Microsoft Word or Google Docs to design your own invitation.
• Purchase a digital gift certificate on Etsy that you can customize and print as many times as you need to. For kids’ experience gifts at Christmas, this Special Delivery From the North Pole† certificate is adorable. For older kids, this cheerful Christmas gift certificate is a great fit. Or for a non-Christmas option, this gift certificate template is specifically designed for experience gifts.

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Experience Gifts for All Kids

In this section, you’ll find the best experience gift ideas for kids that work for a wide range of ages and interests.

1. Make a coupon book.

Kids and teens love coupons they can use to cash in on fun experiences throughout the year. Because this is my absolute favorite experience gift for kids, I designed a free printable coupon book for kids. You’ll find coupons for staying up 30 minutes late at bedtime, camping out in the living room (with s’mores of course!), and more kid-friendly experiences that make amazing gifts for kids.

By the way, you should know that as I was designing this set of coupons, my oldest daughter peeked over my shoulder and asked, “What are you doing?” I explained the idea of the coupon book, then added some examples to get the point across: “Like you could use this coupon to pick anything you want for dinner one night, or this one to take a mother-daughter mental health day off school and work, or this one to bake any dessert together…” She said: “Wow. That’s all I want for Christmas! Just that.”

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Free
• How to Wrap It: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get the free printable coupon book. Then use a hole-punch on the coupons and bind them with a festive ribbon or a colorful book ring like this. Wrap the coupon book in a small box, and you’re good to go!

2. Share your favorite story.

What was your favorite book when you were a child? Get a copy to share with the child so they can experience the joy of that story too.

If the child isn’t reading independently yet, an alternative is to give an Audible or Libro.fm gift card so they can listen to the audiobook. (By the way, Libro.fm is the same price as Audible, and you’ll support a locally owned bookstore with every audiobook you choose!) Or if they prefer to read e-books, you can give an Amazon gift card so they can load up their Kindle.

Also, don’t be afraid to pass along your own personal copy from your shelves. One year, I gave my oldest daughter a few of my favorite books of all time, including one well-loved copy of Pride and Prejudice from college where I’d added notes in the margin as I was reading. She loved getting a peek into my teenage brain!

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Free if you share your personal copy; typically under $20 if you get a new copy
• How to Wrap It: On the inside cover of the book, write a special note to the child about why it’s your favorite. For an extra dose of delight, include a set of these I Love You Bookmarks so that every time they reach for one, they’ll feel absolutely loved.

3. Give the gift of conversation.

How many of us rush through meals with our families, not stopping to enjoy the time with our loved ones? Turn a spare mason jar into a conversation jar by filling it with these family conversation starters. The child can put the jar on the dinner table and pull out a new question every night to have memorable conversations with their family.

And the best part of these conversation starters is that they’ll get you more than the dreaded one-word answer from kids. We use these every night with our kids, and they’ve been a game-changer, helping us end every day feeling connected, loved, and happy.

• Ages: Preschooler to teen
• Cost: $7
• How to Wrap It: Download this set of family conversation starter cards, and drop them all in a spare mason jar.

Available for a limited time: If you prefer a printed set of these family conversation starters, you can get your printed set here.

4. Send a monthly box of fun.

You can find a monthly subscription box for just about anything nowadays, from art projects to science experiments. This makes it one of the most flexible experience gifts for kids. And even though you’re technically gifting a subscription box to the kids, parents benefit too because you’re helping keep the kids busy with a new project once a month!

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Print a flyer about the subscription and add a note about when they can expect their first box.

Here are a few of the most popular subscription boxes for kids that we’ve tried and enjoyed:

• Kiwi Crates – These monthly hands-on projects are perfect for curious kids, kids who love science, creative kids, kids who love to tinker, and more…in other words, every kid. We received this as a gift for the first time years ago, and my kids still run to the mailbox on the day it’s due to arrive every month. From toddlers to preschoolers and grade schoolers to tweens (and beyond!), these boxes come custom tailored for every age group. To get your first Kiwi Crate subscription box for $4.95, click here and use the coupon code GIFT. (Ages 0-18)
• Little Passports – Every month, kids get a letter from fictional pen pals who travel the world, learning about other cultures along the way. Kids receive a passport and wall map to help them follow along, as well as fun activities, souvenirs from each month’s destination, and more. (Ages 3-13)

5. Set a date once a month.

Kids love one-on-one time with the important people in their lives, so gift them a year of monthly “dates” of one-on-one time with you.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Can be free but depends on what activities you choose for your dates; the Family Connection Cards mentioned below are $7
• How to Wrap It: Grab 12 colorful envelopes like these, label them with the months, and insert a card or brochure about each special day. Activities could include going out for ice cream, bowling, seeing a movie together, or anything else the child would enjoy doing with you. To save time, you can slip one of our popular Family Connection Cards into the envelope. For more ideas, check out this mom’s story of how she put this gift together.

6. Mail a surprise.

Find a fun kids’ magazine and gift a subscription. The child will love getting mail addressed just to them, and they’ll build their reading skills without even realizing it. The experience of getting a surprise in the mail once a month keeps this non-toy gift from becoming wallpaper. Plus, most kids’ magazines include activity and craft ideas for kids. And after the child is done reading, they can pass the magazine along to a friend.

A few ideas for you: Highlights, Ranger Rick Jr, or anything in the Cricket magazine family like Ladybug for 3- to 6-year-olds, Cricket for 9- to 14-year-olds, and more.

• Ages: Preschooler to teen
• Cost: Varies but typically ranges from $12-24
• How to Wrap It: Pick up the current issue in a local bookstore and wrap that, then when they open the gift let them know they’ll get a new one in the mail every month.

7. Write a letter.

This gift doubles as a keepsake that the child will treasure for the rest of their life. For a unique gift, write a special handwritten letter to the child to share your favorite memories, childhood stories they’ll love, or any words of wisdom you want to pass along. Or if you want writing prompts, you can get these Letters to My Daughter or Letters to My Son prompted letters and give your child 12 special letters. (You can also get a version for your grandchild, for your friend, and a version kids can fill out to their future selves for when they grow up.)

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Free or under $15 for prompted letters to your daughter, your son, or your grandchild
• How to Wrap It: Write the letter on festive stationery like this beautiful winter scene or this simple birch tree letterhead with a matching envelope, then wrap in a box. Or if you get the prompted letters to your daughter, your son, or your grandchild, you can wrap that.

8. Make a playlist.

Pick a few fun songs the child will enjoy and save them to a kid-friendly USB flash drive like this unicorn or penguin for young kids—or this heart key for tweens and teens. This gift is super easy – follow these step-by-step instructions for how to share a playlist. Then every time the kid fires up the playlist you gifted, they’ll think of you!

Or if you prefer, you can make a playlist on a music streaming service and pair the playlist with a gift card to that service, like Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Can be free, depending on how you deliver the gift
• How to Wrap It: For ready-made playlists, check out 20 Best Kids’ Dance Songs Loved by Parents, Too or The Best 20 Love Songs for Kids. Type up a list of the songs, then wrap that with the USB drive.

9. Puzzle it out.

Pick out an awesome puzzle the child can do alone or with their family, like one from our favorite puzzle company Ravensburger or this epic 18,000-piece puzzle. Bet you they won’t forget the experience of solving that puzzle together! Or if you have puzzles sitting in your game closet, you can always re-gift them.

For puzzle lovers, sweeten the pot with this snazzy puzzle work surface plus storage system or a set of handy puzzle sorting trays.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Free if you’re re-gifting a puzzle you’ve already solved; varies otherwise
• How to Wrap It: Wrap the puzzle, and that’s it!

10. Open the door to meaningful conversations.

From a mother to a child, this mother-daughter journal or this journal for mothers and sons will give you a magical way to get your child to open up about what’s going on so you can stay connected. You take turns writing in this journal, and in the process, you find out what’s weighing on your little one’s heart. This non-toy gift will definitely end up being a gift for both of you!

From dads to kids, check out this father-daughter journal or this journal for dads and sons. For more journal ideas, check out 10 Best Journals for Kids to Boost Their Emotional Intelligence.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Ranges from $7 to $25
• How to Wrap It: Wrap the journal. Easy peasy!

11. Box it up.

Save all your cardboard boxes for a while until you have a massive collection, then give the child the whole batch plus non-toxic acrylic paint and colorful masking tape for designing their own cardboard city—or anything else they feel inspired to create.

• Ages: Toddler to elementary
• Cost: Boxes are free if you save them up over time; crafting supplies will vary depending on what you choose
• How to Wrap It: Collect the boxes in an area of the home the child doesn’t typically go, then reveal them on the big day.

12. Make summer magical.

If the child is excited for a special summer camp but it isn’t in the budget, you can cover the registration fee for the camp as a holiday or birthday gift.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Print a flyer about the camp, then wrap that.

13. Connect with a hero.

This one takes some upfront planning, but kids love it! Think about who the child looks up to, then plan an experience around that.

For example, if they have a favorite author, you can track down a signed copy of one of their books and check the author’s event schedule to see if they’ll be nearby anytime soon. Or if they have a favorite musical artist or actor, you can look into whether they have any special events just for fans, such as a Patreon subscription. You can also check for that person on Cameo, where you can get a personal message from a celebrity.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Make a flyer with a photo of their hero along with a short description of the experience you arranged, then print that. Or to keep it even simpler, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

14. Be mysterious.

When you get Mail Order Mystery for a child, they’ll receive personalized letters from the characters in a mystery, along with puzzles and clues to help them solve the mystery. They get a package in the mail once a week for six weeks, with each package uncovering more clues. The whole experience is delightful!

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Under $100 for a 6-week subscription
• How to Wrap It: Print a flyer about the subscription and add a note about when they can expect their first box.

15. Inspire their next project.

Give the child a book that’s chock full of projects and activities they can make or do. Even better, you can join in on the project for a one-of-a-kind bonding experience.

• Ages: Preschooler to teen
• Cost: Under $15 for a book of projects; more if you’ll be providing any start-up supplies
• How to Wrap It: Wrap the book along with any supplies they’ll need for their first project. Here are a few of our favorite books in this category:
  • Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: 52 Family Friendly Experiments from the Pantry – This isn’t exactly a cookbook but rather a collection of fun science experiments you can do in the kitchen.
  • Out of the Box – Projects kids can make using old cardboard boxes. Think of all the empty cardboard boxes on Christmas morning that they can reimagine into fun building projects! We got this for our preschooler one year, and she ATE IT UP. This gift pairs well with #11 above so they’ll have everything they need to dive into their first project.
  • Rosie Revere’s Big Project Book for Bold Engineers and Iggy Peck’s Big Project Book for Amazing Architects and Ada Twist’s Big Project Book for Stellar Scientists – We’d been drooling over these books since they were first released, and we just picked up the first one and plan to get the next two as well. If the child loved the companion picture books Rosie Revere, Engineer and Iggy Peck, Architect and Ada Twist, Scientist, these activity books are the perfect fit.

16. Pick your favorites.

Pick your all-time favorite photos of the child, then have them printed into a photo book at Shutterfly with their name on the cover. Reflecting on those moments will strengthen the child’s positive memories. And knowing that you cared enough to put together a collection of their best moments will put a smile on the child’s face.

Alternatively, you can pick your favorite photos of the child’s family and upload those into a photo book template. Kids love flipping through photo books of their favorite people!

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Typically under $25, depending on which options you choose
• How to Wrap It: Wrap the photo book, and you’re done!

17. Help them help others.

Give the child a charitable gift card so they can pick a cause that’s important to them to support. The choice component is key for this gift because if you tell a child, “I made a donation to the food bank in your name,” they likely won’t feel the importance of the gift.

Instead, give them a Kiva card so they can help fund a microloan that will change someone’s life. Or as another option, you can give the child a GlobalGiving gift card so they can make a donation to the cause of their choice.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: The minimum for GlobalGiving is $10; the minimum for Kiva is $25
• How to Wrap It: Print the digital gift card and wrap it. This one works great as a stocking stuffer!

18. Reflect and reminisce.

Grab a nice sheet of paper and list 100 of your favorite memories of the child—or as many as you can. If that feels like too much, grab my free printable here for sharing your favorite memories.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Free
• How to Wrap It: Write the list on festive stationery like this winter scene or this simple birch tree letterhead with a matching envelope, then wrap it in a box. Or if you’re using my free Favorite Memories printable, print that and wrap it.

19. Record interviews.

Sit down with family members and ask them to share what they love about the child while you record the interview as a voice memo on your phone. You can ask parents, grandparents, cousins, or aunts and uncles to share memories of the child.

Alternatively, you can ask everyone to share a favorite story from when they were the same age as the child. (My kids are constantly asking us to tell stories from when we were younger!)

Then compile the audio files and save them to a kid-friendly USB flash drive like this unicorn or penguin for young kids—or this heart key for tweens and teens.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Free
• How to Wrap It: Type up a list of the interviews, then wrap that with the USB drive.

Gifts You Can Experience Together

When you experience something new and special with a child, you’ll strengthen your bond and create a lasting memory for both of you. Here are the best experience gifts for kids that you can enjoy together.

1. Plan a game night.

Pick a date on your calendar for a family game night, print out an invitation, and put all the electronic devices away for a night and have fun. As a companion gift for this experience gift, pick out a new board game or card game your family will love and make a game night basket with potato chips, soda or juice, and the new game. Hours of fun, guaranteed!

We have a wide range of ages in our family, so our favorite board games for all ages are Sleeping Queens, Outfoxed!, Sushi Go, and Castle Panic. If you’re looking for the best games for a big group, here are our top picks for family game night.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Can be free; typically under $30 if you’re picking up a new game
• How to Wrap It: Put together an invitation for game night, then print that and add in all the supplies like a new game, snacks, and drinks. To save time on the invitation, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

Black Friday’s back: Get 30% off all games with the code HAPPY30. Plus, free shipping for orders $49+.

$10 from Amazon* $10 from our family shop * Price at time of publishing

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“We went camping and packed this new game we’d gotten for Christmas, and I’m so glad we did. Everyone had a BLAST, even my teenager and my 65-year-old mom. I love that you can play with a big group, and it’s easy to learn.” – Kristin

Related: The 30 Best Games for Family Game Night, According to Kids and Parents

2. Pick a day.

Let the child pick a regular weekday to take off from school, then arrange to take that day off from work or your own regular responsibilities so you can spend the day together. Then ask the child what they’d most like to do during your day. For example, you could play a fun new board game, start a new read-aloud, or bake something yummy together.

As another option, you can grab our Family Connection Cards, then pick one card at random to do on your mental health day. The Family Connection Cards are based on the science of what actually works when you want to connect with a child, so no matter what card you pick, you’ll be helping recharge their batteries (and yours!). If you need more ideas, see the Gifts That Will Take Them Places section below for special places you can go during your day together.

By the way, mental health days like this can be so restorative for kids that some states in the U.S. are even passing legislation to allow kids to take regular mental health days off from school!

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Can be free
• How to Wrap It: Wrap our Family Connection Cards with a handwritten note like this: “Let’s take a day off from school and work, just the two of us. Pick one of these cards, and we’ll do that!” Alternatively, you can design a coupon for a day off and wrap that. To save time, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

3. Meet for lunch.

Pick a random school day and meet the child for lunch. Bring their favorite meal, even if it’s fast food. Or for a smaller treat, bring a cookie or another surprise dessert. For tweens and teens, they might feel more comfortable with going off campus for lunch rather than sitting with a random adult in the lunchroom!

• Ages: Preschooler to teen
• Cost: Varies depending on what food you bring
• How to Wrap It: Grab a blank notecard and write an invitation for lunch, then wrap that. Or you can use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

4. Give a movie night in a box.

Grab your favorite family DVD off your shelf, like We Bought a Zoo (with the family-friendly soundtrack!) or The Goonies, or give an Amazon gift card for $5 so they can rent one. Then add some popcorn (our favorite is this movie night variety pack), soda or juice, and a cozy blanket for everyone to snuggle up under.

• Ages: Preschooler to teen
• Cost: Varies depending on which supplies you already have on hand
• How to Wrap It: Find a spare basket, fill it with the family movie night supplies, and wrap it all in one fell swoop. As another option, you can gift them a streaming service for a year like Disney+ or Netflix so they can make movie night a family tradition.

5. Catch a show.

Get two tickets to a special event for you and the child. Here are a few ideas:

• Sporting event—major league sports, minor league baseball, or a nearby college team
• Live music concert
• Kids’ comedy show
• Play or musical
• Dance performance like ballet

Then make a date of it with the child. I can still remember my first experience at a show in fifth grade. It was an Italian opera and I understood absolutely zero of the words, but sitting in the theater as it filled with a sound I’d never heard before created a sense of complete awe that I’ll never forget.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Find concert tickets or tickets to another event or show at a performing arts center and wrap the tickets.

6. Take them on a tour.

Many cities offer tours for visitors that can be lots of fun for residents, too. From food tours to architecture tours and more, you can help the child see their town in a fresh way by gifting tickets to a local tour.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Print the tour itinerary and wrap that.

7. Get pampered.

You can go DIY style with a spa day at home and paint each other’s nails, or make it an extra special event by getting an appointment at a local spa to get manicures and/or pedicures together. If you live far from the child, give them a gift certificate.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Can be free if you DIY at home; professional manicures range from $25 to $75 and pedicures tend to be a bit more than that
• How to Wrap It: If you made an appointment, print the appointment details and wrap that. If you’re DIYing at home, make a coupon for one spa day at home, then wrap that. For an extra treat, include a fun new shade of nail polish with a piece of paper tied to it that says, “Let’s try this one out together!”

8. Browse the shelves.

Take the child to a locally owned bookstore and browse around together, checking out the staff recommendations and the bestsellers. Whether the child is at the picture book, chapter book, or young adult level, pick out a book or two and read aloud to them. (Kids are never too old to be read to!) If you need some ideas, here are our absolute favorite picture books of all time and our favorite chapter books—and we read a lot.

For a special treat, tell them they can pick out any book they want, and you’ll get it for them. For a free version of this gift, you can take them to get a library card and encourage them to check out whatever they want.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Can be free if you just browse or visit the library; typically under $20 if you treat the child to a new book
• How to Wrap It: Grab a blank notecard and write an invitation for your one-on-one bookstore date, then wrap that. Or you can use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

9. Give back together.

Setting up a volunteer activity you can do together can be an amazing gift. Not only will you give the child an experience they’ll remember, but you’ll also foster their budding compassion and empathy for others in need.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Free
• How to Wrap It: Put together an event invitation, then print that and wrap it. To save time, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above. Here are a few kid-friendly volunteer experiences:
  • Volunteer at a local food pantry to sort food donations
  • Help out at a soup kitchen preparing or serving food
  • Visit an assisted living facility or nursing home to bring some much needed light into the residents’ lives
  • Deliver meals through a program like Meals on Wheels
  • Make a meal to serve to families at a local Ronald McDonald House
  • Leave food and notes of encouragement for families with babies in the NICU
  • Put together care packages of food and essentials like a toothbrush to hand out to the homeless living on the streets of your town

10. Say yes.

Surprise the child by giving them a “yes day,” which means you say “yes” when you’d usually say “no.” Can I have a piece of chocolate? Yes! Can we play a game? Yes! Can you teach me how to drive? Uhh…yes? You definitely don’t have to go to the extremes the parents in the movie Yes Day did, but “yes days” can build powerful memories. In fact, one of my kids once told me she didn’t care if she got any physical presents on her birthday. All she wanted was a yes day!

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Can be free, but many families find it helpful to set some boundaries for yes days. For example, in my family, we give the child a monetary budget they have to stick to that day. When the money’s gone, it’s gone, and they have to switch to free activities. As an added bonus, the child will get practice working through tough (for them) spending decisions like, “Do I get the new toy I want, or do I order every dessert on the menu?”
• How to Wrap It: If they’re not familiar with the concept, you can pick up a copy of the sweet picture book Yes Day and wrap that along with a sticky note telling them they’ll have their own yes day. If they already know what it is, you can give them a coupon for one yes day, then wrap that. To save time, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

11. Paint the walls.

This experience gift works well for when kids reach milestones like moving from a crib to a big kid bed, hitting double digits in age, starting middle school, or entering their teen years. Give them the gift of a room makeover.

Let them pick their paint color, then queue up your favorite family dance party playlist and paint together. Ask if they have ideas on rearranging furniture, let them pick out new sheets, or take them shopping for small but fun decorations like these twinkling lights that double as a photo display.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Varies depending on how involved the project is
• How to Wrap It: Pick up a few paint swatches of their favorite color from the home improvement store, then wrap those with a handwritten note to let them know about the room makeover. Or you can use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

12. Build a library.

For kids who love to read, give them everything they need to start a Little Free Library. Then build it together. To kick off the new library, you can go through your owned books to decide whether you have any you’re ready to send to a new home.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies depending on whether you DIY or get a ready-made library kit at Little Free Library
• How to Wrap It: Print a photo of a Little Free Library, add a sticky note that says, “Let’s build a library together,” and wrap that!

13. Plan a staycation.

Pick a school holiday and clear your calendar of all obligations. No errands, and no chores! Pretend you’re on vacation, but you just so happen to be at home together. You can stay in your jammies and have a movie marathon, play your favorite board games all day, or visit your closest city and do everything a tourist would do.

For an extra special treat, you can book a night at a hotel in your downtown area and order room service for breakfast or for a late-night treat.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Varies depending on whether you stay at home or venture out
• How to Wrap It: Put together an event invitation, then print that and wrap it. To save time on the invitation, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

14. Take them on a trip.

Find a fun destination within driving distance, pack some fun snacks, and head there together to explore. Research shows taking a trip with a child becomes a “happiness anchor” for them.

In other words, family vacations stick in kids’ brains as vivid memories, and later on as adults, those memories can even help them get through tough times. (During your road trip, don’t forget to crank up a kid-friendly dance party playlist and sing aloud at the top of your lungs!)

To be fair, this is a pricey gift, but to put it in perspective, you can add up what you were planning to spend on physical gifts for everyone in the family. You may find that the cost of a vacation isn’t too far off, especially if you plan a road trip to somewhere nearby.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Type up the travel itinerary, print it, and wrap it with a kids’ travel journal like this. Or you can put together a slideshow of photos from the destination and flip through photos until they catch onto what the gift is! Here are a few ideas for destinations:
  • Plan a road trip, complete with snacks
  • Set up a trip to visit someone special, such as a grandparent or favorite aunt or uncle
  • Book a weekend at a nearby Great Wolf Lodge, which is an indoor water park
  • Go skiing or snowboarding in the winter or hiking the rest of the year
  • Drive to the nearest beach or lake and go surfing, jet skiing, parasailing, or scuba diving
  • Go to an all-inclusive family-friendly resort
  • Give them Disney gift cards to help them save up for a Disney trip
  • Visit a college they’re interested in so they can tour the campus and imagine their future there
  • Transfer your airline miles or give them an airline gift card
  • Book a train trip
  • Stay at a farm with Farm Stay USA
  • Give them a National Park Pass so they can visit any national park or look into passes for state or local parks—Note: If the family has a fourth grader, you can get the little one and their immediate family a free annual pass to all national parks in the U.S.!
  • Rent an RV
  • See the Northern Lights
  • Book a cruise
  • Plan a safari trip
  • Give an Airbnb gift card
  • Check for deals on Groupon Getaways

Gifts That Will Take Them Places

One of the best gifts you can give a child is to take them somewhere special you don’t go very often. Below, you’ll find ideas for places you can take the child in your life to create a memorable experience.

For each of these experience gifts, you can surprise the child with tickets, a gift card, or a printed invitation to the special outing.

1. Amusement park or theme park
2. Axe throwing field—best for teens!
3. Bakery—splurge on yummy goodies
4. Batting cages
5. Berry picking at a local u-pick farm
6. Boat tour
7. Bookstore event like an author visit
8. Bowling alley
9. Carnival or local fair
10. Coffee shop—let them pick out whatever fancy drink they want
11. Country backroads—pack a picnic dinner and pull off to the side of the road to eat while you stargaze; before picking a date, check to see if there are any upcoming meteor showers you’ll be able to catch
12. Creek, river, or lake—explore together or go canoeing, kayaking, whitewater rafting, or tubing
13. Dolphin or whale watching ride
14. Donut shop
15. Drive-in movie theater
16. Driving range or Top Golf
17. Escape room
18. Farmer’s market
19. Fishing hole
20. Geocaching
21. Go-kart track
22. Horseback riding
23. Hot air balloon ride
24. Ice cream parlor
25. Ice skating rink
26. Indoor skydiving simulator
27. Laser tag
28. Mini golf course
29. Movie theater
30. Paintball field
31. Park with a picnic lunch
32. Pond where they can feed ducks—make sure to bring defrosted frozen peas or corn, never bread!
33. Pool—if they don’t have access to a free community pool, or even if they do but don’t go very often
34. Restaurant they’ve been wanting to try or their favorite restaurant
35. Rock wall for indoor rock climbing
36. Roller skating rink
37. Rollerblading track
38. Splash pad
39. Tennis court
40. Trampoline park
41. Video arcade
42. Water park
43. Zipline or ropes course
44. Zorbing park—if you haven’t heard of this before, think “human hamster ball”

Educational Experience Gifts

Some experience gifts for kids bring the added bonus of teaching them something new they can carry forward with them. Here are the most gift-worthy educational experiences for kids.

1. Inspire awe.

Make a date to stay up late together and stargaze. Not only will the child feel special that they get to stay up past their regular bedtime, but you’ll also inspire a sense of awe about the world. And that matters because research shows that experiencing moments of awe is important for our physical, mental, and emotional well-being and can improve a child’s academic performance.

If you want to support the child’s learning even further, you can include a beginner telescope like this or a kid-friendly guide to the stars along with this experience gift.

• Ages: Preschooler to teen
• Cost: Can be free; varies if you’ll be providing supplies
• How to Wrap It: Put together an event invitation, then print that and wrap it. To save time on the invitation, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

2. Give a free pass.

Cover a gift membership to a children’s museum. This is a gift the family can use year-round, and it may just save the parents’ sanity on a rainy day! If the child doesn’t live near a children’s museum, try gifting a membership or tickets to a science museum or planetarium.

• Ages: Toddler to elementary
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Print the membership certificate from the museum and wrap that.

3. Awaken their inner scientist.

Put together a science experiment kit or a terrarium the child can build. You can get a ready-made science kit or terrarium from Kiwi Crates. Or if you’d rather DIY this experience gift, you can search for a kid-friendly science experiment online, then gather all the supplies and create your own kit.

• Ages: Preschooler to teen
• Cost: Varies but typically under $30 for a science kit
• How to Wrap It: Get a science experiment or terrarium kit, then wrap that.

4. Start a club.

Even if it’s just for the two of you, start a book club where you read the same book either together or independently, then get together to talk about it. Don’t forget to bring special treats for your meetings, like cookies, graham crackers, or a few pieces of chocolate!

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Can be free if you get books from the library
• How to Wrap It: Put together an event invitation, then print that and wrap it. To take it one step further, you can include a list of three books to choose from for your first book, then after they pick what looks best, you can get copies from the library or your local bookstore. If you need some ideas, here are our all-time favorite chapter books. To put an even bigger smile on the child’s face, include a set of these sweet I Love You Bookmarks.

5. Show them the world.

If you travel on a regular basis, make a promise to send a postcard to the child from every place you visit. Even if you just pick up a postcard from the airport on a layover and drop it in the mail before you catch your next flight, you’ll make that kid’s day when they get your postcard in the mail. If they have a map or globe at home, they can find where you visited on the map for a bonus geography lesson (sneaky!).

As a companion non-toy gift, you can give the child a scrapbook where they can collect all the postcards you’ll be sending. Just remember to keep stamps in your carry-on luggage at all times!

• Ages: Preschooler to elementary
• Cost: Under $30 for a scrapbook, and typically under $2 for each postcard plus postage
• How to Wrap It: Give the child a scrapbook where they can collect the postcards, like this adorable adventure book modeled after the (also adorable) movie Up. To take this gift a step further, you can include a map or a globe so the child can follow along with your travels, like this dry-erase world map decal (or this U.S. map decal if that works better).

6. Share what you know.

Offer to teach a skill you have. The skill you teach could be a foreign language, how to play an instrument, or the secret to baking a mean cheesecake.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Free
• How to Wrap It: Whip up a “coupon” that says something like, “This coupon is good for guitar lessons from me every Sunday afternoon in January!” To save time, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

7. Get them on the roster.

Kids’ brains are like sponges, so think of a class they might enjoy and sign them up! Even better, sign up both of you together so it’s an experience you’ll share.

As another option, my kids are huge fans of Outschool, where they can browse the online classes available and pick what they want to learn about, from ASL to raising chickens to video game design – pretty much everything you can think of! Classes are small groups of students who meet via video chat regularly, and teachers are experts on the topic they’re teaching about.

For older kids and teens, you can also check MasterClass to see if they have a class with an expert that might be a good fit. For example, they can get tennis lessons from Serena Williams or learn about songwriting from John Legend. If you don’t find a class there, another great option for online classes is Skillshare.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies depending on the class
• How to Wrap It: Print a flyer about the class and wrap that. To take it one step further, if they’ll need any basic supplies before class starts, pick those up for the child and wrap them. Here are a few examples of classes as well as supplies that pair nicely with the experience gift of the class:
  • Archery
  • Art or painting
  • Baking
  • Calligraphy
  • Coding
  • Cooking—Raddish Kids is an online cooking club for kids with a monthly kit you receive in the mail
  • Creative writing—pair this experience gift with these erasable pens and a special journal for kids
  • Dance lessons—if they’re interested in ballet, you can include a tutu or other dancewear with this gift
  • Filmmaking
  • Flower arranging
  • Fly fishing
  • Foraging
  • Foreign language
  • Gymnastics
  • Jewelry making
  • Knitting
  • Magic tricks
  • Martial arts
  • Music lessons for learning a new instrument or improving their skills
  • Photography—get them a fun camera strap like this pretty flower print
  • Pottery—if they don’t have a pottery studio nearby, Pottery Awesomeness will deliver at-home pottery painting kits
  • Rock climbing
  • Scrapbooking
  • Self-defense
  • Sewing
  • Sports—whatever sport they want to get better at, sign them up for one-on-one lessons with a coach
  • Surfing
  • Swimming
  • Theater or acting
  • Voice or singing
  • Weight lifting—this is a great option for teens who are interested in fitness; consider pairing with a gym membership
  • Wilderness survival
  • Woodworking
  • Yoga

8. Give them something to nurture.

Visit your local nursery or home improvement store and pick out a houseplant for the child. Or if you already have a houseplant you love, take cuttings and pot them yourself.

To take care of their new plant, they’ll need to research its sunlight, temperature, and water requirements. Not only will they learn about plant care, but you might also spark a lifelong love of greenery.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Put a pretty ribbon on the plant, and you’re done!

9. Support their future.

For older kids and teens who are looking ahead to college, you can donate to their college fund or set up a savings account where they can save up for a special trip after high school graduation.

• Ages: Tween to teen
• Cost: No amount is too small—even $25 will add up over time
• How to Wrap It: Make a note that says you added to their college savings, then print that and wrap it. If you’d like a more physical component to this gift, you can get them a sweatshirt or t-shirt to their favorite college and include that as well. To save time on the note, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

Gifts for Creative Kids

For crafty and creative kids, these experience gifts are the perfect fit.

1. Fill a basket.

Find a fun kids’ activity, craft, or art project, then fill a basket with all the supplies the child will need.

• Ages: Toddler to tween
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Put together a basket with everything they’ll need, plus the instructions printed out. Or you can gather random supplies you already have around the house, like washi tape, festive stickers, and colorful Sharpies, and throw in a brand new sketchbook like this mixed media journal. (Check out this former art teacher’s recommendations for what every art gift basket needs!)

2. Give them some dough.

Make a play dough gift set using the instructions here. You’ll just need homemade dough and accessories like toothpicks and buttons. If my zero-craftiness self can make homemade dough, you totally can! But if you’re tight on time and/or patience, you can grab a ready-made 10-pack of play dough.

• Ages: Toddler to elementary
• Cost: Can be free if you use supplies you already have lying around
• How to Wrap It: Find a spare basket or box and fill it with the play dough and assorted goodies. If you don’t have any accessories to throw in, you can get a set of fun play dough tools like this set. My toddler and preschooler use this set every time we bust out the play dough. (If you’re looking for a set that includes the dough and the dough tools, this is a great starting place.)

3. Book a studio.

Reserve a time slot for them in an art studio, dance studio, or pottery studio so they can block out the world and just create.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Put together an event invitation, then print that and wrap it. To save time on the invitation, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

4. Wow them.

Cover the membership fee at an art museum so they can visit throughout the year anytime they want to feel inspired by great art.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Print the membership certificate from the museum and wrap that.

5. Show off their work.

Curate some favorite art pieces they’ve made, then scan them and have them bound in a book by Shutterfly.

As another option, you can get a couple of their art pieces framed to hang in their home, or simply place their art in a portfolio like this. Ask them to decorate the cover, and keep it in a place of pride like the coffee table.

• Ages: Preschooler to teen
• Cost: Varies but a custom 11×14 photo book typically runs less than $25
• How to Wrap It: Wrap the book of art, and you’re done!

6. Commission a piece.

Ask the child to create an art piece for a specific area in your home, then give them the funds they’ll need for supplies so they can pick out whatever they want and need. If you’re feeling brave, give them a whole wall they can paint a mural on.

For a playful alternative, tell them you want to design a family t-shirt, and you’re hiring them as the designer. Ask them to come up with three designs the family will vote on, then get the winning design printed.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Put together an invitation, then print that and wrap it. To save time on the invitation, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

7. Get them published.

If the child like to write stories, take one of the stories they’ve shared with you, design a cover in a free tool like Canva with their name on the cover, and get it printed and bound into a book at Shutterfly.

• Ages: Elementary to tween
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: When you get the finished book, wrap that.

8. Match them with a mentor.

Whatever the child is passionate about, find them a mentor or a one-on-one tutor to support their growth and learning. For example, if they love drawing, you can get them one-on-one lessons with an art teacher. Or if they’re into creative writing, you can find a published author who tutors young writers and sign them up for a session.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Put together a gift certificate, then print that and wrap it. To save time, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

Gifts for Outdoorsy Kids

Some kids love to spend time outdoors and crave adventure. Here are the best experience gifts for those outdoorsy kids.

1. Enjoy nature together.

Invite the child on a hike somewhere special. For younger kids, turn it into a nature walk scavenger hunt for added fun.

To round out this experience gift, you can gift them a pair of kid-sized binoculars, a magnifying glass, or a bug-catching kit.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Free unless you’re also providing supplies for exploring
• How to Wrap It: Put together a hike invitation, then print that and wrap it. Or you can print a scavenger hunt map, add a note explaining that you’ll take the child exploring, and wrap it up.

2. Give them an excuse to play in the dirt.

Ourdoorsy kids love playing in the dirt, so you might as well get some veggies out of the deal and give them everything they need to start a garden.

• Ages: Toddler to tween
• Cost: Varies but typically under $25 for seeds or a garden kit
• How to Wrap It: Give the child a few packets of seeds (like this collection that’s perfect for young kids or this set that’s great for older kids and teens) so they can start a family garden, along with a kid-friendly set of garden tools. If you like this idea but you have a black thumb (hello, that’s me!), do what we did and use an all-in-one garden kit like this—or skip the plant aspect and try a butterfly-growing kit.

3. Plan a camping trip.

Even if it’s just camping in your backyard, the fresh air and quality time (and s’mores) will be an experience the Charlieild will remember. If they don’t have a tent yet, here’s the 4-person tent we got for our living room and backyard camping adventures—it’s affordable and has great reviews.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Can be free depending on which supplies you already have
• How to Wrap It: Fill a box with everything they’ll need for their camping adventure, from a portable camp light to all the fixings for s’mores like these marshmallow roasting sticks.

4. Visit an impressive park.

Figure out which area park has the best playground and take them there, even if it’s a bit of a drive. Or for older kids, bring along a couple high-quality kites so you can fly kites together at the park.

• Ages: Toddler to tween
• Cost: Free
• How to Wrap It: Put together an invitation, then print that and wrap it. To save time on the invitation, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

5. Admire a garden.

Cover a gift membership to a nature center, botanical garden, or butterfly garden. For kids who love the outdoors, they’ll appreciate being able to visit throughout the year anytime they’re craving time outside.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Print the membership certificate from the center and wrap that.

6. Design an obstacle course.

Set up an obstacle course in your yard, whether it’s a ready-made set or DIY. If you go the DIY route, you can cobble together your own design with components you know the child will love, like a slackline, climbing dome, rope swing, zipline, or surfer swing.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Install at least one component of your obstacle course, then take the child outside to show them.

7. Give them a sanctuary.

Install a hammock or a treehouse to add to their enjoyment of the outdoors.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies but a simple hammock chair is typically around $30
• How to Wrap It: Set up the hammock or treehouse, then take the child outside to show them.

8. Hook them up with new wheels.

Kids outgrow bikes fast, so if the child loves cycling, get them a new or gently used bike that’s the right size for them right now. You’ll be giving the gift of exercise and fresh air for another year!

To round out this experience gift, include a new helmet because they’ve probably outgrown that, too.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Stick a bow on the bike, and you’re done!

Gifts for Foodie Kids

For a child who loves cooking or baking, these experience gifts will delight their little foodie heart.

1. Make something together.

Print one of your favorite recipes, or find a new recipe with great reviews to try. Round up all the necessary supplies including ingredients and any special kitchen utensils, then work together to make something yummy.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Can be free depending on what you add to the box
• How to Wrap It: Print the recipe and put that in a box with the necessary ingredients, along with any new kitchen utensils they’ll need.

2. Compile a cookbook.

Reach out to everyone in the family to get their favorite recipes—the ones they’ve passed down again and again over the years. Compile all those recipes into a family cookbook and get it printed and bound into a book at Shutterfly.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies but a custom 11×14 book typically runs less than $25
• How to Wrap It: Wrap the cookbook, and you’re done!

3. Deliver the best.

Browse Goldbelly for the child’s favorite food and check reviews to see who’s doing it best, then have it delivered straight to their door. For example, you could get the best black-and-white cookie from New York City, world-famous pizza from Chicago, or the tastiest brisket from Texas.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: When you check out, add a special gift message to the child so that when they open the package, they’ll know it’s from you.

4. Arrange a tour.

Reach out to your child’s favorite local restaurant or bakery and arrange for them to get a behind-the-scenes tour of where the magic happens.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Typically free, but to repay the restaurant for their hospitality, you can make a reservation to eat a meal at the restaurant before or after your tour
• How to Wrap It: Put together an event invitation, then print that and wrap it. To save time on the invitation, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

5. Help them branch out.

Help the child try their hand at a new challenge in the kitchen. For example, if they’ve never made ice cream, get them the supplies to make a homemade batch. Or if they want to try cake decorating, candy-making, or fudge, hook them up with everything they’ll need.

To take this gift to the next level, you can sign the child up for a related class on Outschool. Classes are small groups of students who meet via video chat regularly, and teachers are experts on the topic they’re teaching about. At the time I sat down to write this post, I found classes on cake decorating, French macarons, cake pops, bread, candy, and more.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies depending on the project and whether you have the supplies on hand
• How to Wrap It: Fill a basket or box with the supplies they’ll need, including any special ingredients or kitchen utensils. To save time, you can pick up a ready-made kit like this bread-making kit or this ice cream kit, which both teach kids about the science behind the process.

6. Chase the best.

What’s the child’s favorite food in the whole world? If it’s steak, research the absolute best restaurant for steak within a 50-mile radius and take them there. Whether they love barbecue, ice cream, or blueberry pie, find out who makes it the best, and take them on an adventure to try it out.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Whatever it typically costs for your family to eat out at a restaurant
• How to Wrap It: Print a map to the restaurant with a big red X to mark the spot.

7. Bake your way through the book.

Find a cookbook already on your shelves, then make a pledge to bake or cook your way through the book together. For example, you could get together with the child once a week to pick one recipe from the book to make. Or if you don’t live in the same city as the child, you can meet up on Zoom and bake in tandem.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Free if you use an existing cookbook
• How to Wrap It: Put together an event invitation, then print that and wrap it. If you don’t already have a cookbook that seems like a good fit, you can include a new cookbook with this gift. Here are a few favorite kid-friendly cookbooks from my own foodie kid, who’s checked out every kids’ cookbook from the library:
  • The Complete Baking Book for Young Chefs for kids who love baking—this is from America’s Test Kitchen, so it’s higher quality than your average kids’ cookbook
  • The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs for more variety—another one from America’s Test Kitchen
  • Milk Bar: Kids Only

Gifts for Kids Who Love Animals

If the child loves animals, here are a few experience gifts for kids that are tailor-made for them.

1. Attract new friends.

Gift the child a sturdy bird feeder along with high-quality bird seed, a butterfly habitat, or a squirrel feeder shaped like a miniature picnic table. They’ll have a blast watching the wildlife come to visit! To round out this gift, consider including a pair of kid-sized binoculars and a bird-watching guide or a guide to local native wildlife they can keep an eye out for.

• Ages: Toddler to elementary
• Cost: Varies, but you can typically pick up a sturdy feeder for under $30
• How to Wrap It: Wrap the wildlife feeder along with any extra supplies you’re gifting the child.

2. Arrange a meet-and-greet.

Some zoos and nature reserves offer special animal encounters just for animal-loving kids. Check with your local spots on whether they have age restrictions and what’s involved with reserving an encounter.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Put together an event invitation, then print that and wrap it. To save time on the invitation, use a gift certificate template as explained in the But First: How Do You Wrap an Experience? section above.

3. Sponsor their favorite.

Make a donation to sponsor the child’s favorite animal. Most local zoos, aquariums, and animal sanctuaries allow you to donate in this way. Then you can plan a visit to the zoo and pretend to find the animal you sponsored. You can talk about how your donation went towards feeding the animal, getting medicine for when it’s sick, or cleaning the poo out of its enclosure. When it comes to experience gifts for kids, sponsoring a zoo animal is a gift that will keep on giving.

• Ages: Toddler to elementary
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Some zoos will send you a certificate about the animal you sponsored, or you can make one yourself. As another idea, you can give the child a miniature stuffed animal along with the certificate, like this cute owl, lion, giraffe, or elephant.

4. Make them a regular.

Cover the membership fee or annual passes for a zoo, aquarium, farm, or petting zoo so the child can visit throughout the year anytime they want.

• Ages: Toddler to elementary
• Cost: Varies
• How to Wrap It: Print the membership certificate from the zoo or other attraction and wrap that.

Want More?

For experience gift ideas for everyone on your list, head to The Ultimate (Most Epic!) List of the Best Experience Gift Ideas.

Your Turn

What are your favorite experience gifts for kids? Share in a comment below!

The post 110+ Experience Gifts for Kids That Will Make Your Child Happier and Cut Clutter appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

The end of every year brings together three of my family’s most important core values:

• Spending quality time together, whether that means reading books, playing fun family board games (i.e. not Candyland), or just enjoying each other’s company,
• Expressing gratitude for our blessings and finding ways to give to others, and
• Dessert.

Because this is our absolute favorite time of year, we try to soak up as much winter holiday spirit (and dessert) as humanly possible.

One year, we channeled Clark Griswold with our outdoor lights and put them up before Halloween. Sorry, neighbors! (But hey, science says decorating early makes you happier, so there’s that.)

Another year, we planned an elaborate Polar Express^† night for the kids, complete with hot cocoa and marshmallows, golden tickets like this, and my husband dressing up as the train conductor.

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

And then this year, we decided to build up our home library of Christmas books for kids, so we embarked on a quest to find the absolute best children’s Christmas books.

Sounds fairly tame, except that we started our quest in August, and we’ve spent three solid months reading every Christmas or winter holiday book we could get our hands on.

The Problem With Some Christmas Books for Kids

Since becoming parents, we’ve amassed a small but treasured collection of favorite Christmas picture books. These are books we love as much as our kids do, so we don’t mind reading them again and again every December.

But early on in our quest to find the best Christmas books for kids, we realized something unfortunate about some of the holiday stories out there: they were long and preachy.

I certainly don’t mind reading a longer picture book if my kids are into it. But my 5-year-old bookworm started doing something that made me realize some of the children’s Christmas books may be too long for their target audience. This is a child who would happily listen to me read a stack of 50 picture books in one sitting. But for some of these holiday books, she would turn to me after we were a few pages into the story and say, “Mommy, can we stop reading this now?”

As it turns out, kids don’t really want to listen to a lecture disguised as a children’s book.

So we focused on finding the best Christmas books that we can share with our children to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season.

Related: The Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything

The Best Children’s Books That Will Make Your Child’s Holiday Magical

The goal of my family’s months-long research project to find Christmas books for kids was simple: find the best books that both kids and parents will enjoy. (Because if our kids are going to ask us to read a Christmas story again and again, it may as well be something we appreciate, too!)

Every week, I put a huge stack of books on hold at the library, plus at every visit I browsed the shelves for even more children’s Christmas books—not to mention every Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and other winter holiday book I could find. While we celebrate Christmas in our family, I want my kids to understand, appreciate, and respect the holidays celebrated by other families.

All told, my kids and I read hundreds of picture books on the topic of Christmas and other winter holidays.

The list below is the cream of the crop from those hundreds of books: the books I loved reading, and the books my kids couldn’t get enough of. Read these Christmas books for kids to get your whole family excited about the holiday season.

Related: 42 Experience Gifts That Will Make You Everyone’s Favorite Person

Bonus: How to Turn This List Into a Festive Book Advent Calendar

For an extra special way to share these Christmas books with your children, many families enjoy sharing holiday stories through book Advent calendars.

Here’s how you start a Christmas book Advent tradition:

1. Get copies of 25 children’s Christmas books from this list. If you’re on a budget, most of these titles are available used for cheap, or you can also check them out from the library.
2. Wrap the books and stack them next to your Christmas tree. (If you’re borrowing them from the library, just be careful with the tape and tell your kids the library is letting you borrow them.)
3. Every day in December, let your children pick one book to open. If you have more than one kid, taking turns every day works well.
4. Enjoy a different Christmas story every day as a family.

Kids love this Advent calendar book-a-day tradition, but if 25 books of Christmas feels like a bit much, you might try another tradition from Iceland called Jolabokaflod, or the “Christmas Book Flood.” For this, you give each other books on Christmas Eve and spend the night reading and drinking hot cocoa. Sounds magical to me!

Related: 30 Fun Holiday Activities for Your Advent Calendar {Printable}

32 Most Heartfelt and Meaningful Christmas Books for Kids

And now for your list of the most magical Christmas books for kids that you’ll want to share with your family every December!

But first, a quick warning: I was surprised to find that many of our favorite children’s Christmas books are now out of print. If you see a book on this list you’d like to pick up for your family, you may want to do it this year rather than waiting until next year. I learned the hard way—some books I’d planned on picking up copies of this year are now out of print, and now they’re not available anywhere online. Ack!

Also, to keep things simple, you should know that we skipped over any holiday sequels to other children’s books. If a holiday version of one of your kid’s favorite children’s books is out there, go for it!

Note: indicates my family’s absolute top favorites on the list. These are the books my kids can’t get enough of!

Classic Children’s Christmas Books

When it comes to the best Christmas books for kids, you can’t beat the classics. Every family seems to have their own favorite, but after reading aaaaaaaallllllllllllll the classic holiday tales in a short period of time, these are the ones our whole family loved most of all.

1. The Night Before Christmas

Out of all the countless renditions of this Christmas classic, this is the one you need in your home. Not only are the illustrations by Holly Hobbie the most magical I’ve seen for this story (and I’ve seen a lot of versions of this one!), my kids loved that the illustrator featured a child’s perspective in addition to the father’s. Surprising and beautiful and perfect.

If you’re looking for a different style of illustration, we also loved the version illustrated by Charles Santore and the fresh retelling by Rachel Isadora. (Beware that the latter isn’t available on Amazon or Barnes & Noble anymore, so you’ll have to check your library.)

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2. The Polar Express

No matter how many times I read this story, I always get choked up at the end. And even though all my kids know the truth about Santa, something about this book tugs at my heart and makes me want to believe. It doesn’t get more magical than this classic children’s Christmas book. Just beware that it’s a little on the longer side, so grab a mug of apple cider and settle in for a cozy read.

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3. The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers or The Nutcracker in Harlem

Many families have a tradition of going to see The Nutcracker ballet every year, but our youngest kids are still too little to appreciate it, so instead we immerse ourselves in retellings of the story. But we couldn’t decide on a favorite between these two! The illustrations are gorgeous in both, and the retellings are unique. This also works great for explaining the story ahead of time to help younger kids follow along with the story when they’re watching it live. (That will make them less likely to “whisper” questions to you asking what’s going on during the show.)

For an interactive experience, try The Story Orchestra: The Nutcracker, which has readers press a button on each page to hear a snippet of Tchaikovsky’s music. A beautiful way to experience The Nutcracker!

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4. The Little Match Girl

This is a classic holiday story from Hans Christian Andersen that I remember reading as a child, so I wanted to share it with my children too. Fair warning: You will probably cry. But even though this isn’t a cheerful holiday story, it’s still one of our favorites. It’s the reminder we need every year that winter isn’t always a joyful time for too many people around the world. This story always makes us reflect on our blessings and think of how we can help others who may be struggling this holiday season.

Of all the classic children’s Christmas books we read together as a family, this one made the biggest impact on my kids.

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Related: The Ultimate List of the Best Picture Books, Endorsed by Kids And Parents

Heartwarming Christmas Books for Kids

Out of the hundreds of children’s Christmas books we read, these are the most heartfelt and meaningful stories we came across. You’ll want to share these with your child every year!

1. Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem – This Maya Angelou masterpiece should be in every collection of Christmas books for kids. If poetry isn’t your thing, don’t let the subtitle “A Christmas Poem” turn you off this gem. As you read, this book fills your soul. It finds all the cracks and fissures created by hardships and disappointment and just fills them right up with a warm golden light. This beautiful story captures the magic of the Christmas season, and I’m so thankful our little Christmas book research project brought it to my family.
2. Red and Lulu – Through gorgeous artwork, we follow the story of two cardinals who live in a beautiful evergreen tree but get separated accidentally. With so many Christmas books for kids being focused on Santa and the materialistic side of the holiday season, this book is a refreshing story that has nothing to do with buying stuff or getting stuff. Plus, your kids will get a fascinating history lesson about the real Rockefeller tree and a world-famous Christmas tradition. You have to read this one! So, so good.
3. Night Tree – If you pick up only three books from this list, you need Amazing Peace, Red and Lulu, and this heartwarming little story. This is an older book and it’s available only in paperback, so you may want to move fast on this one before it’s officially out of print. In this story, you see a young boy and his family heading to the forest for an annual holiday tradition. Their tradition will make you go “awww” but my absolute favorite part is the relationship between the boy and his little sister. Everyone with a sibling will definitely be able to relate! I never get tired of reading this beautiful book to my kids. A new family favorite!
4. Christmas Farm – What a little gem of a book! A woman decides to plant Christmas trees on her land, so she enlists the help of a boy who lives next door. We loved their sweet friendship, and also we loved learning all about the process of growing Christmas trees. My kids were shocked at how long it takes! The book has a great way of demonstrating the length of time in a way kids can easily understand. This one’s in our regular nightly rotation during the holiday season.
5. The Christmas Boot – This book surprised me. Each page has more text than I would typically expect my toddler to be able to sit through, but she was engrossed in this story. It has an old-timey folktale feel to it, but it’s actually an original story by Lisa Wheeler. This is a beautiful, magical Christmas tale, and it sparked some great conversations with my kids about deciding to do what’s right even if it’s hard or uncomfortable. Side note: The author wrote this book in honor of her friend Linda Smith, one of my favorite children’s books authors of all-time who passed away from cancer. (If you haven’t read Mrs. Biddlebox, promise me you will find a copy and share it with your child. It’s out of print, but Amazon still has a few used copies left, or you can check your library!)
6. Great Joy – In this story set in the 1940s, a young girl notices an organ grinder and his pet monkey out in the cold on the street. The girl’s journey of awareness and then finding her voice for change is powerful. The ending also sparked a lot of discussion with my children about how we can help those in need during the holiday season. Beautifully illustrated and written.
7. The Christmas Magic – This gentle Christmas picture book is perfect as a bedtime read-aloud. The lyrical text (like when “Santa feels a tingling in his whiskers”) and watercolor illustrations are beautiful, but what I love most of all is how this imagining of Santa captures the anticipation of Christmas, which is something children can very much relate to. Also, I appreciate how this book shows all the hard, thoughtful work that Santa puts into getting ready for the big day. That can help build kids’ gratitude about the holiday season: all the fun stuff is possible because someone who loves them did the work to make it happen.
8. A Houseful of Christmas – This book is older and seems to be out of print, so it might be hard to get your hands on. But if you typically visit extended family for the holiday season or if you have a big immediate family, this is a must-have for your children’s Christmas book collection. I loved how this book captured the chaos and fun of a big family, and it just felt plain cozy to read with my kids cuddled up around me. An absolutely sweet, heartwarming holiday tale!
9. A Homemade Together Christmas – This story starts out with a pig family that’s decorating for the holidays, and they decide to give each other homemade gifts for Christmas. The youngest pig Luca has trouble thinking of something he can make, and everything he tries to make doesn’t turn out well. So finally, he settles on the perfect gift. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but if you want to show your kids that the best part of Christmas is spending time together, this is the perfect book to show just that. This story is so stinkin’ cute!
10. Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size Holiday Lessons – During the holiday season, we tend to throw around abstract words that our kids don’t quite understand. Words like “tradition,” “gratitude,” and “peace.” What I love about this book is how it brings those abstract concepts to life for children. Plus, in our family we go a bit bananas over Christmas cookies, so it was the perfect analogy for our kids to really dig into the concepts and learn what they mean. And as if we needed an excuse to make (more) cookies, the book ends with a cookie recipe!
11. Pick a Pine Tree – Every year on the day after Thanksgiving, we get this book out and read it while enjoying a cup of hot cocoa (with extra marshmallows!), then head out to pick out our Christmas tree as a family. This book is all about the tradition of picking a Christmas tree and the fun of decorating it, so it’s the perfect story to pair with your own tree tradition. Plus, the illustrations have a fun, retro vibe that will put a smile on your face.
12. Christmas Day in the Morning – This heartfelt story is on the longer side, so it’s best for older kids who have a longer attention span. The main character is a young boy who wants to get his hard-working father something for Christmas, but he doesn’t have any money to spend. What he comes up with in the end will warm even the Scroogiest of hearts.
13. The Last Christmas Tree – In a parking lot filled with big, beautiful Christmas trees, one little tree anxiously awaits its turn to get picked. But then it gets passed over again and again, until it’s all alone on Christmas Eve. This story encourages kids to see the beauty and value in all things, even when they’re not the biggest and “best.”
14. Santa Clauses: Short Poems from the North Pole – Such a delightful little book! It opens with a typewritten note: “Santa is a man of many talents. He’s a toymaker, a reindeer trainer, a sleigh pilot, and a world traveler. But did you know he is also a poet?” Then you get one fun haiku for every day from December 1-25. The short poems feature vignettes of Santa’s life leading up to the big day, like Mrs. Claus making snow angels and Santa untangling Christmas lights. Thanks to the suggestion of other reviewers, we’ll be keeping this by our free printable Advent calendar so we can read one a day throughout December. Side benefit: After reading this the first time, it inspired our kids to write their own holiday-themed haiku!

Related: The Ultimate List of the Best Children’s Books About Kindness

Silly And Funny Children’s Christmas Books

For a fun break from the heartwarming Christmas picture books, mix in one of these silly, funny tales.

1. The 12 Days of Christmas – This is the book that finally taught our family the correct order of all the gifts in the song “The 12 Days of Christmas.” And as a bonus, the story told through the illustrations is hilarious. Side note: At the end of the book the first time we read it, my 5-year-old turned me and said, “Why would somebody give all that for Christmas, anyway?” That prompted me to look up the history of the song, where I discovered that the song’s original intention was most likely to be a memory game of sorts. Who knew?
2. Morris’s Disappearing Bag – What a quirky, adorable little Christmas story! If you have more than one child, this is a story that will resonate even more deeply with them. The youngest will understand how Morris feels left out, and the oldest will get a big dose of empathy for their younger sibling. But don’t worry because it’s not heavy-handed at all. It’s light, silly, and a joy to read over and over. I’m so happy we discovered this hidden gem of a Christmas picture book!
3. The Christmas Crocodile – My kids adore this odd little Christmas story and are currently asking for it every single day. My hunch is that every time the crocodile misbehaves and I read the refrain of “The Christmas Crocodile didn’t mean to be bad, not really,” my younger kids can relate to those moments where they give into their impulses and then regret it afterwards. The part I love most is when the little girl in the story gets frustrated with the crocodile, but then she feels a twinge of sympathy and decides to give him another chance. This is a funny Christmas story of redemption tailor-made for kids whose little brains are still working on developing impulse control.
4. How Murray Saved Christmas – The first time I read this silly, offbeat Christmas story to my kids, I could not stop smiling. Then the kids started giggling (even the 10-year-old), and I got the giggles too. What an absolutely fun read! The story is told in the style of The Night Before Christmas, so it has a fun rhythm to it. But fair warning: If potty humor bothers you, best to skip it.
5. Rudy’s Windy Christmas – Speaking of potty humor: If your kids get a kick out of that, this Christmas picture book is right up their alley. Our kids gave into fits of giggles over all the new phrases they learned that mean “pass gas,” like a “I’ve done a booty burp” and “my bottom did a trump.” While we didn’t love this one enough to purchase a copy for our home library, we will be checking it out from the library every year during the holiday season!
6. Santa Claus, the World’s Number One Toy Expert – We’re huge fans of Marla Frazee’s artwork (especially Everywhere Babies and All the World), so it was fun to find a Christmas book for kids written and illustrated by Frazee. In this adorable little book, you get a peek behind the curtain at Santa and all the hard work that goes into picking out the right toy for every child. Be sure to take time on each page to look for all the playful details in the illustrations!
7. Laugh-Out-Loud Christmas Jokes for Kids – This book is from our favorite series of joke books, Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids. In this edition, you get lots of festive jokes that kids will love, like “What’s a sheep’s favorite Christmas song?” Fleece Navidad. Or “What do gingerbread men use when they break their legs?” Candy canes. Quick tip: This book is the perfect size for a stocking stuffer.

Related: 10 Small But Meaningful Stocking Stuffers That Will Delight Your Kids {Printable}

Winter Holiday Books About Traditions Around the World

These winter holiday books are a lovely way to introduce your children to how people around the world celebrate their own winter traditions.

1. Winter Candle – This book is out of print, so you’ll need to get it at your local library. But I’ve been scouring my local used bookstores for a copy because it’s so good. This is the powerful story of how a single candle touches the lives of five different families who celebrate five different winter holiday traditions. Not only does the book introduce children to different traditions from different cultures, but the example of neighbors helping neighbors is utterly beautiful. If I ever find a used copy of this, I’m never letting it go!
2. Oskar and the Eight Blessings – In this story, a boy named Oskar sets off in a ship for New York City to escape Nazi Germany. For younger children, this is a poignant introduction to the traditions of Hanukkah and the holiday spirit. But older children will feel more deeply the severity of Oskar’s situation of his parents sending him off to another country to escape the horrors of his own home. For kids who want to learn more, be sure to share the historical background at the end of the book.
3. Walk This World at Christmas Time – This is a gorgeous book! Each page spread shows how people around the world celebrate different aspects of Christmas. You can lift little flaps to discover more details, and my kids loved hunting down all the flaps and then finding what was hidden under each flap. We put this one next to our Advent calendar and explore a little every night.
4. My First Kwanzaa – This is an introduction to Kwanzaa that’s best suited for younger kids. You may want to explain each of the principles covered and what they mean because the abstract concepts can be hard for kids to understand, but this was a great starting point for the conversation.
5. A World of Cookies for Santa: Follow Santa’s Tasty Trip Around the World – If your kids love treats, this one is a fun addition to your collection of children’s Christmas books. The book steps through the Christmas cookie traditions of 32 different cultures, and you even get the recipes for some of them. (In fact, my only regret with this book is that we didn’t get the recipes for all of the cookies mentioned, but that’s easy enough to Google these days!)
6. The Story of Hanukkah – This book is a great introduction for kids and families who don’t yet have any background knowledge of the history of the holiday and the traditions surrounding how it’s celebrated today. Just beware that the story does get a little violent in some spots (but then again, so does the Bible). If those parts are too much for your child, you can just tone down the language or skip those details as you read aloud.
7. Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story – Kids with siblings will relate to this story of seven brothers in an African village who fight and bicker all the time. We loved how the book laid out the history and seven principles of Kwanzaa and delivered a powerfully original story.

Bonus book: Our library didn’t have a copy of Lucia Morning in Sweden, but it’s on our list to pick up a copy next year because we’ve heard great things about it!

Bonus! 4 Awesome Christmas Chapter Books

My oldest reads chapter books constantly, so she set herself a personal goal to read as many Christmas chapter books as she could this year. Every time she found one she loved, she added it to a list for me. Then I read her favorites and whittled it down to the ones we both loved.

If you’re looking for a Christmas chapter book that will make a great read-aloud with older kids, this is the list for you!

1. A Boy Called Christmas – This is a fun adventure story complete with magic (elves and trolls and pixies!), and the humor reminded me a lot of Roald Dahl. We decided this will be a Christmas chapter book we re-read together every year as a family to get ourselves in the Christmas spirit. If you enjoy this one, be sure to check out the companion books, The Girl Who Saved Christmas and Father Christmas and Me. Such a fun series!
2. The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street – In this story, a family of seven finds out their landlord will be kicking them out of their beloved home right after Christmas. The five Vanderbeeker children are heartbroken, so they come up with a plan to save their home. This was a heartwarming holiday read!
3. Paper Chains – This is a story of friendship that takes place during the holiday season. While it’s not as overtly Christmas-y as the other Christmas chapter books in this list, this is just an absolutely lovely, sweet read so we had to include it. If you enjoy it, you’ll want to check out its companion Like Magic next.
4. Winterfrost – The Larsen family is preparing for their Christmas Eve celebration when the grandmother breaks her hip. They need to take her to the hospital, so they leave the 12-year-old and her baby sister home—and that’s when the adventure starts. We loved learning about the Scandinavian Christmas traditions in this sweet story!

Your Turn

What are your favorite Christmas books for kids? Share in a comment below!

The post The Ultimate List of the Best Christmas Books for Kids appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

Newborns need a lot of stuff. Onesies, diapers and wipes, a car seat, a diaper bag, a snot-sucking device, and on and on.

But in the rush to get all the newborn must haves on the baby’s registry, it’s easy to forget something important: The mom-to-be is in for the ride of her life.

Not only is the new mom about to go through one of the most physically painful experiences of her life, but after the baby comes, she’ll be stuck on what feels like a neverending emotional roller coaster. And it doesn’t help matters that she’ll be lucky to get two hours straight of sleep in the weeks ahead.

But if you want to support a new mom in your life by surprising her with the perfect gift, what do you get someone who’s super emotional, sleep-deprived, and has absolutely zero free time?

How to Make a New Mom Feel Absolutely Loved And Supported

I’ve had four babies, so friends and family often ask me for advice on what’s the best gift to get for a new mom: flowers, a card, or…?

Because even though an industrial-sized pack of disposable nursing pads would be useful, most people want to know the best new mom gifts that will actually make the new mom feel special and loved. Not a gift for the baby or sad leftovers from the registry, but a thoughtful gift just for the new mother.

After each of my babies were born, I was lucky to receive a few thoughtful gifts that made my life as a mom easier during those early newborn days.

Those gifts weren’t the typical gifts for new mothers you hear about, but they made such an impact on me that I wanted to pay it forward and share them here.

Related: 9 Baby Must Haves That Make the Perfect Gifts for New Dads

36 Most Meaningful New Mom Gifts

In this list, you’ll find the new mom gift ideas that are my personal favorites as a mom who’s been through the newborn stage four times. But I also scoured list after list after list to find even more meaningful gifts for new moms, then I surveyed hundreds of moms to find out their favorite new mom gifts, too.

If you want to make a new mom feel special, skip the flowers and give her one of these meaningful new mom gifts that will stand the test of time. Whether you need ideas for new mom gifts after birth or adoption or for first Mother’s Day gifts for a new mom, you can’t go wrong with these thoughtful essentials.

Gifts of Nourishment

Not only do these make the perfect gifts for first-time moms, but they’re also very much appreciated by second-time moms too – and third-time and beyond!

1. Keep her awake. With a new baby who wakes up every two hours all night long (or more), the mom will need all the help she can get to function during the day. Surprise her with this fun coffee subscription box† where she can sample new roasts and find a new favorite. Kind of like a wine tasting – but with coffee and delivered straight to her door. If the new mom prefers tea, they also have a tea-of-the-month club that I can personally recommend. To round out this gift, you can add a spill-proof insulated coffee mug like this gorgeous tumbler. That way, the new mom won’t have to reheat her coffee 27 times a day! Or if she’s a cold-brew kind of gal, this 12-pack of lightly sweetened cold-brew double espresso is delicious. (Side note: Many breastfeeding experts agree that nursing moms can have caffeine in moderation.)

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

2. Share your yummiest dinner. Just about every mom I surveyed said they loved this new mom gift: Make your best dinner or soup you can freeze, and give it to the mom to use on a night when the family is too exhausted to make dinner. Even better, any leftovers will work well as lunch for the family the next day. A few things to consider for this gift idea:
   • Lasagna is usually the number one gifted meal, so if you have another great dish you can gift, the new mom will probably appreciate some variety!
   • Bonus if it’s a meal she can eat one-handed while holding the baby, and double bonus if you drop it off in a new baking dish and tell her, “Don’t worry about returning the dish…it’s yours!”
   • To be on the safe side, you may want to check ahead of time to find out if there are any food allergies or aversions. You can also ask if the mom has any particular cravings. As one mom told me, “I craved cheeseburgers for several weeks postpartum!”
   • As another option, gift cards to Grubhub or Uber Eats make great new mom gifts because the family can pick out exactly what they want.
   • A few moms told me they really appreciated when friends offered to bring a meal after the first month or two because offers of help tend to dry up by then, but it’s still a challenging time for the new parents.
   • Another fun alternative: Bake a batch of healthy breakfast muffins she can freeze and warm up when she needs a quick one-handed breakfast after a night of way too little sleep.
   • You can team up with the mom’s other loved ones and organize a meal calendar where you all take turns dropping off meals.

“A former co-worker organized like 20 days of dinners that were dropped off…It was almost every night for two weeks or so, and it was incredible! Some brought hot meals right at dinner, some brought things early that I could freeze or pop in the oven, one ordered pizza for us, one asked for our Panera order and dropped it off – ALL of it was amazing!” – Sarah

3. Do the hard work for her. Nothing beats a fresh, home-cooked meal, but the new mom may not have time to look for healthy recipes and do the grocery shopping to pick up all the ingredients. I’m a big fan of Blue Apron because they do all the hard work for you. They send you a proven, simple recipe and all the ingredients, and you just have to throw everything together. If you want to try it out, here’s a coupon code to get $60 off your first three boxes from Blue Apron.

4. Prepare her for the first 40 days. At first glance, I thought The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother was a book of postpartum recipes. But this book is so much more, and it’s one of the loveliest new mom gifts I’ve come across. The book shares postpartum traditions from around the world that nourish the mother, talks about common postpartum feelings that might be scary or confusing, and helps you prepare for this challenging phase of motherhood. The recipes are great too!
5. Make cookies with a purpose. When I had my first child, lactation cookies weren’t a “thing” yet, so I’ve made it my mission to catch up on lactation cookie consumption ever since. Basically, they’re cookies made with ingredients that are supposed to support a nursing or pumping mother’s milk production, like oatmeal and almond butter. Whip up a batch of lactation cookies as a gift to the new mom, then drop them off. She’ll get to snack on a treat while feeling good about it! We’ve used this delicious recipe for ourselves and as a gift to others, and the cookies turned out great. If you’d rather not get a bunch of extra ingredients you won’t use again, you can get a ready-made lactation cookie mix like this, make the first batch to give the new mom, then gift her the freshly baked cookies and any leftover mix.
6. Fill a basket. Nursing moms need even more calories than pregnant moms, so she’ll appreciate having quick snacks on hand – especially snacks she can eat one-handed. Get a basket and fill it up with snacks like nuts, fruit, healthy snack bars like chocolate sea salt RXBars or cherry pie Larabars, and so on. To go the extra mile, you can add extra goodies like a reusable water bottle and fun paper straws to help her stay hydrated, lactation tea, lip gloss, nail polish, a couple magazines, and any other little new mom gift ideas from this list. The ultimate care package for new moms!

7. Make it fresh. It’s nearly impossible to cut up fresh fruit and veggies one-handed while holding a baby, so give the gift of healthy snacks and drop off a fruit or veggie tray. Or for a fun alternative, you can order an Edible Arrangements fresh fruit bouquet.

“Fruit…made me feel somewhat healthy when my body felt like a hot mess.” – Sarah

8. Take an errand off her list. Most metropolitan areas now offer grocery delivery services, which are an amazing timesaver for new parents. You can ask her what she needs at the store, then have it delivered – or you can give her a gift certificate for grocery delivery and let her order exactly what she needs. Many families said they use and love the Instacart grocery delivery service (my family included!). Instacart offers cute gift cards here.
9. Bring her lunch. In many families after the initial settling-in period with a new baby, the dad will go back to work on weekdays while the mom is home alone with her little one. The lack of adult interaction all day can get super lonely, so surprise her by bringing over take-out for lunch, then just hang out with her and chat. She’ll be thankful for the visit to break up the long day! Bonus points if you can hold the baby for a few minutes to give her a break – if you have extra time, ask if she’d like to take a shower or a nap while you watch the baby.

“Visit the new mom, but don’t make her do the work; she doesn’t need additional work. And don’t just assume she wants someone else to look after the baby. Maybe all she wants is to be able to look after the baby and not worry about other things.” – Cynthia

Related: 12 Magical Newborn Must Haves You Need on Your Registry

New Mom Gifts of Self-Care

When you’re looking for new mother gifts, you can’t go wrong with these gifts of self-care. These are the best gifts for a new mom for herself.

1. Give her time. In a survey of hundreds of mothers, nearly everyone suggested the gift of time as one of the best gifts for new moms after birth or adoption:
   • Offer to hold her baby while the new mom does what she needs to take care of herself. She may want a shower, a leisurely bath, a nap, a walk by herself, or just to run to Target alone – or something else entirely. For example, you might text your friend and say something like, “I’d love to give you two hours! I can come over and hold the baby while you do whatever you need to like a shower or a nap. And if you just want to sit and visit for a couple hours, that sounds lovely too.”
   • For moms with older siblings, you can offer to take the big kid to the park or somewhere else fun so the mom can focus on her bundle of joy for a bit.
   • If you really want to go above and beyond for a close friend or family member, you can offer to spend the night and be on “baby duty” so she can sleep.

“The best ‘gift’ I received was a solid night of sleep…My mother came over and let me sleep through the night a couple few times and it was the absolute best thing ever!” – Lanaye

2. Remind her to take five. As a new mom, she may feel like she’s constantly on the go with no time to stop. Help her develop a habit of taking five-minute “mindful breaks” that will keep her happy and healthy with this book: Breathe, Mama, Breathe: 5-Minute Mindfulness for Busy Moms. This practical guide is a must-have gift for every mother – new and seasoned!

3. Awaken her inner child. Coloring is a fun self-care activity that’s perfect for new moms because you can do it in short spurts of time, and it’s quiet enough that you won’t wake the baby you just spent an hour getting to sleep. The action of coloring calls on both logic (staying in the lines) and creativity (picking colors and color schemes), and that combo package is exactly what a mom’s brain needs to chill out. Give her one of these absolutely gorgeous coloring books designed just for adults, along with some pretty gel pens, coloring brush pens, or a set of fancy colored pencils. Or if you want a coloring book that’s a little on the sassy side, this #Momlife coloring book is hilarious.
4. Get her out of the house. When I was a brand new mom, a friend gave me a gift card to a local yoga studio for their mommy and me classes. Those classes were a lifesaver. Not only did it get me out of the house, but I made new friends with other moms who had newborns and got some gentle exercise for my postpartum body too. Check with a local yoga studio and see if they offer mommy and me classes, and if so, get the new mom a gift card.
5. Hire a postpartum doula. Picture a person who’s lived through the newborn phase hundreds of times, so they’ve seen it all. Breastfeeding problems, inconsolable crying (from the baby or the new mom), a house that looks like it got hit by a tornado. And not only has this angelic person seen it all, but she knows how to help you get through the toughest moments. Need help with your latch? Worried about the emotions you’re feeling? Need someone to take the baby for a couple hours so you can just sleep? A postpartum doula can do all that and more. Some doulas will even do light housekeeping, run errands, prep meals, and anything else you need during the newborn phase. To find a postpartum doula in the new mom’s area, use this doula search.

“We had one amazing daytime postpartum doula and one really good overnight postpartum doula after my daughter came home from the NICU, and it was a game changer.” – Dawn

6. Take away the guilt. Some moms feel guilty setting up spa services for themselves, so give her a guilt-free experience she’ll appreciate with a gift certificate for a massage, mani/pedi, or anything else you know she’d enjoy. To go the extra mile, you can add a handwritten note along with the gift certificate: “Let me know when you book it, and I’ll come over to babysit!”

7. Bring the spa to her. Help the new mom feel pampered by putting together a few bath and body products in a gift box or basket, like shampoo, body wash, moisturizer, facial masks, body lotion, or dry shampoo for the days a shower just ain’t happening. Quick tip: You may want to opt for unscented or natural body products because strongly scented products on mama’s skin may irritate the baby’s skin. You’ll really surprise her if you find out from her partner ahead of time what her favorite products are – because odds are she hasn’t had a chance to run to the store to restock lately. As another option, you can get her a gift card for an in-home massage with the Zeel app. With Zeel, she can book an in-home massage with just an hour’s notice!

“When my second baby was born, I remember a friend bringing a set of shower gel and body lotion. She looked at me and said ‘something for you, not for the baby, because he’s got you.’ I felt so loved.” – Stefane

8. Get her aligned. Many moms experience back pain after labor, but they may not prioritize setting up an appointment with a chiropractor when they’re focused on surviving the newborn days. Ask her partner or a close friend if the new mom sees a chiropractor, and call the office to prepay her next appointment or two.

Related: 7 Tips for Postpartum Clothes That Won’t Make You Look Pregnant

New Mom Gifts to Make Her Feel Beautiful

These gift ideas for new moms will remind her that she’s still beautiful, even after pregnancy and childbirth and sleep deprivation.

1. Give a gift certificate for a haircut and/or color. When you’re a new mom, you’re so focused on the baby that you may not remember to shower, let alone set up your next hair appointment. When you do remember, it will be during a middle-of-the-night feeding when you can’t do anything about it. If you give the new mom a gift certificate, she can stick it on her fridge as a reminder to set up that appointment during the day. It’s common for new moms to feel self-conscious about their bodies in the postpartum stage, so give her the gift of fabulous hair.
2. Snazz up her sleepwear. The new mom will want to wear something comfortable in the first few weeks postpartum, but she won’t be able to fit into her pre-pregnancy pajamas and lounge-around-the-house clothes quite yet. Before my fourth baby was born, my husband and kids got me several pairs of cute but comfortable pajamas that would fit postpartum, and I wore those 24-7 for weeks. Make sure to include a gift receipt in case she needs to exchange for a different size. These pajamas are my favorite and come in several colors – or you can get the short version here for summertime. If she’s all set on pajamas and lounge clothes, you can gift her a bathrobe made of cozy fabric and/or slippers.

“Basically, [give her] any new clothes that might not make her feel like a total frump! If I knew she were breastfeeding, a basic breastfeeding t-shirt/vest/camisole. Or just a gift voucher for a lingerie shop that I knew sold maternity underwear as well as other underwear.” – Alison

3. Honor her mama bear status. The new mom will need something easy to throw on when she’s too sleep-deprived to think straight, and the baby will be spitting up on herself every half hour, so get them both a gift that will help – these matching Mama Bear and Baby Bear shirts. Gray goes with everything, so she can get dressed without using any brain power. And baby will go through lots of onesies every day, so she can always use another one. If you think dad will feel left out, you can throw in the matching Papa Bear shirt here.

4. Give her something one-of-a-kind. One of the loveliest mom gifts I’ve ever received was a custom necklace with a birthstone for each of my little ones. A mom necklace also makes the perfect new mom gift because if she has any other kids later on, she can add more pendants to most of the mom necklaces you can find. Here are my favorite jewelry pieces that make great new mom gifts:
   • Family Tree Necklace from SoulPeaces – You can customize the number of leaves and whether to include the birthstones.
   • Hand Stamped Leaf Initial Necklace from Delezhen – Order the one-leaf version for a new mom, or make it a family necklace by including the initials and birthstones of the mom and her partner.
   • Birthstone Necklace from Belleza Mia – This is the mama necklace I have, and it is so perfectly delicate and beautiful.

“My mom got me a necklace with my son’s first name initial on it. I wear it everyday.” – Maggie

Gifts for New Moms to Keep the Home in Order

Some of the best gifts for first-time moms take the pressure off the new family when it comes to housework and errands.

1. Give her a clean house. This one could be a little touchy because you wouldn’t want to imply the new family is incapable of keeping their house clean. But most new parents have trouble fitting in house cleaning on top of everything else, so scheduling a house cleaning service would be a much-appreciated gesture. If you’re unsure with this one, first check with someone who can do a little reconnaissance work and make sure the mom will appreciate the gesture.
2. Pitch in. If the new mom is a close friend, you can stop by to visit and then pitch in to help out around the house. You can fold a load of laundry, load or empty the dishwasher, wipe down the kitchen counters, and so on. As with the previous gift, this can be touchy so it’s best to offer this just to close friends. It tends to work well if you offer something specific, like “Can I fold that basket of clothes?” or “Can I load the dishwasher?” If you ask “What can I do?” the new mom may feel awkward asking for something specific. Also, keep in mind that having visitors in your home can be especially draining for new parents, so try to keep your visit on the shorter side. This was another favorite gift mentioned by most moms in our survey of hundreds of mothers!

“A friend, seeing how exhausted I was, made me tea and cleaned my bathroom and kitchen. It took her less than an hour but required more energy than I could muster in that first week or so. When she was done, she sat and had a cup of tea with me, shared stories of her own first time mama experiences, held my son, laughed with me, and cried with me. It was the most meaningful gift I had received as a first time mama. It’s one I like to pay forward to other new mama friends.” – Suzette

3. Get her a robot. After my second child was born, we used a gift card on one of those fancy robot vacuums…and it was MAGICAL. We set it up to run every day, and we never had to think about sweeping or vacuuming. Such a lifesaver! This would be a pricey gift for a new mom but very much appreciated.
4. Give her free shipping. One of my favorite new mom gifts to give and receive is an Amazon Prime membership. Because anytime you run out of something essential, like diapers, nursing pads, or sinful chocolate truffles, the last thing you feel like doing is schlepping your overtired self to the store with baby in tow. With Amazon Prime, she can order whatever she needs and have it shipped right to her front door with their two-day free shipping. As an added benefit, a gift of Amazon Prime will also give the new mom access to all their movies, which is great for passing the time while holding a baby for several hours a day.

Gifts of Precious Memories

These new mom gifts double as one-of-a-kind keepsakes that she’ll treasure forever.

1. Help her reflect. This Q&A a Day book designed just for moms gives you one question a day for five years. The new mom can fill out the journal once a day in just a few minutes, then after a while she can look back on all her answers and have an amazing snapshot of this special time. As an alternative, you can get her Mom’s One Line a Day, which is similar but without the question prompts.

2. Prepare a message in a bottle. This gift doubles as a keepsake that the child will treasure the rest of their lives. Give the new mom these Letters to My Baby prompted letters, and she can fill them out and share them with her child one day when they’re older. Such a sweet way to help the mom record her hopes and dreams for her little one!
3. Record the firsts. Most baby memory books are long and involved, meaning they’re time-consuming for the new mom to fill out. But this short and sweet memory book is a perfect fit for new moms because it takes the pressure off. All she has to do is add a few photos and words, and she’ll have a beautiful record of baby’s first year. Then for saving baby’s physical keepsakes from the first ultrasound picture to baby’s first shoes and all the way up to that first lost tooth, I love this baby keepsake box that organizes it all. Then when her little one is older, she’ll be able to take this keepsake box off the shelf and share all the stories that go along with each physical artifact.

4. Capture her stories. This special journal called Letters to You is a cloth-bound keepsake book where the new mom will find prompts, questions, and space to write a letter to her child every year of their childhood. She can read the pages together with her little one through the years, or she can wait and give the finished book as a graduation or wedding day present. For a slightly different (but still amazingly special) gift, The Book of Me is a do-it-yourself memoir book with prompts for the new mother to record her family history and to reflect on her past, present, and future. Then one day, she’ll be able to gift this one-of-a-kind autobiography to her child as a keepsake he can treasure for the rest of his life to remember his mother. To sweeten the gift, add a special journaling pen to go along with the keepsake book.
5. Gear her up. If the new mother doesn’t have a decent camera and you’re looking for a more substantial new mom gift idea, a camera makes the perfect gift. She’ll be able to capture every little adorable thing her baby does and have those snapshots to look back on forever. We didn’t have a nice camera for our first child together, and because of that, we don’t have very many good photos of her as a baby – and we can never get that time back. This is why for our next child, we prioritized adding a camera to the budget before the baby arrived. Most recently, we were lucky to get a gift card we used towards the latest and greatest in digital cameras: a mirrorless digital camera. This style of camera is fast, more compact than a DSLR, and super quiet – so the new mom can snap pictures of that precious new baby sleeping!

6. Give her props. The new mom can use this set of milestone cards to capture adorable photos of her baby that mark baby’s firsts and measure the weeks and months of growth. All she has to do is set up a card near her baby and snap the pictures. The milestones include “Today I smiled for the first time,” “Today I said Ma-Ma for the first time,” “Today I slept through the night for the first time,” and lots more.
7. Capture this special time. Purchase a session with a family photographer. Or if you’re a skilled photographer yourself, offer to take an afternoon to snap a few shots of the new little family. We had a family session soon after our second child was born, and I’m so incredibly happy we have a record of that time together as a family! It wasn’t in the budget after our next child was born, so I can attest that this would be a much-appreciated gift.

Related: 21 Funny Baby Shower Gifts That Are Actually Useful for Baby and Mom

New Mom Gifts to Inspire and Entertain

New moms appreciate breaks from the monotony of 24-7 newborn care, which is why these gifts for new moms are the perfect fit.

1. Write a letter. This gift doubles as a keepsake that the new mom will treasure forever. Write a special handwritten letter to her to share encouraging words, happy wishes, or any words of wisdom you want to pass along. If you’re not sure what to write, just let her know that she’s doing a great job. Or if you want writing prompts, you can get these Letters to the New Mom prompted letters and give her 12 special letters.
2. Share wisdom. If you’re looking for empowering new mom gifts, check out The Postpartum Support Deck. During a daily or weekly routine, the new mother can select a card from the deck to find an empowering message to support her as a new mother, both emotionally and physically.

3. Feed her mind. The new mom will spend a huge chunk of every day holding her baby. In the early days, I usually spend four to five hours nursing every day, and even by 3 months old that’s only down to three hours. And if she happens to get a baby who only sleeps when held, she may be holding that baby several more hours as well. You can only scroll Facebook so much, so gift her a lightweight Kindle that she can hold one-handed while holding the baby too. She’ll get caught up on all that reading she’s been meaning to do, and the time will fly! Plus, when you give the new mom that version of the Kindle, it’s waterproof so she can take it in the bath with her, too. Several moms I talked to suggested a few specific titles as the best books for new moms. You can load her new Kindle with these titles, or if she prefers paper get her the physical books:
   • Breathe, Mama, Breathe: 5-Minute Mindfulness for Busy Moms – This book helps the new mom develop a habit of taking five-minute “mindful breaks” that will keep her happy and healthy.
   • The Fourth Trimester: A Postpartum Guide to Healing Your Body, Balancing Your Emotions, and Restoring Your Vitality – The postpartum period can be such a roller coaster for a new mom, but this book is an empowering guide through that tough time.
   • The Happy Sleeper: The Science-Backed Guide to Helping Your Baby Get a Good Night’s Sleep-Newborn to School Age – I’ve read a ton of sleep books, and this is the best hands down.
   • Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent – A fascinating review of baby parenting techniques around the world to inspire the new mom.
   • The Read-Aloud Handbook – This book will help her to raise a lifelong reader right from the start. Plus, the annotated list of great read-aloud books at the end is pure gold. It’s never too early (or too late!) to read aloud to your little one.
4. Give her unlimited entertainment. Because she’ll be holding a baby so much of her day (see above!), the new mom would appreciate a membership to any movie streaming service. If you gift her with Amazon Prime, in addition to the unlimited movie access she’ll also get free two-day shipping on any items she orders for a year, which is perfect for when you run out of diapers but you’re too exhausted to load baby up to run to the store.

Want More?

For the new dad, check out 9 Baby Must Haves That Make the Perfect Gifts for New Dads.

Your Turn

What are your picks for the best gifts for new moms? Share in a comment below!

The post 36 Most Useful + Meaningful New Mom Gifts, Picked by Moms appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

When I was in school, I was a little people pleaser. For example, I knew my teachers and my family wanted straight A’s, so that’s what I went after. Not because I enjoyed the learning process or because I was looking ahead to college. Just because I was chasing acceptance and validation from others.

So I set my heart on those A’s, and I got them…all except for one subject.

Science class slayed me. Earth sciences, biology, chemistry. I was abysmal in every single science class I ever took, and I could barely look my science teachers in the eye.

And then in high school, I had physics with Mr. Henderson.

On the first day of class, I had absolutely zero belief in myself when it came to learning anything science-related. But then Mr. Henderson went and did something brilliant.

He made science fun.

The Problem With Kids And Science

Before Mr. Henderson’s physics class, I thought I hated science. I thought I was terrible at it. I thought I’d never understand it.

But a funny thing happens when you inject fun into the learning process.

Kids don’t have to slog through a textbook, re-reading the same paragraph five times just to understand 70 percent of it. When kids are having fun learning, they don’t have time to fuel the self-fulfilling prophecy that they’ll never “get” it. They go from giving you a blank stare to trying harder than ever before—but this time with a twinkle in their eyes.

Injecting fun into the learning process switches kids’ brains on.

Thanks to Mr. Henderson’s class, my opinion of my science aptitude completely shifted. I went from hating science to loving science.

How to Foster Your Child’s Love of Science

When I had my first child, I swore to myself that I would make science fun for her before she got to that first science class that destroyed her belief in herself. Before she decided science is boring.

Part of my motivation is knowing that kids who have a good understanding of science, technology, engineering, and math are likely to have more career opportunities in those fields.

But above all, I want my kids to enjoy the learning process so they become life-long students of our world. Because that makes for a much more enjoyable life than going through your days as a grumpy curmudgeon who’s shut your brain off to learning anything new past the age of 12.

Plus, constantly learning new things will help keep my kids’ brains safe from yucky stuff like Alzheimer’s and dementia when they get older, which is a nice bonus.

Related: The Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything

10 Best Science Gifts for Kids That Will Make Kids Love Science

For the last nine years of my kids’ birthdays and Christmases, I’ve made it my goal to look for the best science gifts for kids. Science gifts that will flip their brains to the “on” position the same way my awesome physics teacher switched on mine.

But unfortunately, some science toys for kids can be total duds. They give kids a set of detailed step-by-step instructions and expect kids to blindly follow along. That’s no better than a boring science textbook.

For kids to enjoy learning and to get the most out of the learning process, they need to be active participants—not just monkeys following instructions:

“Child development specialists say young children learn best when they are fully engaged and imbued with a feeling of control. They encourage parents to seek out more open-ended games and toys in which children could explore and create at their own pace.”

That’s why every pick in this list of the top science gifts for kids encourages children to join in on the learning process. You won’t find a lot of all-in-one science “kits” in this list because they tend not to be as fun for kids as open-ended science toys and games.

If you want to raise a child who loves science, these science gifts for kids are the perfect way to do just that.

Because science is definitely not boring—as long as you make it fun. (Thanks, Mr. Henderson!)

1. A Game for Budding Scientists

Ages: 4+

When it comes to science gifts for kids, board games are a fun way to get more than one kid excited about science (and parents too!). The key is to make sure the board game is actually fun and not so “educational” that kids won’t want to play it.

Here are a few of our favorite science board games for kids, plus others recommended by friends:

• Bird Bingo^†—Perfect for all ages, this bingo game teaches kids 64 different species of birds. Or if your child is more into bugs than birds, you can also get the Bug Bingo version. (Ages 4+ according to families)

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

• Valence—This card game uses simple math, colors, and ninjas to teach kids about chemistry. The game is easy to learn, and you don’t have to understand chemistry concepts in order to play. (Ages 8+ according to the box; 6+ according to families)If you’re looking for a more affordable chemistry card game, Chemistry Fluxx is relatively new but getting great reviews.

• Evolution—This is an updated edition of an older game that had racked up 150+ Amazon reviews with an average of 4.5 stars. In the game, the goal is to help your species adapt and evolve in an ecosystem where food is scarce and predators lurk. Kids who love dinosaurs especially enjoy this game! (Ages 12+ according to the box; 10+ according to families)
• Pandemic—In this game, several diseases have broken out simultaneously all over the world, and your job as a scientist is to treat the disease hotspots while researching cures before the plagues get out of hand. Adults also seem to really get into this one, as is evidenced by one of the best Amazon reviews I’ve ever read. (Ages 8+ according to everyone)
• Cytosis—I first heard about this one from a friend who’s a science teacher. This biology board game isn’t a popular mainstream game by any means, but it gets high marks from parents who are board game geeks. The game play mimics how our cells operate and function, and families report that the game is super fun but doesn’t hit you over the head with the science aspects. (Ages 10+ according to the box; 8+ according to families)
• Terraforming Mars—This game of strategy is perfect for kids who love all things outer space. Your goal is to make Mars habitable for humans, and you can even play this one solitaire. (Ages 12+ according to everyone)

Related: Forget Candyland! This Is the Best List of Board Games for All Ages

2. A Monthly Box of Science

Ages: 0+

You can find a monthly subscription box for just about anything nowadays, from art projects to science experiments—which makes this one a great pick when it comes to science gifts for kids. And even though you’re technically gifting a subscription box to the kids, parents benefit too because you’re helping keep the kids busy with a new project once a month!

Here are the most popular science-themed subscription boxes that make perfect science gifts for kids:

• Kiwi Crates—These monthly hands-on projects are perfect for curious kids, kids who love science, creative kids, kids who love to tinker, and more…in other words, every kid. We received this as a gift last year, and my kids run to the mailbox on the day it’s due to arrive every month. From toddlers to preschoolers and grade schoolers to tweens (and beyond!), these boxes come custom tailored for every age group. To get your first Kiwi Crate subscription box for $4.95, click here and use the coupon code GIFT. (Ages 0-18)
• Little Passports: Science Expeditions—Every month, kids get a real-life scientific mystery in the mail. Then they solve the mystery through science experiments and hands-on STEM activities. (Ages 9+)

3. A Real-Life Lifecycle Lesson

Ages: 2+

Give your little one a few packets of seeds and a kids’ set of gardening tools, then start a family garden together.

My family started a garden together last year, taking turns tending to it every day. If you’d been walking by our house when we gathered around to see the first sprouts peek out, you’d have thought we’d just won lifetime, unlimited free admission to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. (Our happy is loud.)

And here’s a delicious bonus for you with garden-related science gifts for kids: After growing their own vegetables, your little ones will be excited to eat the veggies when they’re ready.

If you like this idea but you have a black thumb (hello, that’s me!), here’s the all-in-one garden starter package we used and loved. We started our garden in the spring, so we used the Bunny Garden, but you can also grow a North Pole Garden, a Pizza Garden (everything you need to make a pizza), and more.

As an alternative, a friend of mine got this glow-in-the-dark terrarium kit for her kids last Christmas, and they loved it. In this kit, you get everything you need to make a tabletop garden in a jar. And it’s perfect for young kids because the seeds can start sprouting within days.

Your kids will be so excited to see something they planted start to grow that they won’t even realize they’re learning all about plant lifecycle. If you think your kids would prefer a fairy garden, the same company makes an Enchanted Fairy Garden.

4. A Building Set for Little Tinkerers

Ages: 7+ (but some younger kids enjoy it too)

You may not want to give your kid a soldering iron, but with Snap Circuits Jr, you can foster your child’s interest in electronics and tinkering. They’ll learn the basics of circuit design with this building set where all the components snap together and come apart again.

Kids can build more than 100 different projects from this one set, including a musical doorbell, a voice-controlled lamp, a flying saucer, and an adjustable-volume siren.

We had the chance to play with this one at a friend’s house, and it immediately made it to our wish list. What I love about this junior set is that as your child grows, you can add on several other sets in the Snap Circuits family.

5. Everything You Need for a New Science-y Hobby

Ages: 2+

We live near a few nature preserves, and one year we got our oldest daughter everything you need to get into bird-watching as a hobby. Because of that, all our kids have gotten into bird-watching as a hobby—even the toddler!

Here are a few science-y hobbies plus science gifts for kids that will foster a love of those hobbies:

• Bird-watching—For this gift, we got our daughter this spiral-bound bird log, these binoculars for kids, and a bag of high-quality wild bird seed. I’ve also heard great things about this picture book for kids about bird-watching in your own backyard.

• Astronomy—My husband has fond memories of star gazing with his telescope as a kid, so this one’s on our wish list for a future birthday or Christmas. We plan to get a kid-friendly telescope like this one and this book called 50 Things to See With a Telescope for Kids.
• Nature photography—When it comes to a camera, it may be best to look for a shock-proof and waterproof model like the Nikon COOLPIX W100. Because: kids. And we learned this part the hard way: The “kid” cameras on the market tend not to produce quality photos, and that can be disappointing to a budding photographer who’s excited to see how her photos turned out. A camera is a big gift, but you can pair it with a simple guide to photography for kids to help them learn how to use it.

6. A Puzzle to Solve

Ages: 2+

Puzzles are a favorite in our family, and you can find lots of fun puzzles that make great science gifts for kids.

These jumbo floor puzzles are a huge hit with my toddler and preschooler. They pull them out about once a week, put them together, then spend at least 30 minutes talking about all the cool stuff they see on the puzzle:

• Solar system
• Dinosaurs
• Ocean search and find
• Endangered species

For older kids, these science-themed puzzles with more pieces are a fun challenge:

• The tree of life
• Periodic table
• Solar system

7. Oodles of Experiments

Ages: 2+

If your child loves to tinker and experiment, the perfect gift could be a a book full of ideas for fun experiments to try. However, we’ve encountered a few duds in this department where the instructions are incorrect or too complicated, or both.

When you’re gifting an experiment or project book, as an added touch, you can pick up a few of the supplies used in the first couple experiments so the child has everything they need to get started right away.

When it comes to books as science gifts for kids, here are the best books with experiments we’ve come across:

• Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: 52 Family Friendly Experiments from the Pantry—This isn’t exactly a cookbook but more a collection of super fun science experiments you can do in the kitchen.
• Outdoor Science Lab for Kids: 52 Family-Friendly Experiments for the Yard, Garden, Playground, and Park—This one’s by the same author as the previous book, but all the experiments are for outdoors. What we loved most about the projects in this book is that our toddler, preschooler, and tween all had fun with them.
• Recycled Science: Bring Out Your Science Genius with Soda Bottles, Potato Chip Bags, and More Unexpected Stuff—Ever since my preschooler watched an old Mister Rogers episode about recycling, she’s been obsessed with the idea of recycling and upcycling to prolong the lifecycle of stuff before it ends up in the trash. After doing a couple of the experiments in this book, she started coming up with creative ideas for how to reuse things from our recycling bin and the trash. For example, she rescued a Brussels sprouts bag from the trash and turned it into a birdcage. Proof that this book got her gears turning!
• Coding Games in Scratch—This book comes highly recommended by friends whose kids love video games because it teaches them how to build their own games.

8. An Extra Dose of Inspiration

Ages: 4+

Non-experiment books can also play an important role in inspiring kids to get excited about science, so here are our most-loved science books aside from the experiment books above:

• 5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!)—This book always gets my kids excited to learn something new. Half the time, we end up going off on a tangent and looking something up on Wikipedia to learn even more about a specific topic covered in the book.
• The Way Things Work Now—This is an updated edition of a classic book, and the illustrations are fantastic. Be careful because you may find yourself wanting to keep this one for yourself!
• Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World—My kids love reading stories about famous scientists, and this collection of stories also happens to be gorgeous.
• I Love Science: A Journal for Self-Discovery and Big Ideas—From the same people who made the previous pick, this journal includes writing prompts to inspire kids to think big about science and discovery. The inspirational quotes sprinkled throughout are a lovely touch, too.

9. Science in the Mail

Ages: 3+

Find a fun science magazine for kids and gift a subscription. The child will love getting mail addressed just to them, and they’ll be building their reading skills without even realizing it. And after the child is done reading, they can pass the magazine along to a friend for a little science-y karma.

For magazines that make great science gifts for kids, here are a few ideas for you:

• Muse—This is the perfect magazine for older kids who are interested in science. You’ll find articles about the way the world works, profiles of scientists and mathematicians, and more to foster your child’s critical thinking skills. (Ages 9-14)
• Ask—This arts and sciences magazine for kids includes cartoons, contests, projects, experiments, games, and puzzles. (Ages 7-10)
• Zoobooks—Any kid who loves animals will love this (ad-free!) magazine about the world’s most amazing creatures. Every issue includes a pull-out activity booklet, too. (Ages 6-12)
• Ranger Rick Jr—For younger kids who love animals, this magazine is a great fit because it includes crafts and games targeted to the preschool to grade school crowd. (Ages 3-7)

10. The Next Level of LEGO

Ages: 10+ (but some younger kids enjoy it too)

The open-ended play that LEGO offers is great for kids’ brains, but this science gift for kids takes that to the next level…and then some.

This is the priciest gift in this list, but any kids who love LEGO will love this science-y twist. LEGO Mindstorms is a build-your-own robot kit where kids design a robot with LEGO bricks, then write a computer program to control the robot.

It’s recommended for ages 10 and up, but when my oldest was 7 she played with a friend’s Mindstorms kit and had an absolute blast.

If this is outside your price range, you can go in on it with another family or two, then have a rotation schedule for taking turns once a month or so. (Bonus: Rotating toys keeps them fresh and exciting for kids instead of turning into just another thing cluttering up their room!)

Your Turn

What are your favorite science gifts for kids? Share in a comment below!

The post The Best Science Gifts for Kids That Will Make Your Kids Love Science appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

One Christmas when my oldest was a preschooler, something shifted compared to previous holiday seasons. Instead of getting a couple cute onesies and board books as gifts from loved ones, she got piles and piles of presents.

Grandparents on both sides sent gifts. Extended relatives. Family friends.

Not to mention the gifts we’d gotten her ourselves.

That Christmas morning, it took forever for my daughter to get through opening all the toys and gadgets and gifts. Then about five presents in, the light went out in her eyes.

She would carefully undo the tape on the wrapping, open the box, pull out the gift, and set it on the teetering stack next to her. Then she’d look up with a small smile, say “thank you,” and move onto the next gift.

She could no longer get excited because she was absolutely overwhelmed.

Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get this free printable 4-gift wish list and fill it out with your child. You’ll help them focus on what truly matters this holiday season and foster some powerful conversation about wants versus needs.

We Had to Make a Change

That night lying next to each other in bed, my husband and I talked about how our daughter became almost robot-like when she hit that point of overwhelm.

That’s not what we wanted our holiday season to be about – overloading our child with gifts until she has to shut down just to cope with the excess of stuff. Plus, we wanted to try to have another baby one day, so we knew that sort of gift-giving free-for-all wouldn’t be sustainable as our family grew.

That night, I Googled “how to keep Christmas from getting out of control” and stumbled on the tradition of giving 4 gifts for Christmas – a simple guideline that’s supposed to help you keep the holiday season focused on what really matters. With the 4-gift rule, each person gets just four gifts for Christmas:

1. Something you want,
2. Something you need,
3. Something to wear, and
4. Something to read.

Not just a catchy little rhyme, the 4-gift rule for Christmas promises to help keep your holiday season from devolving into a materialistic frenzy of more, more, more and helps you stick to a reasonable budget.

But more important than that, many parents report that giving just four gifts for Christmas can help you raise kids who appreciate what they have instead of following in Dudley Dursley’s footsteps and throwing a temper tantrum when they end up with 36 presents instead of last year’s 37.

This Is What Giving 4 Gifts for Christmas Really Looks Like

We were excited to start the “want need wear read” tradition, but we had to wait a whole year. Starting in July, we were already thinking ahead to what special gifts would make the cut with the 4-gift rule.

But by the time November hit, I started feeling a little panicky. By shifting so abruptly from the excessive haul of gifts last year to just 4 things for Christmas this year, would we ruin the magic of Christmas for our child?

My husband and I were relieved to have the 4-gift rule to rein ourselves in when it came to buying gifts for each other because we tended to go overboard with each other, too. But we couldn’t shake our worries about what the 4-present rule would do to our daughter’s experience on Christmas morning.

After lots of debate and second-guessing ourselves, this is what we ultimately decided on for her 4 gifts for Christmas that year:

• What she wanted most of all was an American Girl doll, so that was her “something you want.”
• A big package of colorful socks for her growing little feet was her “something you need.”
• For “something to wear,” a pretty new dress.
• And for “something to read,” a set of classic Beverly Cleary paperbacks^†.

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

We didn’t completely get the grandparents and extended family bought into the 4-present tradition, but they did tone it way down compared to the previous year. Their gifts tended to be mostly books and clothes instead of plastic toys that would end up collecting dust on a shelf within a week.

Related: This Is the Best Way to Politely Request No Christmas Gifts This Year

So…Did We Ruin Christmas Morning?

That was our daughter’s last Christmas as an only child, and the three of us stayed in our jammies that morning while opening presents. Her pile of presents was easily a fourth of the size of the previous year’s massive pile.

My husband and I sat on the floor next to her, sipping our coffee. Because we didn’t have a huge stack of presents to get through ourselves, we could afford to pause with her after each gift to appreciate what it was and who it came from.

And the light never went out of her eyes.

She didn’t hit that point of overwhelm. She didn’t turn into a robot going through the motions of opening presents. She stayed in the moment with us, enjoying the delight of a few thoughtful surprises.

Ever since that holiday season, we’ve stuck with the 4-gift rule, and it’s been a game-changer for taming the excess of the holiday season.

We especially love how the “want need wear read” tradition brings a sense of intention to our gift-giving. Because when you’re giving just 4 gifts for Christmas, they end up being incredibly thoughtful gifts – not random gadgets or trinkets you get just to get something, even though you know they’ll soon end up shoved in a closet or somewhere else out of sight, forgotten and collecting dust.

All this to say: Our new tradition of giving each other just 4 gifts for Christmas didn’t ruin our Christmas. It saved our Christmas.

But What About…?

As with any family tradition, you’ll have to make the 4-gift rule your own so it feels right to you and your family. But here are some common “gotchas” with shifting to giving 4 gifts for Christmas and suggestions for how you can avoid them.

To be clear, I’m certainly not the be-all-end-all expert on this topic. But I have picked the brains of every family I know who’s started giving just 4 gifts for Christmas. Below, you’ll find the culmination of tips and tricks from many, many families who’ve adopted the 4-gift rule. For example:

• Do you follow the 4-gift rule for stockings, too?
• How do you handle it when your kids expect more than 4 gifts for Christmas?
• What about gifts from siblings to one another?
• How can you get grandparents and extended family on board with limiting gifts?
• How do you handle Santa gifts?

After that, you’ll find a list of the best “want need wear read” gift ideas. Enjoy!

Do you follow the 4-gift rule for stockings, too?

Just like with too many gifts under the tree, an overflowing stocking can be overwhelming for kids, too. Instead of filling your kids’ stockings with small plasticky junk that will end up broken or lost within a few days, consider going for quality over quantity.

A few ideas for how to get a fun (but less overwhelming) mix of stocking stuffers:

• Replace several “stuff” gifts with one or two of these small but meaningful gifts that make the perfect stocking stuffers for kids. One of our kids’ favorite stocking stuffers were these family conversation starters. We still use those conversation starters every night to reconnect as a family, and the answers we get from our kids are pure gold!

These family conversation starters make a great stocking stuffer for kids.

• Make a special treat, like your child’s favorite kind of cookie or a chocolate goody. Or if you’re not great in the kitchen, pick up a special ready-made treat like a chocolate bar from the fancy chocolate section of the grocery store. One high-quality treat can teach little ones to savor what they have instead of a whole bag of junky treats that they inhale without really appreciating.
• Add a card game that will be fun for the whole family to play. You can check my list of the best board games and card games for all ages for ideas, but to save you time I’ll list our favorite card games here real quick: Sleeping Queens, Sushi Go!, Rat-a-Tat Cat, Create a Story, and Spot It!. Also, Travel Qwirkle isn’t a card game, but it’s oodles of fun and small enough to fit into a stocking!

Black Friday’s back: Get 30% off all games with the code HAPPY30. Plus, free shipping for orders $49+.

4,687 families purchased this game after reading this post…

$18 from Amazon* $18 from our family shop * Price at time of publishing

Sleeping Queens

    
“My daughter and I love Sleeping Queens! It teaches them math without them even realizing it – or me, for that matter. I remember my daughter laid down a sequence that was like 1 + 3 + 5 = 9, and I thought ‘How did you know that…?’ Then I realized she just figured it out from doing math in the game. So cool to watch her learn right before my eyes.” – Ann

Related: Forget the Typical Stocking Stuffers. Here Are 10 Small But Meaningful Gifts for Kids.

How do you handle it when your kids expect more than 4 gifts for Christmas?

If your kids are young, they likely won’t even notice the shift to 4 gifts for Christmas. Our daughter was almost five when we made the change, and she didn’t think anything of it.

Some kids end up loving the smallest, least expensive gift most of all anyway. Not to mention that toddlers and preschoolers tend to be happiest playing with the cardboard boxes the gifts came in!

But if your kids are older and tend to be concerned with how many gifts they get each year, you may want to get them on board upfront to head off any hint of disappointment on Christmas morning. If your kids are old enough to remember how many gifts they got last year and to expect the same or more this year, they’re old enough for a frank discussion about gift giving and what’s most important during the holiday season.

You can do this in a few different ways, depending on what will resonate best with your kiddos:

• Reminisce together – One night at dinner, start a conversation about gifts and the ones that stick with you. For example, you can try asking, “What’s your favorite gift you’ve ever received? Something you still remember, even if it was a while ago?” Go ahead and share your answer, too. You may find that everyone’s favorite gifts were the kind that give you treasured memories, not gifts that come from a store. That can open the door to a discussion about how you can give each other that kind of gift this holiday season instead of just a bunch of stuff that will be forgotten.
• Give them a higher purpose – As a family, read a children’s book about how some people may not have all the same things your family has. One picture book that made a huge impact on my kids was A Chair for My Mother. In my preschooler’s words: “I liked it when the whole town helped the family.” For tweens and teens, you can watch a documentary with them like Living On One Dollar. Then you can start a discussion about how some others may not have enough food for their families, or a home to keep them warm, or shoes that fit their feet. You might try asking your kids something like, “This Christmas, how could we help people who need food and clothes?” If they don’t take the bait, you can go ahead and plant the seed: “Could we save some money that we usually spend on gifts for ourselves to help others who need it more than we do?”
• Be upfront – If what led you to the 4-gift rule is the promise of keeping your holiday budget under control, go ahead and let your kids know. It’s good for kids to understand that adults have to make choices about how to spend money, and they’re not always easy choices – because they’ll have to make those choices one day, too. Just be careful not to stress your kids out with adult-level money concerns. For example, you might say, “Typically, we spend a lot of money on Christmas gifts, but that means when we want or need something next year, we may not have the money for it. So this year, we’re going to focus on giving a few awesome gifts instead of lots of just okay gifts.” If your kids aren’t familiar with the phrase “quality over quantity” yet, now would be a good time to introduce that concept.

You can also share a want need wear read Christmas list printable with your kids instead of asking them to write a typical free-for-all wish list. At the end of this post, you can get a free want need wear read Christmas printable that you can print and share with your kids.

Get Your Copy: Free Printable 4-Gift Wish List for Kids

What about gifts from siblings to one another?

Encouraging siblings to think of others is a good thing, but giving one gift to each other should be plenty to help kids learn the art of gift giving. Our favorite way to get our kids excited about giving gifts to each other is the Sibling Super Secret Spy Shopping Trip.

Still, if you have more than two kids, every kid getting a gift for every sibling can quickly add up. In that case, you can have the kids draw names from a hat, Secret Santa style.

How can you get grandparents and extended family on board with limiting gifts?

This is a common issue for many families, so I put together a list of all the best ideas for how to politely request no Christmas gifts or fewer gifts. Because we all know simply saying “no Christmas gifts please” won’t cut it.

How do you handle Santa gifts?

Full disclosure: In my family, we don’t do Santa gifts. But here are a few ideas I heard from other families who do incorporate Santa into their holiday traditions:

• Follow the 4-gift rule for gifts from you to your kids, then give one special “Santa gift.” If your kids are used to more gifts than that, you can explain that Santa’s sleigh is only so big, and he has millions of children to visit every Christmas Eve, so he can fit only one gift per child. Watching a movie like The Polar Express can help reinforce this “one gift from Santa” message.
• Explain that every year, more and more kids are being born, and Santa is having trouble fitting bigger gifts in his sleigh. This year, he’s switching to filling stockings instead of leaving gifts under the tree.
• Make Santa’s gift an experience gift for the whole family. For example, Santa could gift your whole family a movie night in a box, a monthly subscription box, or everything you need for a family camping trip including s’mores fixin’s (even if it’s just in your own backyard or living room!). Our favorite subscription box for kids is from Kiwi Crates. These monthly hands-on projects are perfect for curious kids, kids who love science, creative kids, kids who love to tinker, and more…in other words, every kid. We received this as a gift last year, and my kids run to the mailbox on the day it’s due to arrive every month. To get your first Kiwi Crate subscription box for $4.95, click here and use the coupon code GIFT.

For more fun experience gift ideas, check out The Ultimate (Most Epic!) List of the Best Experience Gift Ideas.

28 Best “Want Need Wear Read” Gift Ideas for Kids

The first year we sat down to figure out 4 gifts for Christmas for everyone in our immediate family, we drew a blank on a couple of the categories.

In a free-for-all gift giving situation, it doesn’t matter if some gifts are duds because you have tons of other gifts to pick up the slack. But when you start the 4-gift tradition with your family, you may find yourself wanting to make sure each gift is stellar. If your child is getting just 4 gifts for Christmas, there’s no room for duds.

Because it can be a little more challenging to find the perfect gift to fit into each “want need wear read” category, here are a few “want need wear read” gift ideas for you.

Something You Want

For “something you want,” it’s your chance to give your child the one thing you know will make their little face light up. This may be the easiest category to tackle because a lot of kids have one wish list item they’ve been talking about for weeks (or months), whether that’s a toy, electronics, or a brand new art set to replace a hodge-podge mess of broken crayons and dried-out markers.

On the other hand, some kids – especially younger kids – may change what’s at the top of their wish list on a daily basis. In that situation, you know your child best and what will delight her. In our family, we try to go with a gift idea our preschooler has mentioned a few times rather than a gift idea she first heard about the week before Christmas.

But if your child doesn’t have a clear “want,” check out this huge list of The Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything. To save you some time, here are the top 3 most popular gift ideas from that list:

• Make a date once a month. Most kids want nothing more than one-on-one time with the important people in their lives, so gift them a year of monthly “dates” of special one-on-one time with you.
  How to Wrap It: Grab 12 colorful envelopes like these, label them with the months, and insert a card or brochure about each special day. Activities could include going out for ice cream, bowling, seeing a movie together, or anything else the child would enjoy doing with you. To save time, you can slip one of our popular Family Connection Cards into the envelope. For more ideas, check out this mom’s story of how she put this gift together.
• Take them somewhere super fun. Get tickets to your child’s favorite local amusement park, theme park, or water park – or make plans for some other extra special outing like a bouncy house center, indoor rock climbing gym, trampoline park, bowling alley, miniature golf course, skating rink, or any other place they’d love to go. Your child will get the gift of an awesome day when you take them on this special outing, plus they’ll build memories that will stick with them for a long time.
  How to Wrap It: Print a photo of where you’re taking them (or a promotional flyer would work too) and wrap that.
• Send a monthly box of fun. You can find a monthly subscription box for just about anything nowadays, from art projects to science experiments. And even though you’re technically gifting a subscription box to the kids, parents benefit too because you’re helping keep the kids busy with a new project once a month! Our favorite subscription box ever is from Kiwi Crates because the fun hands-on projects in their boxes are custom tailored to every age from newborns (yes, really!) to teenagers and everything in between. We received this as a gift last year, and my kids run to the mailbox on the day it’s due to arrive every month. For more subscription box ideas, check out The Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything.
  How to Wrap It: Typically, you can pick the date of the first box delivery and add a special note from you to the recipient inside the box to let them know to expect a new box every month.

Something You Need

If your family is blessed to be able to provide for your children’s needs when they crop up instead of waiting for birthdays and holidays, this category may be a challenge.

Here are a few ideas of things kids tend to need:

• Shoes to replace ones that are worn out or too small
• A sturdy backpack in a fun pattern to replace one that’s falling apart
• If they play sports: sports equipment or gear like a new soccer ball, volleyball, and so on
• A bike helmet if they’ve outgrown their current helmet (same goes for knee and elbow pads)
• A winter coat
• A sleeping bag if they’ve outgrown the one they have
• A small wheelie suitcase they can use for family vacations and sleepovers
• Underwear, socks, and/or belts (by the way, Solmate Socks are my kids’ favorite because you can wear them mismatched!)
• A lunch box and/or reusable water bottle (we love the Hydro Flask water bottles for kids because they’re all stainless steel, insulated, and super durable)
• Pajamas
• A cute container to keep their toys organized (we love the Stuff ‘n Sit, which looks like just a regular bean bag but is actually a way to store stuffed animals, so you get a tidy room and an extra place to sit)
• An art caddy to organize all their art supplies (one of my kids loves making art, so we got her this portable arts and crafts organizer, and she was on cloud nine!)
• Sheets or other bedding if their current set is getting frayed or has holes in it
• A nice annual planner or calendar to keep track of school deadlines and extracurricular commitments (my kids have always loved these Erin Condren planners designed just for kids)

Something to Wear

The obvious choice here is clothing, but here are a few creative gifts that also work in this category:

• Dress-up clothes for pretend play (this set of superhero capes from a couple years ago is something all three of my girls still play with regularly – here’s the version for male superheroes)
• A watch or an activity tracker to help them get enough exercise every day (my oldest won’t go anywhere without her Fitbit Ace for kids, and it motivates her to get at least 10,000 steps every day!)
• Perfume or cologne
• A purse or wallet (I know my kids love anything that makes them feel like a grown-up!)
• Jewelry
• Noise-cancelling headphones so they can focus on schoolwork, especially if they have younger siblings

Something to Read

For kids who enjoy reading, this category is a no-brainer. The hard part may be picking just one book to gift!

Because my oldest tends to devour fiction quickly and doesn’t re-read it unless it’s an all-time favorite like Harry Potter, I try to gift books she’ll enjoy coming back to again and again, like how-to guides or project-based books. (This year, I’m considering getting her a copy of Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverted Kids, which she checked out from the library and loved.)

For my preschooler and toddler, I pay attention to which picture books we’ve checked out from the library and they ask to read again and again, then I’ll get them a copy of their very own so we can read that favorite to them anytime they want.

But if you have a child who doesn’t enjoy reading, don’t despair because here are a few creative ideas for the “something to read” category:

• Subscribe to a fun magazine. Kids love getting mail addressed just to them, and they’ll be building their reading skills without even realizing it. Plus, most kids’ magazines include activity and craft ideas for kids. And after the kids are done reading, they can pass the magazine along to a friend. A few ideas for you: Highlights, Ranger Rick Jr, or anything in the Cricket magazine family like Ladybug for 3- to 6-year-olds, Cricket for 9- to 14-year-olds, and more.
• Wrap a book with pictures. For older kids who don’t enjoy reading, remember that comic books and graphic novels totally count as “something to read,” too. You can’t go wrong with Calvin and Hobbes , and these graphic novels are perfect for kids: the Amulet series, Real Friends, Ghosts, and Invisible Emmie.
• Give them a book that transcends reading. Especially if the child doesn’t enjoy reading, get them a book they can put to good use. These books give the child projects and activities they can do or make, and they’ll likely find they do love books after all. Here are a few of our favorites:
  • Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: 52 Family Friendly Experiments from the Pantry – This isn’t exactly a cookbook but more a collection of super fun science experiments you can do in the kitchen.
  • Out of the Box – Projects kids can make using old cardboard boxes. Think of all the empty cardboard boxes on Christmas morning that they can reimagine into fun building projects! We recently got this for our preschooler, and she ATE IT UP.
  • Rosie Revere’s Big Project Book for Bold Engineers and Iggy Peck’s Big Project Book for Amazing Architects and Ada Twist’s Big Project Book for Stellar Scientists – We’ve been drooling over these since they were first released, and we just picked up the first one and plan to get the next two as well. If the child enjoyed the companion picture books Rosie Revere, Engineer and Iggy Peck, Architect and Ada Twist, Scientist, these activity books are the perfect fit.
• Share your childhood favorite. What was your favorite book as a child? Get a copy to share with the child, and write a special note on the inside cover about why it’s your favorite. That personal touch may be just the nudge they need to give it a go.
• Give them the best. We read a lot of kids’ books in my house. A lot. We check out at least 20 new picture books a week, and my oldest polishes off a chapter book every other day. And here’s what we’ve learned: Just because a kids’ book is on the Amazon bestseller list doesn’t mean it’s something kids will actually enjoy reading. Sometimes kids may not enjoy reading because they haven’t found the right book yet. Here are our top recommendations for each age range, approved by kids and parents:
  • Board books – Bear Snores On, Good Night Gorilla, and Everywhere Babies. For more ideas, check out The Best Baby Board Books That Will Delight Your Baby (And You).
  • Picture books – Our Tree Named Steve, Plant a Kiss, and Strictly No Elephants. Check out The Ultimate List of the Best Picture Books, Endorsed by Kids And Parents for more ideas.
  • Chapter books – Because of Winn-Dixie, Harry Potter, The Penderwicks, The Underneath, and Wonder. For more chapter book ideas, head to 48 Awesome Chapter Books for Kids Your Child Will Devour.
  • Young adult books – Graceling, A Great and Terrible Beauty, Hunger Games, and Jellicoe Road.

Get Your Free Printable: A Wish List for Kids

To get my kids on board with the 4-gift rule for Christmas, I designed a printable wish list they could fill out.

This printable may seem simple, but it’s actually fostered some of the best conversations we’ve ever had with our children about “wants” versus “needs.” Plus, when you tell your child they can put only one idea in each box, they get laser-focused about what they really want for Christmas instead of getting hung up on junky toys they’ll lose interest in after a few days. Parenting win!

1. Get the free checklist. Join my weekly-ish newsletter and as a bonus, you’ll get the printable! Just click here to get it and subscribe.
2. Print one for each child. If the adults in your family will be joining in on the 4-gift rule (and why wouldn’t they?!) go ahead and print a copy for them, too!
3. Explain the 4-gift rule to your child if you haven’t already. For tips on this step, see the “How do you handle it when your kids expect more than 4 gifts for Christmas?” section earlier in this post.
4. Ask your child to fill it out. The most fun is when you can spend a few minutes filling it out together and talking through each category, but your child can also fill it out independently and give it to you when she’s done.

Here’s a sneak peek of your 4-gift rule wish list:

Before you go, get my FREE cheat sheet: 75 Positive Phrases Every Child Needs to Hear

Your Turn

If you’ve made the shift to 4 gifts for Christmas, what tips would you add? Share in a comment below!

The post 4 Gifts for Christmas: How to Make Your Family Happy With Less appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

For a while now, my family has followed the four-gift tradition during the holiday season in order to keep gift-giving from getting out of control. If you haven’t heard of this tradition before, each person gets just four gifts: something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read.

The person who came up with this tradition (and catchy little rhyme!) is a genius. For example:

• We love how the four-gift rule brings a sense of intention to our gift-giving. When you’re giving just four gifts, they end up being incredibly thoughtful gifts.
• The tradition keeps our holiday season from devolving into a materialistic frenzy of more, more, more and helps us stick to a reasonable budget.
• It’s important to my husband and me that we raise kids who appreciate what they have instead of following in Dudley Dursley’s footsteps and throwing a temper tantrum when they end up with 36 presents instead of last year’s 37.

But there’s just one problem with this magical little tradition.

Stockings.

Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get a free printable coupon book for kids that will make the perfect gift for your child.

A Tricky Holiday Dilemma

If your family holiday traditions include stockings, they would look awfully sad hanging limp and empty on the mantle.

And so try as you might to keep your child’s gifts under the tree to a reasonable number, your quest to fill the stockings can land you in the same spot of getting stuff just for the sake of getting stuff, spending more than you should, and overwhelming your kids with so many little toys and trinkets that it diminishes their appreciation of the whole lot.

One year, I put together a list of the best non-toy, no-junk stocking stuffers for kids, and sticking to that list fixed our stocking stuffer dilemma.

But one stocking stuffer in particular has proven to be the absolute favorite for my kids (and for me and my husband) – a coupon book for kids.

If you don’t happen to do stockings in your family, this gift is awesome enough to be a regular main-attraction gift too.

Related: Forget the Typical Stocking Stuffers. Here Are 10 Small But Meaningful Gifts for Kids.

Here’s How It Works

As adults, we’re always the one calling the shots when it comes to where we go, what we do, what we eat…everything. For example, kids don’t typically get a say in which errands we run on the weekend or what we have for dinner.

Which is why the gift of a coupon book will delight your child like no other. In her stocking, give her a personalized coupon book for kids she can use to cash in on fun experiences throughout the year.

Your kid will love calling the shots, and on the plus side you get to go along for the fun ride too. You might end up spending a whole day in your jammies, baking a yummy dessert together, or taking a mental health day off school and work (yes, please!).

Not only will this coupon book for kids tame the “stuff” overload that threatens to overwhelm kids during the holidays, you’ll be setting yourself and your child up for an extra dose of meaningful connection throughout the year that will fill both your tanks to the brim.

Related: How to Connect With Your Child: The Magic of the 5:1 Ratio {Printable}

A Free Printable Coupon Book for Kids

Because my little ones adore the gift of a coupon book for kids, I designed a free printable set of coupons for you to share with your child. Get the coupons below so you can brighten your child’s holiday with this special gift.

Case in point: As I was designing this set of coupons to share with you, my oldest daughter peeked over my shoulder and asked, “What are you doing?”

I explained how I wanted to share the idea of a kids’ coupon book with other families, then added some examples to get the point across: “Like you could use this coupon to pick anything you want for dinner one night, or this one to stay up 30 minutes later at bedtime, or this one to camp out in the living room with s’mores…”

“Mommy,” she interrupted. “That’s all I want for Christmas! Just that.”

Here’s a preview for you:

Get Your Coupon Book for Kids

1. Get the coupon book. Join my weekly-ish newsletter and as a bonus, you’ll get the printable! Just click here to get it and subscribe. (Want to write your own idea on the coupons? You’ll also get a blank sheet you can print to write in your own coupon ideas.)
2. Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock^† would be ideal.
3. Cut out the coupons you want to include in the book. Or if you’re like me and you can’t cut a straight line to save your life, fold and tear to get a charmingly casual look.
4. Punch a hole in one corner, then loop a rubber band or a book ring through to connect the cards. A staple in the corner would work perfectly fine, too!
5. Drop the coupon book in your child’s stocking, and you’re DONE. Get ready to see pure joy spread across her face!

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Want More?

For more meaningful gift ideas for kids, head to 110+ Experience Gifts for Kids That Will Make Your Child Happier and Cut Clutter.

Your Turn

What would you add to a coupon book for kids? Share in a comment below!

The post A Free Printable Coupon Book for Kids That Makes the Best Gift appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

A couple weeks ago, my husband and I asked our three kids about their wish lists for the holidays. In our family we follow the four-gift tradition, so the kids gave us gift ideas that fall into those categories: something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read.

But while her sisters were debating on what should go in that coveted “something you want” category – Magna Tiles^† or a Monchhichi doll – our oldest child said something that caught me off guard.

“Mommy, I think I just want a book for Christmas.”

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Wait…What?!

I cocked my head. “What do you mean? Isn’t there anything else you want?”

“Well…” She bit her lip. “There’s nothing I need. I have enough socks and belts, and you just got me new tennis shoes. And there’s nothing I want, either. Just books. So if you get me a book, that’s something I want and something to read.”

And I realized she was right.

While in previous years, our finances have been extremely tight, this year we were finally in a position where we could afford to get the kids the basic things they needed when they needed them – new shoes when they grow out of the old ones, winter coats when the weather shifts, new socks to replace the holey ones, and so on.

My daughter’s comment made me realize that the “something you need” category wasn’t going to work as well this year: But what to get a kid who has everything they need?

Here’s the Best Solution

The hard truth is that a child who already has everything he needs (and maybe most of what he wants too) won’t fully appreciate gifts of more stuff.

Here’s why: Research shows that after a while, the human brain gets used to new stuff. The fancy scientific term for this phenomenon is adaptation, and it means that when we’re exposed to something on a regular basis, we adapt to it.

In other words, when your child gets used to that new stuff, it becomes as notable and interesting as the carpet he walks on in your home every day. In other words, not at all notable or interesting.

This is why after a few days or a couple weeks, most gifts end up shoved in a closet or somewhere else out of sight, forgotten and collecting dust.

But unlike physical gifts of toys and gadgets, one type of gift never blends into the carpet. In fact, this gift builds memories your child will treasure for the rest of her life.

Experience gifts.

You may have also heard these referred to as activity gifts, unstuff gifts, or in the case of kids – non-toy gifts.

Whatever you call them, experience gifts are the perfect gifts for kids who have everything because they’ll treasure those gifts for months and even years to come.

Related: 4 Gifts for Christmas: How to Make Your Family Happy With Less

34 Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything

The problem with most lists of gifts for kids who have everything is they focus on outlandish gifts the child is unlikely to already own. But if a kid really does have everything they need, an off-the-wall gift isn’t what will make them happy.

That’s what makes this list different because the gifts in this list will make kids happy.

Forget the toys and trinkets and gadgets, and get the kids in your life these meaningful gifts that they’ll appreciate long after the wrapping paper is gone. Whether you need ideas for Christmas gifts or birthday gift ideas, this list has you covered with unique and meaningful gifts for kids of all ages.

Gifts of the Most Precious Commodity

When it comes to gifts for kids who have everything, gifts of time can be the most meaningful of all.

2. Make a coupon or certificate.

Here’s a free printable coupon book for kids I made just for kids. You’ll find coupons for staying up 30 minutes late at bedtime, camping out in the living room (with s’mores of course!), and more kid-friendly experiences that make amazing gifts for kids who have everything.

By the way, you should know that as I was designing this set of coupons, my oldest daughter peeked over my shoulder and asked, “What are you doing?” I explained the idea of the coupon book, then added some examples to get the point across: “Like you could use this coupon to pick anything you want for dinner one night, or this one to take a mother-daughter mental health day off school and work, or this one to bake any dessert together…” She said: “Wow. That’s all I want for Christmas! Just that.”

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• How to Wrap It: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get the free printable coupon book. Then use a hole-punch on the coupons and bind them with a festive ribbon or a colorful book ring like this. Wrap the coupon book in a small box, and you’re good to go!

Gifts They Can Use Every Day

Remember: The danger of “stuff” gifts for kids who have everything is that they’ll blend into the carpet. But these physical gifts are different – you won’t find any toys or gadgets on this list to end up shoved in the back of a closet or under a bed. These gifts deliver a daily experience that will delight the child (and maybe her whole family too).

4. Give the gift of conversation.

How many of us rush through meals with our families, not stopping to enjoy the time with our loved ones? Turn a spare mason jar into a conversation jar by filling it with these family conversation starters. The child can put the jar on the dinner table and pull out a new question every night to have memorable conversations with their family.

And the best part of these conversation starters for families is that they’ll get you more than the dreaded one-word answer from kids. We use these every night with our kids, and they’ve been a game-changer, helping us end every day feeling connected, loved, and happy.

• Ages: Preschooler to teen
• How to Wrap It: Download this set of family conversation starter cards, and drop them all in a spare mason jar.

Available for a limited time: If you prefer a printed set of these family conversation starters, you can get your printed set here.

6. Open the door to important conversations.

From moms to kids, this mother-daughter journal or this journal for mothers and sons will give you a magical way to get your child to open up about what’s going on so you can stay connected. You take turns writing in this journal, and in the process, you find out what’s weighing on your little one’s heart. This non-toy gift will definitely end up being a gift for both of you!

From dads to little ones, check out this father-daughter journal or this journal for dads and sons. For more journal ideas, check out 10 Best Journals for Kids to Boost Their Emotional Intelligence.

• Ages: Elementary to teen
• How to Wrap It: Just wrap the journal. Easy peasy!

Related: 110+ Experience Gifts for Kids That Will Make Your Child Happier and Cut Clutter

Gifts That Will Make the Whole Family Happy

With the following gifts for kids who have everything, you can make the whole family happy, too.

9. Plan a family game night.

Pick a date on your calendar, print out an invitation, and put all the electronic devices away for a night and just have fun. As a companion gift for this experience gift, pick out a new board game or card game your family will love and make a game night basket with potato chips, soda or juice, and the new game. Hours of fun, guaranteed! We have a wide range of ages in our family, so our favorite board games for all ages are Sleeping Queens, Outfoxed!, Sushi Go, and Castle Panic. If you’re looking for the best games for a big group, here are our top picks for family game night.

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• How to Wrap It: Put together an invitation for game night, then print that and add in all the supplies like a new game, snacks, and drinks.

Black Friday’s back: Get 30% off all games with the code HAPPY30. Plus, free shipping for orders $49+.

4,687 families purchased this game after reading this post…

$18 from Amazon* $18 from our family shop * Price at time of publishing

Sleeping Queens

    
“My daughter and I love Sleeping Queens! It teaches them math without them even realizing it – or me, for that matter. I remember my daughter laid down a sequence that was like 1 + 3 + 5 = 9, and I thought ‘How did you know that…?’ Then I realized she just figured it out from doing math in the game. So cool to watch her learn right before my eyes.” – Ann

Related: Forget Candyland! This Is the Best List of Board Games for All Ages

Gifts to Surprise Them, Again And Again

When shopping for gifts for kids who have everything, don’t forget the power of an unexpected gift they’ll receive throughout the year.

14. Send a monthly box of fun.

You can find a monthly subscription box for just about anything nowadays, from art projects to science experiments. This makes it one of the most flexible gifts for kids who have everything. And even though you’re technically gifting a subscription box to the kids, parents benefit too because you’re helping keep the kids busy with a new project once a month!

• Ages: Toddler to teen
• How to Wrap It: Print a flyer about the subscription and add a note about when they can expect their first box.

Here are a few of the most popular subscription boxes for kids:

• Kiwi Crates – These monthly hands-on projects are perfect for curious kids, kids who love science, creative kids, kids who love to tinker, and more…in other words, every kid. We received this as a gift last year, and my kids run to the mailbox on the day it’s due to arrive every month. From toddlers to preschoolers and grade schoolers to tweens (and beyond!), these boxes come custom tailored for every age group. To get your first Kiwi Crate subscription box for $4.95, click here and use the coupon code GIFT. (Ages 0-18)
• Little Passports – Every month, kids get a letter from fictional pen pals who travel the world, learning about other cultures along the way. Kids receive a passport and wall map to help them follow along, as well as fun activities, souvenirs from each month’s destination, and more. (Ages 3-13)

Gifts That Will Take You Places

When you need awesome gifts for the child who has everything, gifts where you visit somewhere special are perfect because they give kids a treasured memory that will stay with them for a long time.

Gifts to Inspire the Child’s Creativity

Gifts that inspire a child to create and make can be great gifts for kids who have everything.

The Best Books for Every Child – Even the Kids Who Don’t Love to Read

One of the absolute best gifts for kids who have everything? Books! Even if the child in your life doesn’t love to read, use this list to get ideas for unique books they’ll enjoy too.

Want More?

For more gift ideas for kids who have everything, head to 110+ Experience Gifts for Kids That Will Make Your Child Happier and Cut Clutter.

Your Turn

What are your go-to gifts for kids who have everything? Share in a comment below!

The post The Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

My husband and I learned the hard way that when it comes to Christmas gifts for kids, more isn’t necessarily better.

A few years ago on our oldest child’s last Christmas as an only child, we wanted her to feel special. So we saved up extra that year, and we went a little overboard. A new American Girl doll, LEGOs, puzzles, board games for all ages, art supplies, the best picture books, clothes, movies, and on and on.

But on Christmas morning, about five presents in, the light went out of her eyes. She moved from one present to the next just for the sake of getting through the pile that was set before her, not because she was excited for the surprises.

Like a Christmas morning assembly line.

This Is What Happens When Kids Get Too Many Gifts

Our child couldn’t appreciate any single gift because she was absolutely and completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of all the new stuff in front of her.

The experience made me realize that the more gifts you give a child, the less they will fully appreciate any single gift.

So I decided to research the issue, and what I found confirmed my experience on that Christmas morning. For example:

• Some research shows that when kids receive a large number of toys, they can’t play or learn well from the play experience. Whereas a smaller number of toys allows kids to fully engage in the play experience.
• One study found that having too many toys keeps kids stuck in the “exploring” phase of interacting with a toy and prevents them from truly playing with the toys. But it’s that “playing with” mode where learning and development happens for kids’ brains—not the “exploring” mode.
• Another study showed that when you remove all the toys from a playroom, kids engage in more imaginative play, their ability to focus and concentrate increases, and their communication skills grow leaps and bounds.

What’s a Parent to Do?

My husband and I want to raise kids who are grateful for what they have instead of adopting Dudley Dursley’s attitude of “it’s never enough.” So after that Christmas, we did some research and decided to follow the four-gift rule. For this tradition, each person in the family gets four gifts: something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read.

It’s catchy, easy to remember, and helpful for setting expectations with kids on what they might get from their running wish list that they’ve been adding to throughout the year.

We’ve been following that tradition ever since the wretched excess of that one Christmas, and the four-gift rule has transformed our family’s gift-giving and gift-receiving experience from one of overwhelm to one of gratitude.

But Here’s the Problem

Grandparents. Family friends. Cousins, aunts, uncles.

They all want to give the kids something.

You can make a pact within your immediate family to follow the four-gift rule or some other tradition for keeping gift-giving reasonable, but how do you get extended family and friends on board?

Because even if each loved one gets your child “just” one or two gifts each, that still adds up to a teetering tower of gifts, and you’re back to a Christmas morning that overwhelms your child instead of truly delighting them.

And yet, you don’t want your extended family and friends to feel you’re ungrateful for the gifts they want to give. So how do you politely request no Christmas gifts this year—without offending anyone?

How to Politely Request No Christmas Gifts This Year

I’m not the expert on this topic, but I have done a lot of reading about how to broach this subject with loved ones. Plus, I’ve picked the brain of nearly every parent I know about how they handle this tricky situation. (Thanks, wise Starbucks barista!)

In this post, I’ve gathered all the best ideas for how to politely request no Christmas gifts this year. Because we all know simply saying “no Christmas gifts please” won’t cut it.

Full disclosure: I’m personally guilty of not bringing this up for the longest time because I was worried about creating tension with extended family. But when my husband and I finally did ask my kids’ grandparents to skip Christmas gifts for our kids, they were excited about the idea because we used a couple of the sample conversations listed below.

If you haven’t already explicitly asked your loved ones to skip giving you and/or your kids traditional “stuff” holiday gifts this year, give it a try because you might be surprised.

But first, a few important caveats:

• Relationships between immediate family and extended family can vary widely, so every idea in this list may not work for you. Give the list a quick read-through and see what resonates because odds are, you’ll find at least one doable technique for requesting no Christmas gifts without offending your loved ones.
• You know your loved one best and whether a phone call, text, email, or in-person conversation would be most appropriate. However, this message works best delivered one-on-one instead of in a mass letter to your whole extended family.
• In general, it works best to suggest an alternative to a physical store-bought gift so your loved one still has a way to show you they’re thinking of you and your family. That’s why the example conversations below include alternatives for redirecting your loved one to a more meaningful gift.
• You may like a sentence from one sample conversation and another sentence from another sample, so feel free to Frankenstein together something that feels right to you. Also, many of these samples mention kids, so you’ll need to adjust that if you don’t have little ones at home.
• Be prepared for this to happen: You may ask, and they may still send gifts. The truth is that some people show their love through physical gifts. It may help reduce your frustration if you remind yourself that their heart was in the right place. And remember that you can always try again next year! Several people I talked to said it took two or three years of having these conversations before they sunk in.

Ready to politely request no Christmas gifts this year? Here are a few clever ideas for you…

1. Bring Up a Memory

If the loved one has asked what your kids want for Christmas, you could reply with:

“Thank you for thinking of us! You know, we just finished decluttering and getting rid of so many things the kids weren’t even playing with, so we’re trying to keep gifts to a minimum this year. One thing the kids loved—and still talk about even months afterward!—is that time when you xyz (insert example of a time when the loved one spent some quality time with the kids or gifted them an experience).

What would make them happiest is the gift of another memory like that with you. Something as simple as* a trip to the movie theater with you or going to the ice cream shop together would make their day! Or if you wanted to do something a little more out of the ordinary, tickets to a play or musical, or tickets to an amusement park would be something they’d love to do with you, too.”

* For a quarantine-friendly alternative, you could suggest that your loved one arrange to have a special treat delivered to your home, then make a video call right after the delivery to “share” the treat together. Or as another idea, you could set up a special video meeting so your loved one can do something special with you or your kids like play board games, host a trivia contest, or watch a movie together.

If the examples at the end don’t resonate, check out my epic list of all the best experience gift ideas, especially the “for everyone” section and the “for kids and families” section. Or you can jump straight to my list of 110+ experience gifts for kids.

Related: The Ultimate (Most Epic!) List of the Best Experience Gift Ideas and 110+ Experience Gifts for Kids That Will Make Your Child Happier and Cut Clutter

2. Tap Into the True Spirit of Giving

This one requires getting your kids on board first but would have the added benefit of teaching your kids to be grateful for what they have. Try this trick to politely request no Christmas gifts this year:

“This year, our family has been doing a lot of reflection on wants and needs because we’re trying to teach the kids to be grateful for their blessings. We’ve been learning about other people who don’t have even their basic needs covered like food to eat or a roof to sleep under, and the kids have decided they want to donate most of their Christmas gifts to others this year. They always appreciate your gifts every year, so I wanted to let you know what they’d decided for this year.

We’ll be donating their Christmas presents from extended family and friends to the local children’s shelter, or if you’d prefer you can make a donation in their name to xyz (insert name of charity). The kids have even set a goal for what they want to raise for charity, so they’ll be excited to get closer to that goal!”

Related: A Sweet Way to Guarantee Your Kid Has an Attitude of Gratitude {Printable}

3. Blame the Budget

If your reason for wanting to politely request no Christmas gifts this year is that you don’t have the budget to reciprocate and/or that you suspect your loved ones are on a fixed budget and are making sacrifices just to send you presents, try this:

“We always appreciate your Christmas gifts every year, but this year I need to let you know something that’s a little uncomfortable to talk about. We’re on a fixed budget this year, and we’ve even had to limit the gifts we give each other in our immediate family. We can’t send extended family physical gifts this year, so as our gift we’ll be writing personal letters to loved ones instead.

We’d love it if you could send a card or a letter instead of a physical gift this year because that would mean so much more to us! And if you can slip a photo of you and your family in with the card or letter, we’ve cleared a spot on our mantle for photos of our loved ones.”

4. Go Handmade

This one works well if you’re crafty or you like to bake. When your loved one asks what you’d like for Christmas, you could reply:

“I just came across this phrase that really stuck with me, so I shared it with our little family and they loved it too: Gifts from the heart, not a shopping cart. We did some brainstorming on what that would mean to give gifts from the heart, and the kids suggested baking their favorite cookies and sending them as gifts (or insert another baked good or a craft that would make a great gift).

This year, will you join us on this “gifts from the heart, not a shopping cart” mission? The kids would love to get a surprise in the mail that’s something handmade, even if it’s just a handwritten card from you!”

If you want more ideas on handmade gifts you could exchange, check out 30 Heartfelt Homemade Christmas Gifts Anyone Can Make.

Related: 30 Heartfelt Homemade Christmas Gifts Anyone Can Make

5. Invite Them to Help With a Special Project

This one could end up being a special gift for your whole extended family. After you receive everything, scan the pages and save as a PDF, then email that to everyone who contributed.

“Hey! We thought it would be fun to do something a little different for Christmas this year instead of exchanging physical store-bought gifts with extended family. The kids are really excited about this idea, so I’m hoping you can join in! This all started because we just cleared out several bags of clutter and donated them to Goodwill, and we got to talking about how gifts don’t need to be something from the store to be meaningful.

We want to put together a book about the whole family. We picked out a special scrapbook, and we’re hoping to get a photo from everyone in the extended family along with a handwritten note or letter that we can put in the scrapbook…nothing fancy for the note, just a favorite memory or a quick story or an update on how you are. That way, even if we’re not all together throughout the year, we can pick up this family book anytime and feel closer! After we get the book together, we’d love to scan the pages and create a digital version we can email out to everyone who contributed. Will you help us with this project by skipping physical gifts and sending a photo with a card or letter instead?”

Or similar to that idea, you could invite everyone in the family to send you their favorite recipe, then compile a collection of the most treasured family recipes and share that PDF with the whole family.

6. Channel Your Inner Librarian

If your family enjoys books, here’s another approach that could work if you want to politely request no Christmas gifts this year:

“This year, we feel blessed that our family has everything we need. So along with the kids, we’ve decided to shift most of our gift-giving budget to donations to others who need help this holiday season. We’re so proud of the kids for thinking of others! So we were wondering: Will you help us with a special project to surprise the kids a little?

It took a lot of maturity for them to make the decision to give to charity, so we want to honor their decision and not shower them in gifts anyway. But we would like to surprise them with something small, and they absolutely love to read. Would you be willing to forgo other gifts and instead send your favorite book you read as a child? I know it would be such a delight for the kids to have a little mini-library of their loved ones’ favorite childhood books that they can enjoy throughout the New Year.”

If your loved ones aren’t sure what books to get, you can point them to The Ultimate List of the Best Picture Books, Endorsed by Kids And Parents.

7. Ask for Keepsakes

This may touch the hearts of older family members especially. Here’s one more trick for how to politely request no Christmas gifts this year:

“We recently went through our closets to find unused items to donate to charity, and the experience gave us an idea for Christmas this year that we were hoping you could help with! While we were sorting through everything, the kids found a few of our old mementos from our childhood, like a school paper I wrote and some old photos of us as kids. And finding those keepsakes made their day! Their faces just lit up.

So we were hoping that instead of a store-bought gift this year, you could share a keepsake with us and the kids. I’m sure we all have things sitting in our closets or attics that wouldn’t see the light of day for many, many years otherwise! You could take a photo of the keepsake, or feel free to send the actual object. If you could include a short note to give the background story, that would be really fun too. These could be mementos from your childhood or from other family members’ pasts.

We’re hoping to give the kids a family treasury of keepsakes so we can pass along the oral history of our family, and even if you just send a short note with a written story, I know the kids would be absolutely delighted! Thank you for helping us make this family history project come to life.”

Your Turn

What’s the best way you’ve found to politely request no Christmas gifts this year? Share in a comment below!

The post Too Much Stuff? This Is the Best Way to Request No Gifts This Year appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

The holidays are upon us, and that means three unfortunate things:

1. Every company you’ve ever come in contact with is bombarding you with holiday gift guides and end-of-year sales.
2. Those same companies must be targeting your kids’ eyeballs too because you can’t go out in public without hearing this somewhere between 1 and 72 times: “I want to add that to my wish list too!”
3. If you’ll have family visiting for the holidays, you may actually have to buckle down for the first time in months (years?) and clean your baseboards.

I can’t help you with your baseboards, but I can help you with the onslaught of not-so-polite requests to buy more, more, more stuff this holiday season.

Because here’s the dirty little secret about Christmas gifts every parent has learned the hard way: That Hatchimal you tracked down on eBay for five times the retail value? Less than one month from the moment your child rips open the bright, shiny wrapping and lights up with a smile so big that you assure yourself it was totally worth it, that blasted toy will be sitting on a shelf or in a corner or under a bed, collecting dust. Your kid won’t even play with it once a week, let alone every day.

This isn’t something wrong with your child. They aren’t ungrateful or greedy. This is just human nature.

Here’s Why

If someone showered you with every gadget or trinket you had a fleeting desire to own, you wouldn’t fully appreciate all those gifts either.

Whether we like it or not, the truth is that after a while, the human brain gets used to new stuff. The official term is adaptation, and it means that when we’re exposed to something on a regular basis, we adapt to it. And when we get used to new stuff, it becomes as notable and interesting as the wallpaper you see in your home every day. In other words, not at all notable or interesting.

Still, we get wrapped up in the promise of that moment of seeing our child open a gift they’ve coveted. Because that smile! A million watts bright. When else do they smile that big?

Related: This Is the Best Way to Politely Request No Christmas Gifts This Year

What We’re Missing

You know what else would make my kids smile that big? If they sat down to the dinner table, and in front of them, I set a plate piled high with Snickers, Kit Kats, and Milky Ways.

Giving my kids more, more, more stuff for the holidays or birthdays is not unlike giving them junk food for dinner. Sure, it’ll make my kid light up with sheer joy in the moment, but deep down I know it’s not the best thing for them.

To be clear, I’m not going all Grinch on you here. Go ahead and get your kid an awesome toy or two for Christmas! But remember that the more toys we get them, the less they’ll appreciate any of them. (See also: wallpaper.)

Related: A Sweet Way to Guarantee Your Kid Has an Attitude of Gratitude {Printable}

Why Experience Gifts Make the Best Gifts

Think of all those toys and gadgets on your kid’s wish list as junk food. They’re fun for a bit, but the novelty will wear off and your child will be left feeling empty.

What’ll really stick with your child is an experience gift. In the same way that a regular diet of healthy food will stick to your kid’s ribs and give them the nourishment they need, an experience gift will build memories and stick with them for the rest of their life.

But it’s not just our kids who crave experience gifts in a junk food world. We need them, too.

Related: 4 Gifts for Christmas: How to Make Your Family Happy With Less

We Are Not Immune

We get lured in by the Black Friday deals on a big-screen TV (that’s just a couple inches bigger than the one we already have), the latest and greatest iPhone (that looks a lot like the last one), and the pretty new red Keurig (that works exactly the same as the black one already sitting on our kitchen counter).

Myself included. When the Kindle Fire first came out, I dropped hints to my husband with the delicate finesse of dropping an anchor off a cruise ship. Because the TV ads and the big banner every time I visited Amazon? They got to me. I knew I’d use that fancy new Kindle every day, and it would be awesome.

On Christmas morning when I opened that Kindle Fire under the tree, my smile might have outshone my daughter’s.

But then. I tried reading on it in bed at night, and it was kind of heavy to hold up. I’m used to the iPhone, so the new-to-me user interface felt kind of clunky. That Kindle Fire I was so sure I wanted sat in my nightstand drawer. For weeks. Then months.

In fact, I’m embarrassed to admit that it’s still there. I haven’t touched it in years, and it’s just taking up space in a drawer.

Related: 30 Heartfelt Homemade Christmas Gifts Anyone Can Make

The Ultimate List of the Best Experience Gift Ideas

Gifts of stuff are junk food. And junk food is definitely fun as a sometimes treat.

But gifts of experience will fill you up and stick with you. Same goes for your spouse, your kids, and your Aunt Susan who’s had 60+ years of getting gifts of stuff.

To help myself fight my own default mode of “more, more, more” this and future holiday seasons, for the past few years, I’ve been gathering this list of the best experience gift ideas. Not the experience gifts that will make your loved ones roll their eyes. But the experience gifts they’ll adore. Today, I’m sharing this massive list of ideas for experience presents with you. These gift ideas are perfect for every occasion, from Christmas gift experiences to birthday experiences and everything in between.

If you know of another experience gift idea that belongs on this list, let me know in the comments and I’ll keep this guide updated to be a resource for all of us. (You may have also heard these referred to as activity gifts, unstuff gifts, or in the case of kids – non-toy gifts.)

This guide may not keep our kids’ wish lists from growing at an alarming rate, and it won’t help you get out of cleaning your baseboards before family visits, but it will help you come up with gift ideas that your loved ones will appreciate – long after you tuck the last ornament back into storage for next year.

Experience Gift Ideas for Kids and Families

In this section, you’ll find the best family experience gift ideas. Whether you’re looking for a experiences for the whole family or experience gifts for kids, these gifts are way more meaningful than anything store-bought.

For more experience gift ideas for kids, check out The Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything and 110+ Experience Gifts for Kids That Will Make Your Child Happier and Cut Clutter.

1. Send a monthly box of fun. You can find a monthly subscription box for just about anything nowadays, from art projects to science experiments. And even though you’re technically gifting a subscription box to the kids, parents benefit too because you’re helping keep the kids busy with a new project once a month! Here are a few of the most popular subscription boxes for kids:
   • Kiwi Crates^† – These monthly hands-on projects are perfect for curious kids, kids who love science, creative kids, kids who love to tinker, and more…in other words, every kid. We received this as a gift last year, and my kids run to the mailbox on the day it’s due to arrive every month. From toddlers to preschoolers and grade schoolers to tweens and beyond, these boxes come custom tailored for every age group. To get your first Kiwi Crate subscription box for $4.95, click here and use the coupon code GIFT. (Ages 0-18)
   • Little Passports – Every month, kids get a letter from fictional pen pals who travel the world, learning about other cultures along the way. Kids receive a passport and wall map to help them follow along, as well as fun activities, souvenirs from each month’s destination, and more. (Ages 3-13)

   How to Wrap It: Print a flyer about the subscription and add a note about when they can expect their first box.

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

2. Make a donation to sponsor an animal. Most local zoos, aquariums, and animal sanctuaries allow you to donate in this way. Then you can plan a visit to the zoo and pretend to find the animal you sponsored. You can talk about how your donation went towards feeding the animal, getting medicine for when it’s sick, or cleaning the poo out of its enclosure.
   How to Wrap It: Some zoos will send you a certificate about the animal you sponsored, or you can make one yourself. As another idea, you can give your little one a miniature stuffed animal along with the certificate, like this cute sea otter, tiger, or panda.
3. Cover a gift membership to a children’s museum. This is a great gift the family can use year-round, and it may just save the parents’ sanity on a rainy day! If you don’t have a children’s museum in your area, try gifting a membership or tickets to a nature center, an indoor rock climbing gym, a trampoline center, or a bouncy house center.
   How to Wrap It: Print the museum memberships or a certificate from the museum and wrap that.
4. Send the kids mail. Find a fun kids’ magazine and gift a subscription. The kids will love getting mail addressed just to them, and they’ll be building their reading skills without even realizing it. The experience of getting a surprise in the mail once a month keeps this non-toy gift from becoming wallpaper. Plus, most kids’ magazines include activity and craft ideas for kids. And after the kids are done reading, they can pass the magazine along to a friend. A few ideas for you: Highlights, Ranger Rick Jr, New Moon Girls, or anything in the Cricket magazine family like Ladybug for 3- to 6-year-olds, Cricket for 9- to 14-year-olds, and more.
   How to Wrap It: Pick up the current issue in a local bookstore and wrap that, then when they open the gift let them know they’ll get a new one in the mail every month.
5. Get a good conversation going. How many of us rush through meals with our families, not stopping to enjoy the time with our loved ones? Turn a spare mason jar into a conversation jar by filling it with these family conversation starters. Your loved one can keep the jar on the dinner table and pull out a new question every night to have memorable conversations with their family. And the best part of these conversation starters for families is that they’ll get you more than the dreaded one-word answer.
   How to Wrap It: Download this set of family conversation starter cards, and drop them all in a spare mason jar.

Available for a limited time: If you prefer a printed set of these family conversation starters, you can get your printed set here.

6. Show kids the world. If you travel on a regular basis, make a promise to send a postcard to the child from every place you visit. Even if you just pick up a postcard from the airport on a layover and drop it in the mail before you catch your next flight, you’ll make that kid’s day when they get your postcard in the mail. If they have a map or globe at home, they can find where you visited on the map for a bonus geography lesson (sneaky!). As a companion non-toy gift, you can give the child a scrapbook where they can collect all the postcards you’ll be sending. Just remember to keep stamps in your carry-on luggage at all times!
   How to Wrap It: Gift a map or a globe so the child can follow along with your travels, like this dry-erase world map decal (or this U.S. map decal if that works better). Or include a scrapbook where they can collect the postcards, like this adorable adventure book modeled after the (also adorable) movie Up.
7. Put together a family movie night in a box. Grab your favorite family DVD off your shelf, like Shrek or The Goonies, or give an Amazon gift card for $5 so they can rent one. Then add some popcorn (our favorite is this maple kettle corn), soda or juice, and a cozy blanket for everyone to snuggle up under. (Note: I’m totally NOT suggesting you make that blanket yourself, but if you’re feeling adventurous there’s always arm-knitting?)
   How to Wrap It: Find a spare basket, fill it with the movie night supplies, and wrap it all in one fell swoop.
8. Invite the child on a hike or a nature walk scavenger hunt. This works great when you need to walk off a big Christmas dinner and the kids are feeling cooped up.
   How to Wrap It: Print a scavenger hunt map, add a note explaining that you’ll take the child exploring, and wrap it up. To take it one step further, you can gift an annual membership to a local nature center.
9. Give kids an excuse to play in the dirt. Kids love playing in the dirt, so you might as well get some veggies out of the deal and give them everything they need to start a garden.
   How to Wrap It: Give the little one a few packets of seeds so they can start a family garden. If you like this idea but you have a black thumb (hello, that’s me!), here’s the all-in-one garden starter package we used and loved.
10. Fill a basket with supplies. Find a fun kids’ activity, craft, or art project, then fill a basket with all the supplies the kids will need.
    How to Wrap It: Put together a basket with everything they’ll need, plus the instructions printed out. Or you can just gather random supplies you already have around the house, like washi tape, festive stickers, and colorful Sharpies, and throw in a brand new sketch book like this mixed media journal. (Check out this former art teacher’s recommendations for what every art gift basket needs!)
11. Make a play dough gift set. Check out the instructions here. You’ll just need homemade dough and accessories like toothpicks and buttons. (If my zero-craftiness self can make homemade dough, you totally can!)
    How to Wrap It: Find a spare basket or box and fill it with the play dough and assorted goodies. If you don’t have any accessories to throw in, you can get a set of fun play dough tools like this six-piece set. My toddler and preschooler use this set every time we bust out the play dough.
12. Plan a camping trip. Kids love this one, even if it’s just camping in your backyard or setting up a tent in your living room. The fresh air and quality time (and s’mores) will be an experience your little one will remember. If they don’t have a tent yet, here’s the 4-person tent we got for our living room camping adventures – it’s affordable and has great reviews.
    How to Wrap It: Fill a box with everything they’ll need for their camping adventure, from all the fixings for s’mores to a portable camp light.
13. Go to an impressive park. If the family has a fourth grader, you can get the little one and their immediate family a free annual pass to all national parks in the U.S.
    How to Wrap It: Print the annual pass and wrap that.
14. Take them on a trip. Plan a visit to a local amusement park, theme park, water park, bowling alley, mini golf course, arcade, or skating rink. Or go all out and gift a vacation to travel somewhere fun for the whole family. To be fair, that’s a pricey gift, but to put it in perspective, you can add up what you were planning to spend on physical gifts for everyone in the family. You may find that the cost of a vacation isn’t too far off, especially if you plan a road trip to somewhere nearby or your trip is a downtown staycation adventure with one night in a hotel. Remember that the gift of a vacation is something that your loved ones will remember for years, whereas the latest gadget or toy will quickly fade into the background and be forgotten. It’s just human nature! (Side note: On our bucket list is a train ride to somewhere fun, so that’s another travel option that could be fun for a family.)
    How to Wrap It: Type up the travel itinerary, print it, and wrap that. Or you can put together a slideshow of photos from the destination and flip through photos until they catch onto what the gift is!
15. Open the door to important conversations. From moms to little ones, this mother-daughter journal or this journal for mothers and sons will give you a magical way to get your kid to open up about what’s going on so you can stay connected. You take turns writing in this journal, and in the process, you find out what’s weighing on your little one’s heart. This non-toy gift will definitely end up being a gift for both of you! From dads to little ones, check out this father-daughter journal or this journal for dads and sons.
    How to Wrap It: Just wrap the journal. Easy peasy!

16. Ask awesome questions. This Q&A a Day book for kids gives you one question a day for three years, and you can record your kids’ answers to have an amazing snapshot of the funny, touching, and just plain weird stuff they’ve said over the years. This is similar to the journals for parents and their kids, but it’s a way to involve the whole family in a fun conversation every night at bedtime.
    How to Wrap It: Wrap the Q&A a Day book with a note that suggests using it every night at dinner or bedtime.
17. Give a personalized coupon book. Little ones love coupons they can use to cash in on fun experiences throughout the year. This is my favorite experience gift idea, so I designed a free printable set of coupons for you. Get the coupons so you can share them with a child in your life. By the way, you should know that as I was designing this set of coupons, my oldest daughter peeked over my shoulder and asked, “What are you doing?” I explained the idea of the coupon book, then added some examples to get the point across: “Like you could use this coupon to pick anything you want for dinner one night, or this one to take a mother-daughter mental health day off school and work, or this one to bake any dessert together…” She said: “Wow. That’s all I want for Christmas! Just that.”
    How to Wrap It: Use a hole-punch on the coupons, then bind them with a pretty ribbon or a binder ring. Wrap the coupon book in a small box, and you’re done!
18. Plan a family game night. Pick a date, print out an invitation, and put all the electronic devices away for a night and just have fun. As a companion gift for this experience gift, pick out a new board game or card game your family will love and make a game night basket with potato chips, soda or juice, and the new game. We have a wide range of ages in our family, so our favorite board games for all ages are Sleeping Queens, Outfoxed!, Sushi Go, and Castle Panic. If you’re looking for the best games for a big group, here are our top picks for family game night.
    How to Wrap It: Put together an invitation for game night, then print that and add in all the supplies like a new game, snacks, and drinks.

Black Friday’s back: Get 30% off all games with the code HAPPY30. Plus, free shipping for orders $49+.

4,687 families purchased this game after reading this post…

$18 from Amazon* $18 from our family shop * Price at time of publishing

Sleeping Queens

    
“My daughter and I love Sleeping Queens! It teaches them math without them even realizing it – or me, for that matter. I remember my daughter laid down a sequence that was like 1 + 3 + 5 = 9, and I thought ‘How did you know that…?’ Then I realized she just figured it out from doing math in the game. So cool to watch her learn right before my eyes.” – Ann

19. Puzzle it out. Pick out an awesome puzzle the family can do together, like one from our favorite puzzle company Ravensburger or this epic 18,000-piece puzzle. Bet you they won’t forget the experience of solving that puzzle together! Or if you have puzzles sitting in your game closet, you can always re-gift them to another family.
    How to Wrap It: Wrap the puzzle, and that’s it!
20. Capture their joy together. Purchase a session with a family photographer as a gift to a family in your life. Or if you’re a skilled photographer yourself, offer to take an afternoon at the park with them to snap a few shots. We had a family session soon after our middle child was born, and I’m so incredibly happy we have a record of that time together as a family! It wasn’t in the budget after our next child was born, so I can attest that this would be a much-appreciated gift.
    How to Wrap It: Type up a page that says something like “good for one session with a family photographer.”
21. Give back together. Setting up a volunteer activity the whole family can do together can be an amazing gift. Not only will you be giving the family an experience they’ll remember, but you’ll be fostering the kids’ budding compassion and empathy for others in need. You can volunteer at a local food pantry to sort food donations, help out at a soup kitchen preparing or serving food, visit an assisted living facility or nursing home to bring some much needed joy into the residents’ lives, deliver meals through a program like Meals on Wheels, make a meal to serve to families at a local Ronald McDonald House, leave food and notes of encouragement for families with babies in the NICU, or put together care packages of food and essentials like a toothbrush to hand out to the homeless living on the streets of your town.
    How to Wrap It: Put together an event invitation in your word processing app, then print that and wrap it.

Related: The Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything

Experience Gifts for Everyone

1. Send a monthly surprise. Don’t you love that experience of getting something unexpected in the mail? A monthly subscription box can make the perfect experience gift, as long as you focus on boxes that deliver an experience rather than just more stuff to collect dust. For example, one of my favorite gifts I ever received was this fun coffee subscription box where I got to sample a wide variety of roasts and find a new favorite. Kind of like a beer or wine tasting – but with coffee and delivered straight to your door. (Or if your loved one prefers tea, they also have a tea-of-the-month club that I can personally recommend.) As another option, I’ve tested out several different book subscription boxes, and my absolute favorite is The Book Drop because it’s run by an independent bookstore where they lovingly hand-pick unique books every month.
   How to Wrap It: Print a flyer about the subscription and add a note about when they can expect their first box.
2. Cover the membership fee at a local performing arts theater. Most theaters will give their members perks like free tickets or priority seating. If you like that idea but a full membership isn’t the right fit, get tickets to a show like a play, a musical, or a dance performance. If you gift tickets to little ones, this may be their first experience attending a performing arts show, so make a date of it!
   How to Wrap It: Print the theater’s schedule for that season, or wrap individual tickets if you went that route.
3. Get a gift certificate for a local movie theater. You can let your loved one pick out a movie they want to see, then set a date to go together.
   How to Wrap It: Print the current movie schedule for the theater, or wrap the gift certificate.
4. Give tickets. Does your loved one have a favorite sport like basketball or baseball? Do they love live music? Or stand-up comedy? Get tickets to a special event they’ll love, from a sporting event to a concert.
   How to Wrap It: Slide the concert tickets (or any kind of tickets) in a festive envelope, or wrap them in a big cardboard box to throw your loved one for a loop.
5. Offer to teach a skill you have. The skill you teach could be a foreign language, how to play an instrument, or the secret to handling temper tantrums like a ninja mom.
   How to Wrap It: Whip up a “coupon” in a word processing app that says something like, “This coupon is good for guitar lessons from me every Sunday afternoon in January!”

5. Make a coupon or certificate for a gift of your time. Include coupons for a night of babysitting or weekend of petsitting, a car wash, a month of cleaning the cat’s litterbox (okay, maybe just one week of that). Or as another option, you can give coupons for special treats like one morning of sleeping in, a day off from cooking dinner (for whomever the usual chef is in the house), breakfast in bed, and more. These printable ticket-style coupons are pretty cute (the coupons are free, but you can use the special discount code shown in the image above to get 20% off everything else in their store!). Or as another option, these are blank so you can write in your own gift. For kids, try this free printable coupon book for kids I made for my kids. (Spoiler alert: They loved it!)
   How to Wrap It: Use a hole-punch on the coupons, then bind them with a pretty ribbon or a binder ring. Wrap the coupon book in a small box, and you’re good to go!

6. Give a gift certificate for something they need anyway. Maybe your loved one has been putting off a haircut and color due to the cost. Or their vehicle is in desperate need of an oil change and a tune-up. Or they were putting away the butter when the fridge’s butter door fell down unexpectedly, popping the diamond right out of their engagement ring, but they haven’t made time or scrounged up the money to get it repaired yet. (That happened to me last week, so I can relate!) Getting something repaired isn’t technically an experience gift, but I say it counts because you’re saving them an experience they probably aren’t looking forward to – the hassle to get it repaired.
   How to Wrap It: Write a thoughtful note in a card to let your loved one know what you did.
7. Give them a clean house. This one could be a little touchy because you wouldn’t want to imply your loved one is incapable of keeping their house clean! But for many people who have trouble fitting in house cleaning on top of everything else on their plate, scheduling a house cleaning service would be a much-appreciated treat. Personally, I would be super thankful for this as a gift because now that it’s December, I can’t pass off the cobwebs as a Halloween decoration. If you’re unsure with this one, best check with someone who can do a little reconnaissance work and make sure your loved one will appreciate the gesture.
   How to Wrap It: Schedule the cleaning for when they won’t be home, then stick a big red bow on the front door before they get home.
8. Sign them up for a class. Do you have a friend who’s been talking about learning how to sew or the art of canning? Honing their photography skills? Find a class and sign them up! Even better, sign up both of you together so it’s an experience you’ll share. If this is a gift for little ones, you might try a cooking class (Raddish Kids is an online cooking club for kids with a monthly kit you receive in the mail), baking class, music lessons, jewelry-making class, knitting or sewing class, scrapbooking class, self-defense class, a session at one of those paint-your-own-pottery businesses, a yoga class, dance lessons, or anything else they’d enjoy.
   How to Wrap It: Print a flyer about the class and wrap that. To take it one step further, if they’ll need any basic supplies before class starts, pick those up for your loved one and wrap them. For example for a photography class, you might get them a fun camera strap like this pretty flower print or this gorgeous strap that looks like a scarf.
9. Make a playlist. Pick a few songs your loved one will appreciate and save them to a USB flash drive. This gift is super easy – just follow these step-by-step instructions for how to share a playlist. Then every time your loved one fires up the playlist you gifted, they’ll think of you!
   How to Wrap It: Type up a list of the songs, then wrap that with the USB drive.
10. Find a new recipe. If your loved one enjoys cooking, find an awesome new meal to try for dinner or a delicious dessert. Round up all the supplies you’ll need including ingredients and any special kitchen utensils, then work together to create something new from scratch. A cookbook makes the perfect companion to this experience gift, too. Dads might enjoy Dad’s Book of Awesome Recipes (From Sweet Candy Bacon to Cheesy Chicken Fingers, 100+ Recipes the Whole Family Will Enjoy), and I can personally vouch for every single recipe in the Baked cookbook being mouth-wateringly awesome.
    How to Wrap It: Fill a box with the ingredients for the recipe, any new kitchen utensils they’ll need, and the cookbook the recipe came from.
11. Hunt for food. What’s your loved one’s favorite food in the whole world? If it’s steak, research the absolute best restaurant for steak within a 50-mile radius and take them there. Whether they love barbecue, ice cream, or blueberry pie, find out who makes it the best, and take them on an adventure to try it out.
    How to Wrap It: Print a map to the restaurant with a big red X to mark the spot.
12. Take them on a tour. Many cities offer tours for visitors that can be fun for residents, too. From food tours to architecture tours and more, you can help your loved one see their town in a fresh way by gifting tickets to a local tour.
    How to Wrap It: Print the tour itinerary and wrap that.
13. Go wild. Has your loved one always wanted to go skydiving? Go for a hot air balloon ride? Fly a helicopter? Whatever wild goal is on their bucket list, find a way to help make it happen. Many years ago, I gifted my husband a helicopter flying lesson, and he still talks about it. And my teenager still talks about a horseback ride she was gifted when she was much younger!
    How to Wrap It: Print a flyer about the lesson or event and wrap that.

Related: 10 Unique Stocking Stuffers for Girls and Boys That Will Delight Your Kids {Printable}

Experience Gift Ideas for Couples (or From One Partner to Another)

1. Give dinner. Make your best lasagna, soup, or another dinner you can freeze, and give it to your loved one to use at a later date when they don’t feel like cooking dinner. This works great for families with small children! (Goodness knows my little family resorts to pizza way too often.) As another option, you can hire a chef to come in and cook a big meal in their home. A friend of mine once did this for a big family Christmas dinner so no one would have to worry about the food and everyone could just play games, visit, and enjoy their time together.
   How to Wrap It: No need to wrap this one. Just deliver the deliciousness!
2. Make a date night gift basket. Just fill a basket with all the essentials for a special movie night on the couch – popcorn (we love this fancy popcorn!), a romantic comedy (check out the best modern romantic comedies), plus wine or soda. A date night gift basket is the perfect gift for couples with young kids because they don’t have to worry about hiring a babysitter!
   How to Wrap It: Fill a basket with the date night goodies listed here.
3. Plan a date night out. Find a new restaurant or another fun destination to try, schedule a babysitter, and plan a surprise date night. As another idea, you can set up a tour of a local winery or brewery. How awesome would it be to have every little detail taken care of, and you just get to enjoy time with your partner?
   How to Wrap It: Make an event invitation in your word processing app with all the details, then wrap that.

Related: Donating to Charity As a Gift? 3 Cards to Make Your Loved Ones Smile {Printable}

Experience Gift Ideas for Him

1. Build something together. If he’s a dad who likes woodworking, find plans online for something he and the kids can build together as a bonding experience, then round up all the supplies they’ll need including lumber and any special tools necessary for the project. For example, the kids and Dad could build a birdhouse together. As a supplement to this gift, consider giving one of these books to keep the projects going year-round:
   • Dad’s Book of Awesome Projects: From Stilts and Super-Hero Capes to Tinker Boxes and Seesaws, 25+ Fun Do-It-Yourself Projects for Families
   • The Geek Dad’s Guide to Weekend Fun: Cool Hacks, Cutting-Edge Games, and More Awesome Projects for the Whole Family
   • Handy Dad: 25 Awesome Projects for Dads and Kids
   • Made by Dad: 67 Blueprints for Making Cool Stuff
   • Maker Dad: Lunch Box Guitars, Antigravity Jars, and 22 Other Incredibly Cool Father-Daughter DIY Projects

   How to Wrap It: Get a big box, throw in a printed set of the project instructions (or one of the books above if that’s where it’s from), and all the supplies they’ll need.

2. Take him for a spin. For guys who love cars, you can rent a fancy sports car for an hour or two so he can exercise his testosterone to its fullest potential.
   How to Wrap It: Get a miniature version of the car you rented and wrap that.

Related: 14 Father’s Day Experience Gifts Every Dad Will Love

Experience Gift Ideas for Her

1. Take away the guilt. Some women feel guilty setting up spa and salon services for themselves, so give her a guilt-free experience she’ll appreciate with a gift certificate for a massage, mani/pedi, haircut, or anything else you know she’d enjoy.
   How to Wrap It: Add a thoughtful note to the gift certificate about how much you appreciate her and how much she deserves to treat herself.
2. Schedule a home spa day. From a mom to daughter or vice versa, give a fun new shade of nail polish with a piece of paper tied to it that says, “Let’s try this one out together!” On your manicure or pedicure (or both!) date, you can even start up a girly movie like The Princess Bride in the background to make a proper spa day of it.
   How to Wrap It: Make an event invitation for your girls’ spa day and wrap that along with nail polish, a movie to watch, and anything else that would be fun. (Chocolate!)
3. Pamper the pregnant mama. If she’s expecting, cover a chiropractor visit or a prenatal massage. Not only will you give her body some much-needed relief, you may even help control the ridiculous swelling that happens during pregnancy.
   How to Wrap It: Print the gift certificate and wrap that.

Related: 16 Experience Gifts for Mother’s Day That Will Make You Mom’s Favorite

Your Turn

What’s the best experience gift idea you’ve heard of? Share in a comment below!

The post 43 Experience Gifts That Will Make You Everyone’s Favorite Person appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

When I was a kid, my family didn’t do stocking stuffers. So when I became a mom and discovered the world of stocking stuffers, I might have gone a little overboard.

Instead of focusing on fostering an attitude of gratitude with my kids and finding meaningful gifts that come from the heart (not a shopping cart), I crammed our stockings full of every Christmas goody imaginable:

• Those old-school candy bars you find at Cracker Barrels,
• Glitter pens as far as the eye can see,
• The most adorable miniature notebooks,
• Strawberry lip gloss,
• Novelty unicorn bandages…

And that’s just from one page of my Amazon order history from one Christmas. It doesn’t even include the scratch-off lottery tickets, the mini LEGO sets in a bag, and all the other trinkets and tchotchkes we amassed before Christmas Day.

That year, I realized I needed to rethink the stocking stuffer tradition.

Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get a free printable coupon book that will make the perfect gift for your child.

Because Here’s What Happens

We love stocking stuffers because they give our kids (and let’s be honest, us too) one delicious little surprise after surprise after surprise. Who wouldn’t love that?

But after the initial feeling of surprise fades, we lose interest. We can’t fully enjoy these little gifts because there’s so many of them, and anyway – how can they possibly compete with the “big” gifts under the tree?

Which means that after Christmas Day, all those little gadgets and goodies end up all over the house. Under feet, under the couch, tucked in every nook and cranny.

It’s not just overwhelming for the parent who’s vacuuming and unearths one of these long-lost treats.

One Christmas after we’d emptied all the stockings and opened all the presents, my oldest told me that when she went into her room, she didn’t know what to play with because there was too much to choose from.

An overflowing stocking can be overwhelming for kids, too. Not to mention that most of the time, what makes a child the happiest of all is much simpler – from magical lights on a tree to the cardboard box a gift came in.

Related: 30 Holiday Activities for Your Advent Calendar {Printable}

A Fresh New Stocking Stuffer Tradition

The problem with new stuff is after a short while, it becomes old stuff. Research shows you get used to it, and it becomes part of your daily life. Wallpaper.

So why spend all this time and money on buying more and more stuff, only to have that stuff collect dust for a year (or more) until we get fed up with the clutter and donate it all to charity?

I’ve got a solution for you: Stuff your little ones’ stockings with gifts of experience.

Material gifts quickly fade into the background to become the new normal. But experience gifts stick with you.

Let’s stop filling our kids’ stockings with stuff and start filling them with simple experiences that our kids will remember even after they start their own families.

Related: The Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything

12 Stocking Stuffers for Girls and Boys That Will Delight Your Child

In this list, you’ll find the best stocking stuffer ideas that your kids will love. And here’s why: because these gifts will live beyond the actual physical gift and become a treasured memory.

But it’s hard to wrap an experience for your child, so each gift in this list includes a simple idea for a physical way to present the gift to your child. Still, the overall goal is to deliver an experience that will delight your kiddo.

Whether you’re looking for stocking stuffers for toddlers or stocking stuffers for tween girls or stocking stuffers for boys, I gotcha covered. But whatever you do, don’t miss the last idea in this list. It’s the best one of all!

For even more gift ideas, check out this list of the most meaningful gifts your kids will treasure for a long time.

But First, Beware of This

Typically, when shopping for stocking stuffers for kids, as parents, we tend to look for two things: small and cheap. This list of ideas is about shifting the “cheap” part of the equation to “meaningful” instead.

For example, in our family, we decided we wanted to stop filling our children’s stockings with 10 cheap things when instead we could fill them with 3 meaningful experiences.

But here’s something to beware of because you may experience this, too: The “stocking stuffers = small and cheap” approach has been drilled into our heads as parents for so long, sometimes we still need to catch ourselves and remember that it’s about quality, not quantity. So we may end up spending $10 on one stocking stuffer our kids will love instead of $3 each on three cheap stocking stuffers that will end up lost or broken before Christmas Day is over.

1. An Excuse to Play in the Dirt

Young kids love playing in the dirt, and some older kids do, too – even if they don’t admit it. Give your little one a few kid-friendly packets of seeds^†, then start a family garden together.

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

My family started a garden together earlier this year, taking turns tending to it every day. If you’d been walking by our house when we gathered around to see the first sprouts peek out, you’d have thought we’d just won lifetime, unlimited free admission to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. (Our happy is loud.)

And here’s a delicious bonus for you: After growing their own vegetables, your little ones will be excited to eat the veggies when they’re ready.

If you like this idea but you have a black thumb (hello, that’s me!), do what we did and use an all-in-one garden kit like this. It may not fit in your little one’s stocking, but it’s 100 percent worthy of an under-the-tree gift spot.

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: Heirloom Varieties of Vegetable Seeds with Kid’s 3-Piece Garden Tool Set

2. A Brand New Deck

Our kids go bananas for board games and card games. Bananas. So every holiday season, we wrap up a couple new games as “for everyone” gifts to expand our ever-growing collection of the best family board games.

And then we love to add a new card game to each kiddo’s stocking as well. That’s how we discovered our absolute most favorite (and quick) family games, like Sleeping Queens, Rat-a-Tat Cat, and Quiddler Junior.

While our kids love the new board games we get every year, there’s something so accessible about a new card game for kids. You don’t have to set up a whole board and figure out what all the game pieces are in addition to absorbing multiple pages of rules – you just need to get your deck of cards and learn the rules.

For recommendations of games loved by kids and parents, check out our lists of the best games by age:

• Games for all ages
• Games for tweens and teens
• Games for grade schoolers
• Games for preschoolers
• Games for toddlers
• Games for family game night

Black Friday’s back: Get 30% off all games with the code HAPPY30. Plus, free shipping for orders $49+.

If you’re short on time, here’s a quick list of our all-time favorite card games for kids – we’ve played a lot to find the best ones!

1. Love Letter
2. Quiddler Junior or Quiddler
3. Rat-a-Tat Cat
4. SET
5. Sleeping Queens
6. Spot It!
7. Sushi Go
8. Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
9. Trash Pandas

By the way, when you’re playing card games with your child, this card holder is a must have for little hands. Your child can hold it to see their cards, or they can set the holder down on the table for a break. (This particular card holder has stood the test of time, as opposed to other card holders we’ve tried.) Perfect for throwing in their stocking!

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: A card game like Sleeping Queens along with a kid-friendly card holder

4,687 families purchased this game after reading this post…

$18 from Amazon* $18 from our family shop * Price at time of publishing

Sleeping Queens

    
“My daughter and I love Sleeping Queens! It teaches them math without them even realizing it – or me, for that matter. I remember my daughter laid down a sequence that was like 1 + 3 + 5 = 9, and I thought ‘How did you know that…?’ Then I realized she just figured it out from doing math in the game. So cool to watch her learn right before my eyes.” – Ann

3. An Extra Dose of Family Connection

How many of us rush through meals with our families, not stopping to enjoy the time with our loved ones? Turn a spare mason jar or pretty box into a conversation jar or box by filling it with these family conversation starters.

The child can put the jar or box on the dinner table and pull out a new question every night to have memorable conversations with their family. And the best part of these conversation starters for families is that they’ll get you more than the dreaded one-word answer from kids.

We use these conversation starters every night to reconnect as a family, and the answers we get from our kids are pure gold.

Available for a limited time: If you prefer a printed set of these family conversation starters, you can get your printed set here.

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: Family Conversation Starter Cards in a spare jar or box, or tied together with a pretty ribbon

4. A Night Under the Stars

In our house, we can put a smile on four little faces just by putting one box on our kitchen counter.

Graham crackers.

This is a clue to our kids that we’re gearing up for a night in our family-sized tent and everything that involves – including s’mores.

Full disclosure: Our backyard slopes down at a steep angle, so our “backyard camping” nights really mean putting up the tent in our living room. But the kids still love it. If we’re not up to firing up the backyard grill, the microwave works just fine!

Still, if you want more of that campfire effect without an actual campfire or grill, we used one of these s’mores making stations at a big multi-family get-together, and it was super easy! It’s too big for their stocking, but it’s a fun under-the-tree gift for the whole family.

When you fill your little one’s stocking with the promise of a night of backyard camping, the fresh air and quality family time (and s’mores) will be an experience she remembers.

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: Portable Camp Light, kid-safe Marshmallow Roasting Sticks, plus all the fixings for s’mores

5. A Pretty Color

To be fair, this may be the one idea in this list that’s girl-specific, but my husband does join in with us sometimes, so you never know!

But one of my kids’ favorite games is to pretend they’re visiting the spa. As the spa worker, I give them pedicures using my “grown-up” nail polish and make random small talk that makes them giggle:

• Are you reading any good books right now? I’d love some recommendations.
• What’s the next vacation you have planned?
• If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Give your child a fun new shade of nail polish with a piece of paper tied to it that says, “Let’s try this one out together!”

On your pedicure date, you can even start up a movie like The Princess Bride in the background to make a proper spa day of it.

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: Piece of Cake Nail Lacquer and The Princess Bride

6. A Cute Animal

Make a donation to sponsor an animal at your local zoo, aquarium, or animal sanctuary. This makes a great gift for kids because as a follow-up gift, you can visit the zoo and pretend to find the animal you sponsored. You can talk about how your donation went towards feeding the animal, getting medicine for when it’s sick, or cleaning the poo out of its enclosure.

Some zoos will send you a certificate about the animal you sponsored, or you can make one yourself to put in your kiddo’s stocking. As another idea, you can put a miniature stuffed animal in her stocking along with the certificate.

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: Sponsor an animal at your local zoo, plus a miniature toy like this cute owl, lion, or elephant

7. A Grateful Heart

During the holiday season, it’s easy for kids to get wrapped up in the flurry of wish lists and letters to Santa and gifts piled under the tree. (I mean, I still get wrapped up in that myself, and I’m a grown woman!)

But to set the right tone with our kids, we like to fill their stockings with a few pretty thank-you cards. That way, after the wrapping paper is cleared away, they can sit down to reflect on how others thought of them and then express that gratitude in a quick message from the heart.

Pair a stack of cards with my free printable mini-gratitude journal for kids, and your child will have everything she needs to show gratitude to loved ones for what she receives this holiday season.

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: Kid-friendly thank-you cards like these simple designs, these cute animals, or animal postcards – along with this free printable mini-gratitude journal for kids

8. A Scavenger Hunt

This stocking stuffer turns into a gift for the whole family when you need to walk off a big Christmas dinner and the kids are feeling cooped up.

Here’s how you do it: Print a free scavenger hunt map, add a note like “let’s go exploring!,” and put it in a festive envelope like this adorable snowman dude or in a regular envelope decorated with Christmas-y washi tape.

Don’t forget to bring a mug of hot cocoa to share on your walk!

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: Printable Scavenger Hunt Map

9. An Open Door

This mother-daughter journal is called Just Between Us, and it’s a magical way to get your daughter to open up about what’s going on so you can stay connected. You take turns writing in this journal, and in the process, you find out what’s weighing on your daughter’s heart. Or if you have a son you’d like to connect with in this way, here’s a journal designed just for mothers and sons. My son is still a toddler so I can’t personally vouch for it, but my mom friends swear by it! From dads to little ones, check out this father-daughter journal or this journal for dads and sons.

For a bonus surprise, pair this stocking stuffer with some new colored pencils or glittery gel pens.

For even more journal ideas, check out 10 Best Journals for Kids That Will Boost Your Child’s Emotional Intelligence.

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: The Just Between Us: A No-Stress, No-Rules Journal for moms and daughters, or the Between Mom and Me: Mother Son Journal along with some pretty new colored pencils or glittery gel pens

10. A Placeholder

You often feel like you’re treading water in a neverending sea of parental to-dos—getting snacks, folding laundry, mediating sibling squabbles. Then after you tuck your child into bed, a nagging thought creeps in: Did you tell them how much you loved them today?

Give these I Love You Bookmarks to your child so that every time they reach for one, they’ll feel absolutely loved. Because when your child feels your warmth and affection, that has a life-long positive impact. They’ll develop a healthy self-esteem, end up happier and less anxious, and even do better in school.

If your child likes to read, you can wrap these loving bookmarks in a ribbon or twine and give them as a set. (You can print them now for a last-minute stocking stuffer!)

But even if your child doesn’t need bookmarks, you can surprise your child by leaving one of the heartfelt messages somewhere for them to find. And when your child happens upon your sweet message, you’ll put a smile on their face.

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: These I Love You bookmarks, tied together with a pretty ribbon or piece of twine

11. A Note to Their Future Self

This stocking stuffer doubles as a keepsake that your child will treasure the rest of their life. For a unique gift, give them these letter prompts they can fill out to their future selves for when they grow up.

The 12 letters in this keepsake book prompt your child to tell stories, draw pictures, and imagine who they’ll become one day. This is like a time capsule for your child’s future self!

For an extra splash of delight, pair this stocking stuffer with some new colored pencils or glittery gel pens.

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: Letters to Me, When I Grow Up letter prompts along with some new colored pencils or glittery gel pens

12. A Coupon Book

As adults, we’re always calling the shots when it comes to where we go, what we do, what we eat…everything. Kids don’t often get a say in what errands we run on the weekend or what we have for dinner.

Which is why this stocking stuffer will delight your child like no other. Give her a personalized coupon book for kids she can use to cash in on fun experiences throughout the year.

This is my favorite experience gift idea, so I designed a free printable set of coupons for you. Get the coupons below so you can share them with the child in your life.

By the way, you should know that as I was designing this set of coupons to share with you, my oldest daughter peeked over my shoulder and asked, “What are you doing?”

I explained the idea of the coupon book, then added some examples to get the point across: “Like you could use this coupon to pick anything you want for dinner one night, or this one to take a mother-daughter mental health day off school and work, or this one to bake any dessert together…”

“Wow,” she said. “That’s all I want for Christmas! Just that.”

Stocking Stuffer They’ll Love: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get this Free Printable Coupon Book

Here’s a preview for you:

When it comes to stocking stuffers for kids, it doesn’t get any better than this coupon book. Your kids will adore it.

Get Your Coupon Book

1. Get the coupon book. Join my weekly-ish newsletter and as a bonus, you’ll get the printable! Just click here to get it and subscribe. (Want to write your own idea on the coupons? You’ll also get a blank sheet you can print to write in your own coupon ideas.)
2. Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock would be ideal.
3. Cut out the coupons you want to include in the book. Or if you’re like me and you can’t cut a straight line to save your life, fold and tear to get a charmingly casual look.
4. Punch a hole in one corner, then loop a rubber band or a book ring through to connect the cards. A staple in the corner would work perfectly fine, too!
5. Drop the coupon book in her stocking, and you’re DONE. Get ready to see pure joy spread across her face!

Want More Stocking Stuffer Ideas?

The gift guides I publish are a little different from the typical gift guides out there. If you want more meaningful gift ideas instead of lists of random junk, I gotcha covered!

• The Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything
• 110+ Experience Gifts for Kids That Will Make Your Child Happier and Cut Clutter
• 4 Gifts for Christmas: How to Make Your Family Happy With Less

Your Turn

What are your favorite ideas of stocking stuffers for girls or boys? Share in a comment below!

The post 12 Unique Stocking Stuffers That Will Delight Your Child appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

Every year on the morning after Thanksgiving, we pick out a Christmas tree.

And before you get the wrong idea: We don’t drive out to the country and pull it up by the roots, National Lampoon style.

We get our tree at a grocery store.

It’s cheap, it comes with a mini tabletop tree for our girls to decorate, and nobody gets frostbite.

This year though, the temperature was in the mid-40s with buckets pouring from the sky.

But a tradition is a tradition. So we bundled up our toddler and infant – it wasn’t our week with 7-year-old – and we set out on a completely miserable morning.

Last year, our toddler was too young to understand any of the Christmas hullabaloo, but at two-and-a-half this year it’s a different story.

We parked at the store, and Ty reached to the backseat for the umbrella.

Not there.

I checked my floorboard.

Not there.

Our eyes met, and we both realized it at the same time.

At home, we’d cleared out the trunk to fit the tree and forgot to stick the umbrella somewhere else in the car.

I wondered: How bad would it be to just pull up alongside the tree tent and have them load one, sight unseen?

“Maybe we can come back a little later,” Ty suggested.

From the backseat in the most angelic voice you could imagine, our toddler repeated: “Come back later?”

I smiled at Ty, and we knew our fate was sealed. We couldn’t take this away from her.

Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get a free holiday planner template that will help you say goodbye to holiday stress so you can actually enjoy the season.

Not What We Bargained For

I loaded the baby in my trusty baby carrier as fast as possible and threw the attached cover over her head while Ty hurried to get the toddler out of her seat, then we ran for cover under the Christmas tree tent.

I’d hunched my head over the baby, so she wasn’t wet. But I was soaked. The cold wind cut right through to my bones.

Then I looked down at my toddler standing beside me, and I’ve never seen her eyes that big before.

And that smile! I felt a tug at the corners of my mouth and looked around me.

This wasn’t even an impressive display of trees. It was a grocery store. Ninety-five percent of the trees were still bundled up.

Plus, did I mention? Wet. Cold. And also in case I forgot to explain: wet.

“How about that one?” Ty pointed and asked our toddler.

“Yeah!” she yelled while clapping and jumping up and down.

I looked where he was pointing. A little scrawny.

But that smile. Pure joy from the simple idea of bringing a little of the outside into our home.

I caught Ty’s eye and smirked. “She’s pretty excited about this.”

He laughed.

What Happened to This Cranky Mom

I brushed the wet hair off my face and looked around the tent for a fuller tree.

When I spied one, I reached down for my toddler’s hand. My hand caught part of her jacket, and I realized she must be soaked, too.

I led her to another tree. “This one looks a little bigger. How about this?”

And again: “Yeah!” Clapping. Jumping.

That smile.

I shook my head and chuckled. “Too much cuteness.”

“Yep,” Ty said.

The tent attendant started to work on bundling up our tree for the road. “Don’t forget your tabletop tree,” he reminded us.

“Oh yeah,” I said. Then to my toddler: “Are you ready to pick out the tree for your room with big sis?”

Her jaw dropped until her mouth made a perfect circle. “For my room?”

“Uh-huh,” I said.

“Right now?” she asked.

“Right now,” I said.

Clapping. Jumping.

And oh goodness. That smile.

I couldn’t help it. I smiled too.

Wet, cold, and smiling like a toddler under a Christmas tree tent.

A Lesson From My Toddler

When the holiday stress threatens to overwhelm me this year, I will remember that day.

The bliss on my toddler’s face on an absolutely miserable day. Pure happiness because of the simple joys this season brings.

A tree? Right now? For me?

In that moment, she didn’t even realize she’d get to string lights on the tree or hang ornaments or shoo the cats away from drinking the tree water.

I can’t even imagine her face when she sees the first present under the tree.

Take joy in the small pleasures that come your way. That’s what I learned from my toddler this holiday season.

And also: Always pack an umbrella.

7 Holiday Tips for Parents to Help You Enjoy the Season, Backed by Science

My toddler inspired me to put together a toolbox to keep my perspective screwed on straight this year.

When I start to worry that we’re not doing enough fun holiday activities with the girls, or that we haven’t given enough to our loved ones, or that we’ve stretched our budget too thin – I’ll be prepared.

Because of the look on my child’s face that day and also because I’m ready with these tools for managing holiday stress. These holiday tips for parents are like a vaccine against Christmas stress.

I even designed myself a Christmas planner to keep these tricks top of mind every day throughout December. If that sounds good to you too, be sure to grab the free printable template page at the end of this post.

1. Empty the Snow Globe That Is Your Head

I used to write to-do lists on every scrap of paper I could find – in my purse, on the kitchen counter, tucked inside books I’d started reading and lost interest in. Any piece of paper was fair game, from bill envelopes to the leftover construction paper scraps from my kids’ art projects.

But this kind of disjointed to-do list is actually a major source of stress. From the book Getting Things Done^†:

“The short-term memory part of your mind – the part that tends to hold all of the incomplete, undecided, and unorganized “stuff” – functions much like RAM on a personal computer. Your conscious mind, like the computer screen, is a focusing tool, not a storage place. You can think about only two or three things at once. But the incomplete items are still being stored in the short-term-memory space. And as with RAM, there’s limited capacity; there’s only so much “stuff” you can store in there and still have that part of your brain function at a high level. Most people walk around with their RAM bursting at the seams. They’re constantly distracted, their focus disturbed by their own internal mental overload…

This produces an all-pervasive stress factor whose source can’t be pinpointed.

Even if you’ve already decided on the next step you’ll take to resolve a problem, your mind can’t let go until and unless you write yourself a reminder in a place it knows you will, without fail, look.”

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

In other words, the neverending to-do list swirling in your head is like a snow globe that never settles back down. Don’t let that get in the way of enjoying the holiday season with your family.

Here’s the fix: Have one place where you get all those to-dos out of your head. I’m personally smitten with Evernote.

1. Set a timer for 25 minutes.
2. Sit down with Evernote or your list-keeper of choice.
3. Write down everything you need to get done.

If you think of something an hour later, add it to the list. If you’re lying in bed and can’t sleep because you’re thinking about how you need to call Aunt Susan to politely explain the kids are too old for her annual present of footie pajamas, add it to the list so you can sleep!

(By the way, this is one reason I love Evernote – I can open it on my phone or any computer, and my lists all stay in sync.)

2. Honor the Magic of Three

The Holy Trinity. The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. The Santa Clause trilogy.

Three really is a magic number, and that’s why every day you’ll pick three MITs.

MIT = Most Important Task.

You de-snow-globed your head to make a master to-do list, but it’s probably kind of long and overwhelming. The solution? MITs.

Here’s how: Look at your master list, and pick three tasks that are most important to get done today. Just three.

Pick the things that MUST happen today. If you finish these MITs, you will consider the day a success.

For example, here are my MITs from Monday:

1. Order books for the girls’ Christmas presents.
2. Design a free printable planner page to go along with this post.
3. Reserve dog boarding for our holiday travel.

Notice how I listed work and personal items together. Your 3 MITs should be for your whole day. Avoid making one MIT list for work and one for home because you’ll lose focus on the most important things that must happen today – plus you’ll probably procrastinate both lists.

You can always do more than your MITs, but those should happen first. Before you check email or shop online for stocking stuffers and get lost down a rabbit hole of peppermint truffles and gingerbread lip balm – do your MITs.

3. Catch This Word

I can hear you right now.

“But…just three? THREE?!? I should bake cookies for neighbor presents. I should deep-clean the house before family visits. I should fill out the Advent calendar with super fun family activities. I should…”

Stop.

First of all, I already gotcha covered on the Advent calendar front. (Get my free holiday activity cards inside that post, and you’re DONE.)

So eliminate “should” from your vocabulary during the holiday season.

Here’s the problem with “should”ing: Research on time perceptions shows that we typically “imagine that we’ll be less busy in the future.” And because of that, we take on more and more tasks and projects thinking we’ll have time “later.” But we’re wrong. We’re just as busy “later” as we are right now – if not moreso.

Stop telling yourself you’ll have more time later. It’s a lie. For all those things you think you’ll get to “one day,” you probably won’t. And every time you think of it and how you haven’t done it yet, you’ll be disappointed in yourself. Those undone tasks weigh you down.

Saying you “should” do something dangles more tasks over your head like wannabe mistletoe, and it takes the focus off what’s most important for you to get done.

If you catch yourself “should”ing, try this brilliant holiday hack: Change that “should” to “could” and add “or…” to the end.

For example, let’s say you catch yourself saying this: “I should knit homemade stockings for the whole family using wool I sheared myself at the sheep farm three hours outside of town.” Stop that “should” in its reindeer tracks and say this: “I could knit homemade stockings for the whole family, or I could pour myself another eggnog and order them from Amazon instead.”

4. Make One Task Your Universe

Contrary to popular belief, multitasking is nothing to brag about. Multitasking makes it harder for you to concentrate, and it adds to your stress.

Even worse than that, constantly switching between tasks makes everything take longer. Multitasking increases the amount of time it takes to finish your primary task by an average of 25%.

Pick one thing from your list and focus on that one task. If you struggle with this, try setting a timer for 20-30 minutes to help you focus.

If you’re raking leaves but you have a gabazillion other things you should be doing right now – make that a gabazillion other things you could be doing right now – accept the fact that you chose to rake leaves right now. Pay attention to the crunch of the leaves, the sunlight falling through the trees, the cold grip of the rake on your hand.

Make that task your universe.

5. Think of This, Once a Day

Here’s the absolute best thing you can do to keep the holiday stress from getting to you: Think of what you’re grateful for.

According to Gratitude Works: A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity:

Gratitude has one of the strongest links to mental health and satisfaction with life of any personality trait – more so than even optimism, hope, or compassion. Grateful people experience higher levels of positive emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, love, happiness, and optimism, and gratitude as a discipline protects us from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, greed, and bitterness. People who experience gratitude can cope more effectively with everyday stress, show increased resilience in the face of trauma-induced stress, recover more quickly from illness, and enjoy more robust physical health.

But it doesn’t work if you focus on gratitude just once in a while. The effects will wear off, and you’ll start taking things for granted again.

You must make gratitude part of your routine. As explained in Gratitude Works, once a week is the bare minimum.

By the way, this is why the free printable planner page at the bottom of this post includes a section for recording what you’re grateful for every day in December. In my family, we’ve also started going around the table at dinnertime to share what everyone is grateful for – even the toddler.

And here’s a funny tidbit for you: As it turns out, it doesn’t even matter if you can’t think of something you’re grateful for. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but this happens to me all the time.

For example: The toddler is throwing a tantrum because she wants a snack five minutes before dinner’s ready, the baby spit up all over me, and the dog just walked into the kitchen smacking her lips after a visit to the cats’ litter box.

Instead of screaming and running from the house, I try to catch myself in those moments and ask: “What am I grateful for?”

In The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time, I learned that if I can’t think of anything in that moment, it’s okay. I still get the benefits of a gratitude habit. Not only that, by continuing to ask myself that question, I’m making it easier to answer myself the next time:

It’s not finding gratitude that matters most; it’s remembering to look in the first place. Remembering to be grateful is a form of emotional intelligence. One study found that it actually affected neuron density in both the ventromedial and lateral prefrontal cortex. These density changes suggest that as emotional intelligence increases, the neurons in these areas become more efficient. With higher emotional intelligence, it simply takes less effort to be grateful.

6. Drink Eggnog

During especially busy times like the holidays, your tendency may be to crank, crank, crank on your to-do list. But trying to be super productive for long stretches of time will actually hurt you.

From productivity guru David Allen, author of Getting Things Done:

“You have to back off and be quiet. Retreat from the task at hand, so that you can gain a new perspective on what you’re doing. If you get too wrapped up in all of the stuff coming at you, you lose your ability to respond appropriately and effectively. If your inbox and your outbox are completely full, or if people are screaming at you, then it’s difficult to back off and think about things at a different level.”

What’s more, all the tasks and decisions you make throughout the day wear on your brain. Your brain needs a chance to recuperate so you don’t turn into Clark Griswold after he opened his Jelly of the Month Club “bonus.”

Every day during this busy time, take at least one deliberate break. If you can take more, even better.

A few ideas to get you on the Polar Express train to a happier holiday season:

• Invite your kids to join you in some simple holiday fun – like watching Elf, making paper snowflakes, or sipping eggnog by the cozy fire.
• Take a quick walk around your neighborhood. Bonus points if you do it after dark and check out the festive Christmas lights.
• Set the timer for 10 minutes and meditate. If that sounds weird, I get it because I felt the same way. Then I tried meditating using an app called Headspace, and I’m SOLD. Nothing clears my mind of stress like taking 10 minutes to…well, clear my mind. The app is available for iOS and Android.
• Steal one of your kid’s coloring books, and start coloring. The activity of coloring calls on both logic (staying in the lines) and creativity (picking colors and color schemes), and that combo package is exactly what your brain needs to chill out. You can even get one of these absolutely gorgeous coloring books designed just for adults. Treat yourself to some pretty gel pens, coloring brush pens, or a set of fancy colored pencils, and your stress will melt away.

7. Don’t Buy Gifts

This is the season of giving, but that doesn’t mean you have to go into mega credit card debt to cover everyone on your shopping list.

And guess what? Your loved ones don’t want all that stuff from you anyway. 84 percent of Americans said they would prefer a less materialistic holiday season. And 81 percent of adults appreciate when someone makes a donation to a charity in their name instead of giving a physical gift.

This year, try giving handmade gifts. And I don’t mean some Pinterest monstrosity crafted entirely from toilet paper rolls, glitter, and mason jars.

My crafting ability lies somewhere between lighting a candle and successfully cutting coupons – and you’d be surprised by how often I find myself cutting right into the barcode. If you’re like me or if you’d like to give your loved one gifts they’ll actually appreciate instead of shove in the back of the closet until next year’s white elephant gift exchange, here are some DIY Christmas gift ideas for you:

• 30 Heartfelt Homemade Christmas Gifts Anyone Can Make
• If you plan to make a donation in your loved one’s name, check out these free cards that say a donation has been made in your name, but in a way that will make your loved one smile.

Get Your Free Planner Template

1. Get the planner template. You’ll get the printable, plus join my weekly newsletter! Just click here to get it and subscribe.
2. Print one for every day of December. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock would be super sturdy.
3. Fill out your planner every morning and say goodbye to holiday stress.

Your Turn

What are your best holiday tips for parents? Share in a comment below!

The post 7 Holiday Tips for Parents to Help You Enjoy the Season, Backed by Science appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

My husband has more fashion sense than me, but he also climbs 20-foot trees to trim dead branches. He bakes a mean cheesecake, but he can also build a king-sized platform bed in one afternoon. He regularly does laundry one-handed with a toddler on his hip, but he also loves watching hockey.

He defies all stereotypes, and I love him all the more for it.

But when it comes to Father’s Day gifts for my husband, the standard fare misses the mark. He hates beer, he doesn’t wear ties to work, and he doesn’t play golf.

If the fathers in your life don’t quite fit the stereotypical mold, check out this list of the absolute best Father’s Day gifts you can give. (Science says so!)

What You Won’t Find in This List

You can find a ton of ideas for adorable Father’s Day crafts and other DIY gifts, but the drawback to most of those gifts? Dad can’t really do much with them.

Crafts and DIY gifts tend not to be terribly practical – although they do win hands down on cuteness.

And then you have the store-bought gifts. The problem with new stuff is after a short while, it becomes old stuff. You get used to it, and it becomes part of your daily life.

The gifts that really stick with you (or in this case, stick with Dad) are the gifts of experience.

It’s counterintuitive that something like a physical object that you can keep for a long time doesn’t keep you as happy as long as a once-and-done experience does. Ironically, the fact that a material thing is ever present works against it, making it easier to adapt to. It fades into the background and becomes part of the new normal. But while the happiness from material purchases diminishes over time, experiences become an ingrained part of our identity.

Related: 43 Experience Gifts That Will Make You Everyone’s Favorite Person

15 Father’s Day Experience Gifts Every Dad Will Love

Not only will you make Dad’s day with these unique Father’s Day experience gifts, but his anticipation of the event will actually add to his happiness. Then long after the experience is over and done with, the adventure will become part of his regular storytelling repertoire. Even a less than perfect experience becomes an entertaining story for dear old Dad to tell for years to come.

Plus, this is an excellent starting point of gift ideas for any occasion, from Dad’s birthday to Christmas or just because.

Now, onto the best experience gifts for dad…

1. Build something together.

If he likes woodworking, find plans online for something you can build together as a bonding experience. For example, the kids and Dad could build a birdhouse together for a special Father’s Day experience. Or if he enjoys cooking, find an awesome new meal to try for dinner or a delicious dessert. Round up all the supplies you’ll need, then watch as your family works together to create something from scratch. As a supplement to this gift, consider giving one of these books to keep the projects going year-round:

• Dad’s Book of Awesome Projects^†: From Stilts and Super-Hero Capes to Tinker Boxes and Seesaws, 25+ Fun Do-It-Yourself Projects for Families
• The Geek Dad’s Guide to Weekend Fun: Cool Hacks, Cutting-Edge Games, and More Awesome Projects for the Whole Family
• Handy Dad: 25 Awesome Projects for Dads and Kids
• Made by Dad: 67 Blueprints for Making Cool Stuff
• Maker Dad: Lunch Box Guitars, Antigravity Jars, and 22 Other Incredibly Cool Father-Daughter DIY Projects
• Or if Dad’s more comfortable in the kitchen, check out Dad’s Book of Awesome Recipes: From Sweet Candy Bacon to Cheesy Chicken Fingers, 100+ Recipes the Whole Family Will Enjoy.

To wrap this gift, get a big box, throw in a printed set of the project instructions (or one of the books above if that’s where it’s from), and all the supplies he’ll need.

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

2. Give him permission to play.

On family game nights, Dad often takes one for the team and forgoes his favorite game so that everyone else has a chance to play their favorite. So if Dad enjoys playing games, plan a special game night featuring his favorite games and snacks. He’ll get to spend time with the people he loves and play what he loves, too.

If you want to give him something he can unwrap to represent this experience gift, pick up a new game to surprise him with. My husband’s personal recommendations as a dad who loves board games:

• Forbidden Island for a cooperative game where you’ll all work together,
• 7 Wonders for the ultimate strategy game that takes just 30 to 40 minutes, and
• Cards Against Humanity Family Edition for a quick game that will make your whole family to collapse into giggles.

In fact, we love those games so much that we stock them in our family game store. Order from us here, and you’ll be supporting a family-owned business while also treating Dad to a fun new game!

If you’re looking for the best games for a big group, here are our top picks for family game night.

$20 from Amazon* $20 from our family shop * Price at time of publishing

Forbidden Island

    
“Forbidden Island is great because unlike most games it teaches cooperation instead of competition – all the players must work together, using their different player skills, in order to get all the treasures before the island sinks. Either everyone wins or everyone loses. It is my new favorite game to play with my 9-year-old daughter!” – Mark

3. Send him back to school.

Has he been talking about boosting his photography skills? Honing his woodworking prowess? Find a class and get him signed up.

One year, I got my husband helicopter flying lessons, and talking about it still puts a smile on his face…years later!

4. Interview your kids.

Print this questionnaire and ask the kids all about Dad. Even the toughest of guys will have a hard time staying stoic when they open this present. (Note: You’ll find a version for “My Dad” and “My Stepdad,” depending on what fits your family best.)

5. Take him for a spin.

For guys who love cars, you can rent a fancy sports car for an hour or two so he can exercise his testosterone to its fullest potential. To wrap this present, you can get a miniature version of the car you rented and wrap that.

6. Give tickets.

Does the dad in your life have a favorite sport? Does he love live music? Or stand-up comedy? Get tickets to an event he’ll love, bring the family along, and you’ll have an experience gift for the whole crew.

7. Put together movie night in a box.

On our family movie nights, Dad’s picks usually get voted down. American Sniper isn’t exactly family friendly, and he hasn’t yet convinced us to watch Field of Dreams. Pick out a movie he’s been itching to watch, or grab an Amazon gift card for $5 to rent one. Then add some manly popcorn (white cheddar with sea salt?), his favorite type of drink, and a blanket for the whole family to snuggle under.

Need movie ideas? Check out the 10 Best Dad Movies for Family Movie Night.

8. Hunt for food.

What’s his favorite food in the whole world? If it’s steak, research the absolute best restaurant for steak within a 50-mile radius and take him there. Whether he loves barbecue, ice cream, or blueberry pie, find out where they make it the best, and take him (and the rest of the family) on an adventure to try it out.

9. Clean out the car.

I don’t mean wash the outside of the family vehicle, although that would be nice too. No, I mean clean out every spare LEGO, coffee stir stick, and wadded up napkin tucked in all the nooks and crannies of your car(s). I’m the worst about stuffing trash into the car door or seat back pocket and forgetting to clean it up. Most dads I know appreciate a tidy car interior, so take a few minutes to simply de-clutter. The bonus of this gift: You get a cleaner car, too!

10. Record interviews.

Sit down individually with each person in your family and use an app like Super Notes to record an interview. Ask the kids (and anyone else) to share their favorite memories and stories about Dad. This one works great for grandpas!

11. List your favorite memories.

Download this printable for sharing your favorite memories, wrap it, and you’ve got yourself a fantastic present for Dad. As an alternative, this sweet Father’s Day printable is the perfect last-minute gift from a child to Dad.

12. Make a mixed tape.

Pick a few songs that remind you of Dad and save them to a USB flash drive. This gift is super easy – just follow these step-by-step instructions for how to share a playlist.

13. Pamper him.

This experience gift is more traditionally suggested for women, but a lot of men love it too: get him a gift certificate for spa services. One of my husband’s favorite gifts of all time was when I surprised him with a gift certificate for a “manly” pedicure at a local spa. Along the same lines, you could get Dad a gift certificate for a waxing or a massage (make it a sports massage if he’s active).

14. Surprise him…again and again.

You can find a monthly subscription box for just about anything nowadays, and the experience of getting a surprise in the mail once a month keeps this gift from blending in like wallpaper like the typical store-bought gift.

One of my favorites is this fun coffee subscription box where Dad can sample new roasts and find a new favorite. Kind of like a beer or wine tasting – but with coffee and delivered straight to his door. If he prefers tea, they also have a tea-of-the-month club that I can personally recommend. To round out this gift, you can add an insulated mug like this heavy-duty tumbler available in colors like black, charcoal, olive green, red, and stainless steel. (My husband and I each have one of these tumblers, and they are super sturdy. We’ve both dropped ours several times, and they came out unscathed with no dents or even scratches to the paint!)

15. Take him on a trip.

Plan a visit to a nearby amusement park, theme park, water park, bowling alley, mini golf course, or anything else he’d enjoy. Or you can go all out and gift a vacation – a weekend getaway just for him or a trip for the whole family. To be fair, that’s a pricey gift, but the gift of a vacation is something he’ll remember for years, whereas any store-bought gift will quickly fade into the background and be forgotten. It’s just human nature!

To wrap this gift, you can type up the travel itinerary, print it, and wrap that. Or you can put together a slideshow of photos from the destination and flip through photos until he catches onto what the gift is!

Want More?

For more Father’s Day gift ideas, check out 12 Unique Father’s Day Gifts to Make Dad Laugh or for new dads, 9 Baby Must Haves That Make the Perfect Gifts for New Dads.

Your Turn

What ideas do you have for the best Father’s Day experience gifts? Share in a comment below!

The post 15 Best Father’s Day Gifts, According to Science appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

The best Mother’s Day present I ever received was a week late.

My second child had just been born the Saturday after Mother’s Day, and I will never forget the moment when my oldest daughter stepped foot in the hospital room to meet her little sister for the first time.

That look on her face. Unbearably excited, as only a 5-year-old can be. But also a little nervous about the unknown.

She stepped towards the bed and reached a small hand out to her sister’s fuzzy head. Then glanced up at me, her eyes asking permission.

I smiled. “You can touch her.”

Slowly and ever so gently, she laid a hand on her sister’s head. And that’s when I realized that the best Mother’s Day gifts are not jewelry or flowers or even a perfectly worded store-bought greeting card.

As it turns out, the very best Mother’s Day gifts come straight from the heart, not a shopping cart.

But Here’s the Problem

Research shows experience gifts are the best kind of gifts. But some Mother’s Day experience gifts or gift ideas “from the heart” you come across are craft ideas for kids. Which is sweet.

But after Mother’s Day, you’re stuck figuring out what to do with the delicate toothpick and marshmallow sculpture your kid labored over to express their overwhelming love for you.

To throw it away would be mean. But if you keep it, you have to figure out a place to store it that won’t seem like you shunted it to the back of the linen closet and won’t attract vermin.

Let’s not even get into the sticky situation of when they make you…colorful jewelry that clashes with everything in your closet.

Again: So, so sweet. Just not very practical.

Related: 43 Experience Gifts That Will Make You Everyone’s Favorite Person

16 Mother’s Day Experience Gifts Every Mom Will Adore

Any mom would be over the moon to get one of these Mother’s Day experience gifts. You can DIY most of them, but they’re still awesome. (No toothpick sculptures or gaudy homemade jewelry in this list, I promise.)

And even better? These also make fantastic last-minute Mother’s Day gifts because you can pull most of them together quickly.

Related: 36 Most Useful + Meaningful New Mom Gifts, Picked by Moms

1. Commandeer the kitchen

Take over the kitchen and make a super yummy dinner, complete with dessert. This is a fun project for little kids to help with, but it works for grown kids too. If Mom’s touchy about who uses her kitchen, you can always make lasagna, soup, or another dinner you can freeze, and give it to her to use at a later date when she doesn’t feel like cooking dinner.

2. Get her a ticket

Does the mom in your life love the theater? Movies? Live music? Stand-up comedy? Get tickets to a great show, and she’ll remember it forever.

3. Play favorites

On family game nights, mom usually takes one for the team and forgoes her favorite game so that everyone else has a chance to play their favorite. (Ask me how I know.) So if your mom enjoys playing games, plan a special game night featuring her favorite games and snacks. She’ll get to spend time with the people she loves and play what she loves, too.

If you want to give her something she can unwrap to represent this experience gift, pick up a new game to surprise her with. My personal recommendations as a mom who loves board games:

• Forbidden Island for a cooperative game where you’ll all work together,
• Ticket to Ride for a strategy game that pairs well with her favorite nighttime beverage, and
• SET for a quick but fun brain workout.

In fact, I love those games so much that we stock them in our family game store. Order from us here, and you’ll be supporting a family-owned business while also treating mom to a fun new game!

If you’re looking for the best games for a big group, here are our top picks for family game night.

$20 from Amazon* $20 from our family shop * Price at time of publishing

Forbidden Island

    
“Forbidden Island is great because unlike most games it teaches cooperation instead of competition – all the players must work together, using their different player skills, in order to get all the treasures before the island sinks. Either everyone wins or everyone loses. It is my new favorite game to play with my 9-year-old daughter!” – Mark

4. Reflect on paper

Starting when my oldest turned 7, she loved to write me letters and still does. Sweetest thing ever! First, get some pretty paper like this adorable hummingbird letterhead^†. Then grab a pen and write what you love and appreciate about Mom. Or if you’re feeling particularly creative, you can try writing a poem.

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

5. Send her back to school

Has she been talking about learning how to sew or the art of canning? Honing her photography skills? Find a class and sign Mom up! Even better, sign up both of you together so it’s an experience you’ll share.

6. Be a reporter

Sit down with each person in your family and use an app like Super Notes to record an interview with them. Just ask the kids (and anyone else you’re interviewing) to share their favorite memories of Mom.

7. Compile a book

This makes a great gift for grandmothers. Ask all the kids in your extended family to draw a picture or write a story of their favorite memory of Grandma. Then take all the creations to an office services store and get them bound into a book. You’ll knock Grandma’s socks off.

8. Give your time

Make a coupon or certificate for a gift of your time. Include coupons for a night of babysitting or weekend of petsitting, a car wash, a month of cleaning the cat’s litterbox (okay, maybe just one week of that). Or as another option, you can give coupons for special treats like one morning of sleeping in, a day off from cooking dinner (if Mom is the usual chef is in the house), breakfast in bed, and more.

These printable ticket-style coupons are pretty, plus they’re blank so you can write in your own gift.

9. Think about what she needs

Give a gift certificate for something she needs anyway. Maybe she’s been putting off a haircut and color due to the cost. Or her vehicle is in desperate need of an oil change and a tune-up. Or she was putting away the butter when the fridge’s butter door fell down unexpectedly, popping the diamond right out of her wedding ring, but she hasn’t made time or scrounged up the money to get it fixed yet. (That happened to me, so I can relate!)

Getting something repaired isn’t technically an experience gift, but I say it counts because you’re saving her an experience she probably isn’t looking forward to – the hassle to get it repaired.

10. Wrap your memories

Grab my free printable here for sharing your favorite memories, wrap it up, and you’re done! When it comes to last-minute Mother’s Day gifts, it doesn’t get much better than that.

11. Give her a clean house

This one can be a little touchy because you wouldn’t want to imply the mom in your life is insufficient in this department! But for many moms who have trouble fitting in house cleaning on top of everything else on their plate, scheduling a house cleaning service would be a much-appreciated treat. Personally, I would be incredibly thankful for this as a gift! If you’re unsure about this one, best check with someone who can do a little reconnaissance work and make sure Mom will appreciate the gesture.

12. Gather family recipes

Reach out to your extended family – grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins – and ask for their favorite recipes. Format them all nice and pretty, then print and arrange in a binder. Moms love family history!

13. Make a playlist

Pick a few songs Mom will appreciate and save them to a USB flash drive. This gift is super easy – just follow these step-by-step instructions for how to share a playlist. Then every time she fires up the playlist you gifted, she’ll think of you!

14. Take away the guilt

Some women feel guilty setting up spa and salon services for themselves, so give her a guilt-free experience she’ll appreciate with a gift certificate for a massage, mani/pedi, facial, or anything else you know she’d enjoy.

To go the extra mile for moms with young kids, you can add a handwritten note along with the gift certificate: “Let me know when you book it, and I’ll come over to babysit!”

15. Make a day of it

Schedule a home spa day. From a mom to daughter or vice versa, give a fun new shade of nail polish with a piece of paper tied to it that says, “Let’s try this one out together!” On your manicure or pedicure (or both!) date, you can even start up a girly movie like The Princess Bride in the background to make a proper spa day of it.

16. Capture your joy as a family

Book a session with a family photographer. We splurged on a family session after our youngest was born, and I’m so happy we have a record of that precious time together as a family!

Want More?

For experience gift ideas, head to The Ultimate (Most Epic!) List of the Best Experience Gift Ideas.

Your Turn

What ideas do you have for the best Mother’s Day experience gifts? Share in a comment below!

The post 16 Experience Gifts for Mother’s Day That Will Make You Mom’s Favorite appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

I miss the days of mixtapes. Flipping through every album you own, hunting for the perfect songs to add to your mix. The math challenge of fitting as many songs as possible onto a 60-minute cassette tape. The satisfaction of handing your creation to a friend or significant other and knowing they’ll love it.

Digital music has taken all the romance out of how to make a mixtape.

• Do you post a track from Spotify on Facebook?
• Export a playlist from iTunes and send your friend an XML file that’s completely devoid of emotion?
• Buy an Amazon music gift card, and all your friend gets to show for it is an automated email notification?

It’s just not the same.

Want to Share a Playlist? Try a Modern Day Mixtape

Since my husband and I first started dating, we’ve been sharing the best unknown love songs back and forth with each other. Kind of like an ongoing love letter.

One of us will discover a few hidden gems, then bundle them up into a modern day mixtape to share with the other.

Follow this tutorial to share your favorite music with friends and loved ones. A mixtape also makes the perfect DIY gift for birthdays, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, and just about any occasion you could think of.

But first, a disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. But at the time of writing this article, the iTunes terms and conditions do allow you to burn an audio playlist up to seven times for personal, non-commercial use. It doesn’t explicitly talk about sharing your burned playlist with others, but to me that counts as personal, non-commercial use. If you bought your digital music elsewhere, those terms and conditions are probably different, so if you’re concerned you’ll want to check those out.

How to Make a Mixtape in the Digital Age

Here’s how to make a mixtape as a gift:

1. Get a USB drive, like this super cute USB memory stick that’s designed to look like a mixtape. But any USB drive will do, like a crystal owl necklace, a gold violin keychain, or…Yoda?

1. Pick the songs for your mixtape playlist. If you need some inspiration, check out these playlists:
   • For your honey – 75+ of the Best Unknown Love Songs
   • For Christmas – The 12 Best Christmas Songs You’ve Never Heard
   • For a pregnant friend – 20 Songs for an Awesome Baby Shower Playlist and 6 Surprising Songs to Soothe a Fussy Baby
   • For kids – 12 Songs for a Rockin’ Family Dance Party
2. Copy the songs from your playlist to your USB drive. Here’s how I do this: Right-click the song in iTunes and select Show in Finder or Show in Explorer, then copy the file to the USB drive.
3. Wrap the USB drive, add a thoughtful card, and you’re done!

Your Turn

How do you share your favorite music with friends and loved ones? Share your tip in a comment below!

The post How to Make a Mixtape That Will Delight Someone Special appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

When you’re expecting a new little one, you get tons of advice about all the baby must haves.

But from swaddle sacks for the baby to nursing gear for the new mom, one important person is typically left out of all this helpful advice.

Very few of those “best gifts for new parents” lists answer this question: What to get a new dad?

And even if they do throw a bone to the new dads, the recommendations tend towards beer-related gear and football-themed onesies. In other words: Not exactly what a first-time dad needs as he embarks on his journey toward fatherhood.

Short on Time? Here Are the Best Gifts for New Dads

If you’re in a rush, here’s a quick run-down of the new dad gift ideas from this list that have been most popular with the dads in this community.

• Best Stress-Relieving Gift for New Dads: Theragun Mini portable massager, $169†
• Best Sentimental Gift for New Dads: Letters to You journal, $20
• Best Book for New Dads: The Happiest Baby on the Block, $7
• Best High-Tech Gift for New Dads: Tile Mate tracker for his keys, $18
• Best New Dad Gift That’s for Baby, Too: Ergobaby 360 baby carrier in a neutral color, $109
• Best Splurge Gift for New Dads: Fujifilm X-T3 mirrorless digital camera, $1898
• Best Subscription Box for New Dads: Atlas Coffee Club subscription box, $50 and up

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices shown are from time of publishing.

Your New Dad Survival Kit: 15 Most Loved Gifts for New Dads

After we had three babies in five years, my husband and I reflected on what was most helpful to him as an expectant father and then later as a new daddy.

In this list, you’ll find the new dad gift ideas that are our personal favorites as parents who’ve been through the newborn stage a lot in a short amount of time. But I also scoured list after list after list to find even more meaningful gifts for new dads, then I surveyed every dad I know to find out their favorite new dad gifts, too.

So when you need gift ideas for new fathers, this list has got you covered. These baby products make perfect gifts for new dads at a baby shower, for his first Father’s Day, an upcoming birthday, or just because. We can’t imagine how we could have survived without them!

Related: 36 Awesome New Mom Gifts That She’ll Actually Appreciate

1. Something to Keep Him Awake

With a new baby who wakes up every two hours all night long (or more), the new dad will need all the help he can get to function during the day.

Surprise him with this fun coffee subscription box where he can sample a wide variety of roasts and find a new favorite. Kind of like a beer tasting – but with coffee and delivered straight to his door. (My husband received this subscription box as a gift and loved it so much that we’ve since gifted it to other loved ones!)

Want to take this gift to the next level?

• Add an insulated coffee mug like this sturdy Yeti tumbler that doubles as a travel mug. That way, his coffee will stay the perfect temperature and he won’t have to reheat it 27 times a day.
• To go all out, you could splurge on a fancy espresso machine like this. That way, dad can have his favorite coffee shop creation without ever having to leave the house. (We got an espresso machine after our last baby was born, and I can highly recommend it!)
• Or if he’s a cold-brew kind of guy, this 12-pack of lightly sweetened cold-brew double espresso is delicious.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: A coffee subscription box along with a sturdy tumbler, a healthy supply of cold-brew espresso, or an espresso machine

Atlas Coffee Club Subscription Box

With this monthly gift box, the new dad can sample a wide variety of roasts and find a new favorite. Kind of like a beer tasting – but with coffee and delivered straight to his door. (We’ve also gifted this to grandparents, who were over the moon!)

$50 from Atlas Coffee Club

2. A Baby Calm-Down Kit

Sometimes guys get a bad rap for not reading instructions. My husband definitely likes to figure stuff out on his own first.

But he’s so thankful there’s one baby manual he read before our first child was born.

Most new parents have this eye-opening moment after they get home from the hospital with their bundle of joy. You’re trucking along, changing diapers and nursing and marveling at how a baby can possibly sleep through The Avengers on full blast in the living room.

And then the baby cries. She’s not hungry, she’s not tired, and her diaper is clean. You have no idea what the hell is going on. But the crying is raising your blood pressure, and you know it’s your job to fix whatever is wrong.

You lock eyes with your partner, and you realize they’re as lost as you are.

The solution? Read the manual.

In this case, it’s called The Happiest Baby on the Block. (And if the new dad prefers video, you can get the DVD instead!)

This must-have guide teaches you how to get your baby from cranky to calm in minutes, and it’s a must in any new dad survival kit. Bonus: The book has pictures to show you all the techniques and handy reference pages to save you from having to read the book cover-to-cover.

But the time to read it is not in the middle of an inexplicable crying fit.

When I was pregnant, my husband read the book for a few minutes in bed every night, and he’d speak up every now and then to share any interesting tidbits he came across. I loved that I didn’t have to figure out everything on my own, and he loved being involved and informed. Score!

Bonus gift idea: To go along with the book or DVD, add these baby must haves to round out your gift of a tried-and-true baby calm-down kit:

• Swaddle sack – Swaddling recreates the cozy feeling of being inside the womb and calms babies. But most babies tend to break free of even the tightest blanket, so save yourself the headache and go straight for a swaddle sack.
• Shusher – White noise reminds babies of being in the womb, which is a must for getting them to sleep…and keeping them asleep. Enter: The Baby Shusher.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: The Happiest Baby on the Block book or DVD, plus the SwaddleMe Original Organic Swaddle and The Baby Shusher

The Happiest Baby on the Block

This must-have guide teaches you how to get your baby from cranky to calm in minutes. Plus, the book has pictures of all the techniques so you won’t have to read it cover-to-cover.

$7 from Amazon $16 from Bookshop

3. A Stress Reliever

Becoming a new parent is stressful, and many new parents carry that tension in their body. To add to that, carrying a baby for hours on end and not sleeping well puts even more stress on the body.

A massage can do wonders to relieve stress and tension, but leaving the house to get an hour-long massage probably isn’t in the cards for dad—unless he wants a mutiny on his hands for leaving the new mom at home while he tra-la-la’s off to get professionally pampered.

Instead, give the dad-to-be a handheld massager so he can work through tension in his neck and shoulders whenever he’s feeling stressed. But here’s the kicker: Get one that actually works. Many handheld massagers are weak or don’t last long before they stop working, but this one is used by professional athletes:

The Theragun Mini is a smaller portable version of the original Theragun that’s all the rage with pro basketball players. My husband has had his Theragun Mini for a couple years now, and it’s still going strong. He loves it!

As a bonus, the new dad can turn the tables and use his Theragun Mini to help the new mom feel better, too.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: The Theragun Mini portable massager

Theragun Mini Portable Massager

This must-have guide teaches you how to get your baby from cranky to calm in minutes. Plus, the book has pictures of all the techniques so you won’t have to read it cover-to-cover.

$169 from Amazon $169 from Best Buy

4. A Sturdy Carrier

As a dad-to-be, you may think you don’t need a baby carrier because you have arms. Duh. So why buy something that serves the same purpose?

But you’ll be carrying that little sack of potatoes around a lot. And while you’ll get quite good at performing everyday tasks with just one hand free, some things are just tricky. Like boiling a pot of water to make pasta. Or closing up the trash bag to carry outside because the whole house reeks of newborn baby poo. Or opening a bottle of wine to celebrate when your baby sleeps for 6 hours straight for the first time.

For my husband, a sturdy baby carrier was a total must have. As an added bonus, strangers at the grocery store tend to think a dad wearing his baby is absolutely adorable.

You have a ton of baby carriers to choose from, and a lot of it depends on your own personal preference for fit and look. Try to find a local baby products store that will let you try on different brands and see what you like best.

I can tell you that we borrowed a friend’s Baby Bjorn carrier, and it was horrible for my husband’s back. The support was nonexistent.

Here’s what we settled on and loved: the Ergobaby 360. Bonus: It comes in lots of different colors.

It’s a little pricier than some other brands, but it was worth it to us to save my hubby’s back!

Also, we always get a TON of comments on it when we’re out in public. Our little one is so happy in it, and it looks so comfortable that people stop to ask us where we got it. This happens so frequently that I started carrying a small notepad in my purse so I could write down the name for people who ask.

Get a carrier the new dad will love so he can strap that baby in and go about his day doing everything he needs to…with two hands! When it comes to the perfect gifts for new dads, you can’t beat that outcome.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: Ergobaby 360 in neutral colors like carbon gray, sea mist, or onyx black

5. A Homing Device

The newborn phase will likely be the first time dad will experience sleep deprivation in full force since pulling all-nighters during his school years. Not only does sleep deprivation make you feel like a zombie, but research shows that lack of sleep can lead to forgetfulness.

So it’s no surprise many dads reported that after becoming a dad, they started losing track of their keys and wallet more often. Thankfully, modern technology has gifted us the perfect solution: the Tile Mate tracker. Just slip this small square on your keychain, install the tracker app on your phone, and you’ll always have a way to find your keys. As an alternative, get him the credit-card-sized Tile Slim tracker he can slip into his wallet.

To make this gadget gift heartfelt, help him celebrate his new identity as a father by pairing the Tile Mate with a handmade leather keychain for new dads.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: The Tile Mate tracker for his keys plus a personalized “dad” leather keychain – or the Tile Slim tracker for his wallet

6. A One-of-a-Kind Keepsake for Him…And Baby

Typically, the new mom is the one who fills out the baby milestone book to record baby’s growth, all his “firsts,” and all the precious memories along the way. But new dads have their own unique precious memories to capture.

When it comes to gifts for new dads, it doesn’t get any sweeter than this special journal called Letters to You.

In this cloth-bound keepsake book, the new dad will find prompts, questions, and space to write a letter to his child every year of their childhood. He can read the pages together with his little one through the years, or he can wait and give the finished book as a graduation or wedding day present. I’m tearing up just thinking of that day when we give our kids the letters my husband has written them over the years!

For a slightly different (but still amazingly special) gift, surprise the expectant dad with The Book of Me.

This do-it-yourself memoir book includes prompts for the new father to record his family history and to reflect on his past, present, and future. Then one day, he’ll be able to gift this one-of-a-kind autobiography to his child as a keepsake she can treasure for the rest of her life to remember her father.

To sweeten the gift, add a special journaling pen to go along with the keepsake book.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: Letters to You or The Book of Me, plus a special journaling pen or a fountain pen

7. A Flexible Bag

You might have heard this one before: Get the new dad his own diaper bag – a man bag – so he doesn’t feel embarrassed when he ends up carrying it.

But what if you can’t afford to buy two diaper bags? And more importantly, what if you can’t keep up with making sure they’re both stocked at all times?

(You’d be surprised at the number of times we end up at the grocery store, realize our little one is in sore need of a diaper change, and open the diaper bag to find absolutely zero diapers. Or wipes. Or both.)

What worked well for us is a compromise. We got one nice diaper bag that wasn’t too girly or too masculine.

Here are a few options that aren’t just boring black “man bags,” but they still make perfect dad-to-be gifts:

• HSD Tactical Backpack Diaper Bag – This military-style bag has everything. Insulated pockets for bottles or snacks, a changing mat, stroller straps, a velcro strap where you can stick patches to personalize your bag, and more. Comes in black, desert brown, or camo.
• Bag Nation Diaper Bag Backpack – This bag is tricked out like the previous bag but without the military feel. Love it in gray!
• Tactical Diaper Bag – Some dads like the military theme, and moms like that khaki goes with everything.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: A diaper bag in a neutral color like Bag Nation Diaper Bag Backpack

8. Some Peace and Quiet

Full disclosure: My husband gave this next gift some major side-eye when he first received it from a family friend because it seemed like One More Thing to add to his overflowing to-do list. But he decided to give it a try for one week, and it’s now become a favorite daily habit that helps keep him calm and even-keeled, no matter what parenting life throws at him.

The gift? A meditation headband.

Before you skip to the next idea in this list of gifts for dads-to-be, you should know that research shows meditation reduces stress, calms anxiety, boosts mental clarity, improves sleep, and increases empathy and compassion towards others. Exactly what a stressed-out, anxious, sleep-deprived new dad needs in order to get through the newborn phase and beyond.

You could just give the new dad a subscription to a meditation app like Headspace, but the Muse meditation headband makes the perfect dad-to-be gift because most dads love gadgets.

This particular gadget gives you real-time feedback on your brain activity, heart rate, breathing, and body movements so you get maximum benefits out of your meditation session. You’ll hear peaceful weather sounds while your mind is calm, but if your mind starts to wander, you’ll hear stormy weather sounds to prompt you to refocus on your breath.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: The Muse meditation headband or a meditation app like Headspace

9. An Official Dad Uniform

The new dad will need something easy to throw on when he’s too sleep-deprived to think straight, and the baby will be spitting up on herself every half hour, so get them both a gift that will help – these matching Papa Bear and Baby Bear t-shirts on Etsy.

Who says gifts for new dads can’t be disgustingly adorable?

Gray goes with everything, so dad can get dressed without using any brain power. And baby will go through lots of onesies every day, so they can always use another one.

If you think mom will feel left out, you can throw in the matching Mama Bear t-shirt here.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: Papa Bear and Baby Bear Shirts

10. Something to Go With His Deep Voice

Some research indicates that in households where both mom and dad read stories aloud, the kids develop stronger language skills than when it’s just mom doing the reading aloud.

But the problem with most of the popular baby books recommended as gifts for new dads? They’re boring as heck.

Give the new dad in your life the gift of a few kids’ books that won’t drive him crazy. Here’s my list of the best baby board books that he’ll actually enjoy reading out loud.

Think of all the fun character voices he’ll come up with! These books make great gifts for new dads because they’ll make his little one giggle for years to come.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: Fun-to-read baby board books, like Good Night, Gorilla; Bear Snores On; and Not a Box

11. A Lean, Mean Bottle Machine

New moms have a lot on their minds. They’re figuring out how to breastfeed or if nursing didn’t work out, stressing over formula prices. They’re learning what their baby’s different cries mean. They’re constantly tracking when the baby last ate and slept and how many wet and dirty diapers they’ve produced so far that day. On top of all that, they’re sleep deprived.

In the weeks after our baby was born, my husband did something that was such a load off my mind. He completely took over the job of washing and sanitizing bottles.

Here are the tools he uses to get the job done:

• An electric kettle. This fabulous invention boils water in just a couple minutes, as opposed to waiting for a pot of water to boil on the stove. Not only is it good for boiling water to sterilize bottles, but we also use it all the time for tea and when we make pasta.
• A bottle brush. We got a new bottle brush to keep separate from the regular dish scrubbers, so we wouldn’t be scrubbing nasty food particles into the bottles as we tried to clean them. We used this BPA-free brush.
• A drying stand. We started out just drying the bottles on a dish towel on the kitchen counter. But our cats thought it was great fun to play whack-a-bottle and knock the clean, sterilized bottles onto the floor, which meant we had to start the process all over again. Then we got this bottle drying stand. It’s perfect! It’s even sturdy enough to handle our glass bottles.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: Breville Electric Kettle, plus Munchkin High Capacity Drying Rack and Philips AVENT Bottle Brush

12. The Best Way to Save Memories

If the new family doesn’t have a decent camera and you’re looking for a more substantial new dad gift idea, a reliable digital camera makes the perfect gift.

He’ll be able to capture every little adorable thing his baby does and have those snapshots to look back on forever. Plus, if he’s into high-tech gadgets, he’ll have fun playing with a new toy of his own.

We didn’t have a nice camera for our first child together, and because of that, we don’t have very many good photos of her as a baby – and we can never get that time back. And so for our next child, we prioritized adding a camera to the budget before the baby arrived.

Most recently, we were lucky to get a gift card we used towards the latest and greatest in digital cameras: a mirrorless digital camera. This style of camera is fast, more compact than a DSLR, and super quiet – so the new dad can snap pictures of that precious new baby even when she’s sleeping!

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: Fujifilm X-T3 Mirrorless Digital Camera, along with a sturdy camera strap and sweet photo cards for capturing baby’s milestones

13. Something to Feed His Mind

Especially in the newborn days, the new dad will spend a big chunk of every day holding his new baby. But we all know you can only scroll Facebook so much before it starts to become soul-sucking, so gift him a lightweight Kindle that he can hold one-handed while holding the baby too. He’ll get caught up on all that reading he’s been meaning to do, and the time will fly!

Several dads I talked to suggested a few specific titles as the best books for new dads. You can load his new Kindle with these titles, or if he prefers paper, get him the physical books and wrap those up instead:

• The Happy Sleeper: The Science-Backed Guide to Helping Your Baby Get a Good Night’s Sleep-Newborn to School Age – Out of desperation, we’ve read a ton of sleep books, and this is the best hands down.
• Playful Parenting: An Exciting New Approach to Raising Children That Will Help You Nurture Close Connections, Solve Behavior Problems, and Encourage Confidence – This book makes an excellent gift for new fathers because it focuses on how to address parenting challenges in a playful way that actually works. Arm the new dad with this knowledge now before he has to deal with a toddler tantrum in the middle of Trader Joe’s.
• The Read-Aloud Handbook – This book will help the new father to raise a lifelong reader right from the start. Plus, the annotated list of great read-aloud books at the end is pure gold. It’s never too early (or too late!) to read aloud to your little one.
• The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind – This book will blow the new dad’s mind. He’ll learn how a child’s brain actually develops plus get practical techniques for nurturing that development.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: A lightweight Kindle loaded with the best books for new dads

14. Permission to Stop and Reflect

Nearly every dad I’ve talked to said that the transition towards fatherhood brought up some unexpected emotions. And yet because it’s a sleep-deprived, stressful time, you don’t get much space to stop and process those emotions.

Journaling is a powerful tool for new parents because the emotional release you get from journaling can lower anxiety and stress, plus help you sleep better. And when you write by hand about your emotions, that helps you better understand and process those emotions, which seems to unlock the calming effect related to journaling.

But as a new parent, you don’t exactly have time to sit down and write a multi-page journal entry. Which is why I love the One Line A Day journal, and I gift it to every new parent I know.

This journal gives you a small space—enough for one sentence—to write every day for five years. Which means the new dad can take just a few minutes to fill out the journal once a day, then after a while he can look back on all his answers and have an amazing snapshot of this special time in his life.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: One Line A Day journal

15. A Sweet Ride

Especially in the newborn days, odds are mom will be at home with the little bundle of joy all day long while dad goes to work.

When dad gets home from work, he may see a bit of a crazed look in mom’s eyes. This could be from trying to calm a crying baby off and on all day, cleaning up projectile emitting from both ends of the sweet little babe, a complete lack of adult conversation, or all of the above.

Mom will probably need a break, and your gift for the new dad will be what saves her.

How? Get a sweet stroller ride for dad, so he can pop baby in the stroller and give mom a break. Here are our favorite strollers, depending on what dad may prefer:

• BOB Allterrain Pro Jogging Stroller – This is great for rough sidewalks, bumpy roads, or hilly areas because it’s nice and beefy. Then later when baby has better head and neck control, dad can take baby for a jog. When we went from one kiddo to two, we upgraded to their duallie stroller. If you go with this stroller, you might need to get an adapter so the baby’s car seat can snap in during the first few months when baby can’t sit up unassisted.
• UPPAbaby CRUZ Stroller – Because we’d already traded in our single BOB for a dualie, for our last baby we wanted a single portable stroller we could easily throw in the car for weekend outings. And now we are officially in love with all the UPPAbaby products! The stroller pushes like a dream, and our youngest baby zonks right out in this stroller.
• gb Pockit Lightweight Stroller – You can’t use this stroller until baby is 6 months old, but it’s too cool not to mention. When you’re not using it, the stroller folds down to the size of a backpack and weighs under 10 pounds. This one’s great for travel with babies and toddlers.

New Dad Gift He’ll Love: UPPAbaby CRUZ Stroller or BOB Allterrain Pro Jogging Stroller

If you really want to seal the deal, include how-to instructions like this along with the stroller:

Best if used when you get home after being away from your partner and baby all day. Here’s how:

1. Kiss your partner and take the baby from her.
2. Say whichever of the following fits best:
   • ”Why don’t you run to a coffee shop with a book for some alone time?”
   • ”I bet you would love a nap/bath/shower. I’ve got the baby. Go ahead.”
   • ”I love you, but you look like you might murder me in my sleep if you don’t get a break. Leave now.”
3. If she argues, stay firm. It’s important that she leave the house if possible, or at least go to a completely different room and shut the door. Otherwise, she’ll keep one ear out for baby, and she won’t be able to relax.
4. Load baby in this stroller along with a few essentials, like a diaper, wipes, changing pad, and burp cloth.
5. Go for a nice long walk around the neighborhood.

The walk will be good exercise for you, the baby will get fresh air, and your partner will get a much needed break. Win-win-win!

Want More?

• More great gift ideas for dads: 14 Best Father’s Day Gifts, According to Science and 9 Unique Father’s Day Gifts to Make Dad Laugh
• More newborn must haves: 12 Magical Newborn Must Haves You Need on Your Registry
• Gifts for new moms: 36 Awesome New Mom Gifts That She’ll Actually Appreciate

Your Turn

What are your favorite gifts for new dads or for a first Father’s Day gift? Share in a comment below!

The post 15 Meaningful Gifts for New Dads That He’ll Actually Use appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

With two weeks until Christmas, we’ve got plenty of ideas for presents to get our kids.

Ideas for what we can get them, ideas we’ve given to grandparents – so many ideas we’ve already got enough for next Christmas. And the list? All store-bought. No heartfelt homemade Christmas gifts to speak of. Oops.

Then this morning while I was putting away our 6-year-old’s laundry, I noticed Christmas presents from last year neatly stacked in the corner of her closet. They haven’t been touched since last December.

Not because she didn’t enjoy last year’s presents. She did.

It’s just too much for a kid. And I know that because a few weeks ago, and told me. She said when she goes into her room, she doesn’t know what to play with because there’s too much to choose from.

What’s the point of spending all this time and money on buying more and more stuff, only to have it sit in a closet for a year (or more) until we get fed up with the clutter and donate it all to charity?

Call me Scrooge if you want, but the whole situation has me craving something a little more meaningful this holiday season. And as it turns out, I’m not alone in yearning for a yuletide from yesteryear. 84 percent of Americans said they would prefer a less materialistic holiday season. And 81 percent of adults appreciate when someone makes a donation to a charity in their name instead of a giving a physical gift.

But Here’s the Problem

When I search Pinterest for “DIY Christmas gifts,” I’m confronted with a harsh reality.

You, too, can make this precious personalized coffee mug for your loved one! All you need is a Sharpie, some glitter, and the penmanship of a professional wedding invitation calligrapher.

No?

Okay, how about this cozy blanket you can knit in 45 minutes using only your arms?

But I can barely walk 20 yards without tripping over my own feet. Hand-eye coordination (or arm-eye coordination as the case may be) is not my friend.

All these adorable, handmade holiday gifts are beyond me. My crafting ability lies somewhere between lighting a candle and successfully cutting coupons – and you’d be surprised by how often I find myself cutting right into the barcode.

Related: 30 Holiday Activities for Your Advent Calendar {Printable}

30 Heartfelt Handmade Christmas Gifts Anyone Can DIY

So I decided to put together a list of the best heartfelt homemade Christmas gifts for the not-so-crafty among us. (Hi, that’s me!)

Here are the most meaningful DIY Christmas gift ideas for you, my non-crafty brethren. You can handle every gift on this list, I promise. No mod podge required! Plus, the majority of these ideas are super frugal, so they’ll work if you’re on a tight budget.

But the best part? Your loved ones will adore these meaningful gifts that came straight from the heart, not a shopping cart.

DIY Gifts for Everyone

Here are heartfelt homemade Christmas gifts that work no matter the recipient. Whether you need DIY Christmas gifts for mom, grandparents, or your hairdresser—this list has you covered:

1. Write a letter. One of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received was a simple letter from a friend, telling me that she appreciated me and why. Get some nice festive paper like this adorable snowman letterhead^†, grab a pen, and write from the heart. Or if you’re feeling super creative, write a poem.

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

2. Bake something yummy. Homemade cookies, bread, salsa, pasta sauce – whatever your specialty is, it will taste better than store-bought versions that sit on the shelf for days or weeks. Check out my Dessert First board on Pinterest here for ideas. Too much? Keep it simple and buy a brownie mix.
3. Make them an insider. Cover the membership fee for your loved one at a local performing arts theater. Most theaters will give their members perks like free tickets or priority seating.
4. Put together an album. Pick out a few of your favorite photos of your friend or family member, get them printed, and throw them together in a photo album. (One you get at a store, not some vintage children’s book you’ve upcycled into a disgustingly cute photo album. This one is pretty and looks kinda fancy without being expensive.)
5. Give clippings. Just snip them from your favorite house or garden plants.
6. Teach them something. Offer to teach a skill you have, like a foreign language, playing an instrument, or handling temper tantrums like a ninja mom.
7. Make an emergency kit. Your loved one can keep this handy kit in the car in case they break down. Add a blanket, these magical hand warmers, and maybe an LED flashlight. For bonus points, include supplies to help get the car back in running order, like a gas can or jumper cables.
8. Compile a cookbook. Print copies of your family’s favorite recipes and arrange them in a binder.
9. Make a donation in their honor. Think of a cause that’s important to your loved one, then make a donation in their name to a charity that works on that issue. Many nonprofit organizations will even send a holiday card or another gift with a special message to the gift recipient for you. Or check out these free cards that say a donation has been made in your name, but not in a boring way. They’re guaranteed to put a smile on your loved one’s face.
10. Give your time. Make a coupon or certificate for a gift of your time – a night of babysitting or weekend of petsitting, a car wash, a month of cleaning the cat’s litterbox (okay, maybe just one week of that). These coupons are pretty cute, and these are blank so you can write in your own gift. For kids, try this free printable coupon book for kids I made for my kids – spoiler alert: they loved it!
11. Share a favorite. Pick a favorite book off your shelf to give – you can check it out from the library if you want to read it again.
12. Protect their mailbox. Take a friend off junk mail lists at 41pounds.org.
13. Reminisce. List your 100 best memories of your loved one: “That one time, at band camp…” Download my free printable here for sharing your favorite memories.
14. Make it useful. Give a gift certificate for something they need anyway, like a haircut.
15. Gift a dance party. Make a playlist of your favorite songs and save them to a USB flash drive. Check out my tutorial on how to share a playlist for step-by-step instructions. (If you go this route for a romantic partner, check out 75+ of the Best Unknown Love Songs.)
16. Sign them up for a class. Do you have a friend who’s been talking about learning how to sew or the art of canning? Honing their photography skills? Find a class and sign them up! Even better, sign up both of you together so it’s an experience you’ll share. For example, Clickin Moms offers online photography workshops covering everything from a beginner’s guide to using a DSLR to newborn photography to the foundations of composition. (Fancy!)
17. Give an inspiring quote. Search for “quote free printable” and scroll until you find a quotation that reminds you of your loved one. Double-check that the page includes a free printable, then print it and throw it in a frame like this one that’s available in a gabazillion colors. Or if you have the perfect quote in mind, make your own printable quote.
18. Round up your faves. Get a basket, write on a notecard “These are a few of my favorite things,” and go to town filling the basket to share your faves. Your favorite wine, your favorite book or magazine, that peach jam at the farmers’ market that you can’t get enough of, your favorite hand lotion, your favorite fancy candy bar, the shampoo that leaves you feeling like a model.

Related: 10 Unique Stocking Stuffers for Girls That Will Delight Your Kids {Printable}

DIY Gifts for Families

When you need DIY christmas gifts for a family, turn to these meaningful gift ideas:

1. Give dinner. Make your best lasagna, soup, or another dinner you can freeze, and give it to your loved one to use at a later date when they don’t feel like cooking dinner. This works great for families with small children! (Goodness knows my little family resorts to pizza way too often.)
2. Record interviews. Sit down with family members and use an app like Super Notes to record the interview. Ask parents, grandparents, cousins, or aunts and uncles to share memories of the loved one the gift is for. Or they might appreciate a simple effort at recording some of the best stories from your family history. (My 6-year-old is constantly asking for us to tell stories from when we were younger!)
3. Capture a family’s joy together. Purchase a session with a family photographer as a gift to a family in your life. (You can search the CMPro directory here for a photographer.) Or if you’re a skilled photographer yourself, offer to take an afternoon at the park with them to snap a few shots. We had a family session soon after our youngest was born, and I’m so incredibly happy we have a record of that time together as a family!
4. Compile a book. This makes a great gift for grandparents. Get all the kids in your extended family to draw a picture or write a story of their favorite memory of Grandma and/or Grandpa, then take all the creations to an office services store to have them bound into a book. Priceless!
5. Put together a family movie night in a box. Grab your favorite family DVD off your shelf, like Shrek or The Goonies, or give an Amazon gift card for $5 so they can rent one. Then add some popcorn (Parmesan and rosemary?), soda or juice, and a cozy blanket for everyone to snuggle up under. (Note: I’m totally NOT suggesting you make that blanket yourself, but if you’re feeling adventurous maybe try arm-knitting and let me know how it goes?)
6. Get them out of the house. For families with children, a gift membership to a children’s museum is a gift that keeps on giving throughout the year.

Related: A Sweet Way to Guarantee Your Kid Has an Attitude of Gratitude {Printable}

DIY Gifts for Kids

For more heartfelt homemade Christmas gifts for kids, check out this list of the most meaningful gifts your kids will treasure for a long time.

1. Adopt a wild animal. Many zoos or animal sanctuaries offer a program where you can sponsor an animal. This makes a great gift for kids because as a follow-up gift, you can visit the zoo and pretend to find the animal you sponsored. Some zoos will even send you a certificate about the animal you adopted.
2. Make the box the gift. Infants and toddlers don’t need store-bought toys to be happy. In fact, if you watch any kid this age on Christmas morning, you’ll see that they’re more interested in the steady stream of colorful paper to crumple and tear and eat, not to mention the boxes. So many boxes! Just save up a bunch of differently sized cardboard boxes, then sit down together and construct a cardboard city on Christmas morning. When you’re done, the tot will have double the fun pretending to be Godzilla.
3. Put together an art gift basket. Just gather random supplies you already have around the house, like washi tape, festive stickers, and colorful Sharpies, and throw in a brand new sketch book like this mixed media journal. (Check out this former art teacher’s recommendations for what every art gift basket needs!)
4. Make a play dough gift set. Check out the instructions here. You’ll just need homemade dough and accessories like toothpicks and buttons. (If my zero-craftiness self can make homemade dough, you totally can!)
5. Invite the child on a nature walk scavenger hunt. This works great when you need to walk off a big Christmas dinner and the kids are feeling cooped up. Print a scavenger hunt map, add a note explaining that you’ll take the child exploring, and wrap it up.
6. Subscribe the child to a magazine. They’ll love getting mail addressed just to them, and you’ll be building their reading skills too. A few ideas: Highlights, National Geographic Kids, or Cricket.

Want More?

For more heartfelt homemade Christmas gifts, check out The Ultimate (Most Epic!) List of the Best Experience Gift Ideas.

Your Turn

What are the best heartfelt homemade Christmas gifts you’ve ever received? Share in a comment below!

The post 30 Heartfelt Homemade Christmas Gifts Anyone Can Make appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

One year for Father’s Day, I wanted to find a meaningful gift from our kids. Something that didn’t come from the store. Something to honor the special bond they have.

A cookie-cutter Father’s Day card with puns about beer, golf, or ties wouldn’t do that.

So when I stumbled on the idea of a “Father’s Day questionnaire,” I knew that would make the perfect gift. Heartfelt, one-of-a-kind, and guaranteed to make even the most stoic of dads get a little choked up.

But as I looked through all the “all about dad” printables I could get my hands on, I couldn’t find the right fit.

Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get a free Father’s Day printable you can fill out with your child to create a one-of-a-kind Father’s Day gift for their dad or stepdad.

Here’s Why

Most Father’s Day printables I came across had ho-hum questions like “My dad has ___ hair and ___ eyes.”

But because this would be a Father’s Day gift, I wanted questions that would capture the heart of my husband’s relationship with our kids. What they love about him, and the love they feel from him. But you can’t exactly uncover that kind of heartfelt sentiment when you ask a child what their dad’s favorite color is.

I also noticed that most of the “all about dad” printables gave the child one short line to write their answers. That would be fine for older kids and teens who can print small, but I knew my first grader would need more space to write.

So I decided to make a new Father’s Day questionnaire to solve both of those problems.

This Father’s Day Questionnaire Will Melt His Heart

Below, you can grab this new-and-improved Father’s Day printable so you can make the dad in your life feel like the best dad ever.

Not only will the sentimental message from your child touch his heart, this also happens to be an incredibly easy Father’s Day gift. You can have the whole thing done in less than 10 minutes!

Here’s a sneak peek for you:

The questions include:

• My dad’s name is:
• He is ___ years old.
• My dad is really good at:
• His favorite food is:
• My dad always says:
• My favorite thing to play with him is:
• I love my dad because:
• My dad loves me because:

Then on the second page, there’s a spot for your child to draw a picture to go along with their gift, if they’d like.

You’ll also find a couple alternate versions in this free printable Father’s Day gift: one for a child to give to their stepdad, and another for a child to give to their grandpa on Father’s Day.

But What Do Dads Think of It?

My oldest child loved answering the questions, and after we finished, she wrapped the “all about dad” printable in a huge cardboard box. (Her idea to throw him off the scent!)

Then the big moment came. I glanced at her as he opened the big box—her eyes sparkled with anticipation.

And as he read what she had written about him, I saw him brush a thumb under his eye a couple times. I doubt she noticed, but I certainly did.

If you want to give Dad a memorable and heartfelt Father’s Day gift from your child, you can’t go wrong with this printable.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, stepdads, and grandpas of the world!

Pro tip: After Father’s Day wraps up, make sure to put the pages in a safe place. Because if you make it a tradition to gift this every year, you can compile them in a binder for a sweet keepsake down the road. And flipping through years of heartfelt messages from his child will no doubt become Dad’s favorite thing ever.

Get Your Free Printable

This free printable template makes the perfect last-minute Father’s Day gift. No scissors, glue, or crafting skills necessary!

1. Get the gift. You’ll get the fill-in Father’s Day printable including the dad, stepdad, and grandpa versions, plus join my weekly newsletter! Just click here to get it and subscribe.
2. Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock^† would be ideal, especially if your child wants to use markers to fill it out.
3. Interview your child. For younger kids, you can write down their adorable answers on the Father’s Day questionnaire for them. Or if they’re old enough to write down their own answers, that will make this gift even more special. The second page is blank for your child to draw a picture or write a message. Hook them up with crayons, colored pencils, or markers, and let them create.
4. Wrap your one-of-a-kind Father’s Day gift. You can fold the sheets inside a blank Father’s Day card, wrap the pages in a box, or pair the printable with a set of homemade Father’s Day coupons—redeemable for treats like breakfast in bed, one weekend afternoon nap, or getting to pick the movie on family movie night.

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Want More?

For more Father’s Day gift ideas, check out:

• 14 Father’s Day Experience Gifts Every Dad Will Love
• 12 Funny Father’s Day Gifts That Will Delight Every Dad

Your Turn

After you fill out this Father’s Day questionnaire with your child, share their best answer in a comment below!

Social media feature photo by Bridget H.

The post The Most Heartwarming Father’s Day Questionnaire: All About Dad appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

This week, I finally buckled under the crushing weight of my neverending to-do list this holiday season. To hit the reset button, I crawled into bed to sneak a short nap but instead ended up staring at the wall.

And in those quiet moments, I found myself reflecting on the true spirit of the holiday season.

Being present with your loved ones. Gorging yourself on baked goods. Uncle Larry volunteering to set up the kids’ new slot car race track and then hogging it to himself all Christmas Day.

So I went searching for tips on how to stay centered during the holiday season. And in one random article, I stumbled across a dose of pure brilliance: “Make this task your universe.”

Ever since, my brain has had that one line on tumble dry, low heat.

Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get this free printable and fill it out with your child to help them focus on what’s important this holiday season.

Your Kids Are Not Immune

Adults aren’t the only ones who lose sight of what’s really important during the holiday season.

Through no fault of her own, my oldest child inevitably gets caught up in the whirlwind of Mommy’s holiday to-do list and accompanying stress.

We spend a month (or more) getting ready for Christmas, and then on Christmas morning it’s rampant chaos with wrapping paper flying and towers of empty cardboard boxes piled higher than the Christmas tree.

And that one present? The one you were so looking forward to your child opening so you could see the look on their face? Because you knew they’d just love it?

In the moment, they were so overwhelmed with the flurry of presents that they could barely process what the present was, let alone give you that thousand-watt smile of pure joy you’d pictured in your head.

Instead, the look on their face was a bit…zombie-like.

Related: 10 Unique Stocking Stuffers for Girls That Will Delight Your Kids {Printable}

A Free Printable for Teaching Kids Gratitude

We really did try to contain the Beast of Wretched Excess this year and get our daughter just a few presents, but she’s still going to have too much to open.

So how do we help our kids slow down during the holidays? How do we instill an attitude of gratitude?

How can our kids make each holiday experience their universe?

Here’s a free printable to help your child focus on what’s important this Christmas. Think of it as a special holiday edition of a gratitude journal for kids.

First, an interview about their favorite holiday experiences. Then a list to keep track of their gifts, who they’re from, and whether they thanked the person yet. The final page has a spot for including a Christmas photo (check out the tips here), your child’s name and the year, and where you spent Christmas Day.

This mini-gratitude journal is perfect for teaching kids to be grateful this holiday season. Even if Uncle Larry is hogging all the fun.

Related: The Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything

Get Your Free Printable

1. Get the interview. You’ll get the printable, plus join my weekly newsletter! Just click here to get it and subscribe.
2. Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock^† would be ideal.
3. Interview your child to fill out the first and last pages, or have your child fill them out on their own. The list of gifts is on the second page, so feel free to print more than one of those if you need to.
4. Put the pages in a binder or file them away. Then after a few years, you’ll have a collection of these heartwarming snapshots to look back on.

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Your Turn

What tips do you have for teaching gratitude during the holiday season? Share in a comment below!

The post A Sweet Way to Guarantee Your Kid Has an Attitude of Gratitude appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

We haven’t raked the leaves in our yard since last December.

Today, with our favorite Christmas playlist on in the background, we finally tackled it. A few of the interesting things we found: a cute baby snake, a Target receipt, and my oldest’s missing mitten from last winter. Clearly, it was time.

Approximately 5.2 minutes into the raking, I peered over the baby strapped to my chest to see how big a pile I’d made. I’ve changed diapers more substantial than my sad little pile of leaves.

I looked up to the rest of the yard. Absolutely COVERED in leaves. And I sighed.

Ty looked up from his (much more impressive) pile. “What’s up?”

“Are we doing the whole yard today?” I asked.

“I was thinking about it. Do you need to work on something else?”

“Well, it’s just that we have a long list of stuff to do today,” I whined.

“Like what?”

I blinked. “I don’t know, it just feels like we had a long list.”

He walked up to kiss me on the cheek. “I’m good out here if you want to run in and work on something else. But I love having you out here with me.”

Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get a free printable you can fill out to create a one-of-a-kind gift that your loved one will treasure forever.

Then I Realized My Mistake

I set my rake against a tree trunk and headed inside to check Evernote:

• Pay bills
• Catch up on email
• Clip the cats’ nails again, even though it feels like we just finished
• …

In other words, just stuff. Random stuff. Nothing pressing.

I went back outside and picked up the rake. Ty was using the leaf vacuum and didn’t see me.

I raked and raked and raked.

My pile? Now the size of a small cat.

Bailey leaned her head back to look up at me. The sun hit those gorgeous blue eyes.

I kissed her forehead.

The vacuum switched off and Ty walked up to me. A big smile.

“You came back,” he said.

“You gotta remind me.”

He cocked his head. “Of what?”

“This,” I said. “This is what matters. Not the list. It’s 60 degrees and a beautiful Sunday in December, and I’m outside with my little family getting our house ready for Christmas.”

He grinned.

And we went back to work. Together.

Two Things You Should Know

I wanted to share this little snippet from my Sunday for two reasons:

1. Did you see how I turned around my whiny stressed-out-ness and blamed it on Ty? Yeah, I’m pretty impressive.
2. Making memories. Living in the moment. Enjoying the journey. Whatever you want to call it, that whole idea tends to fall by the wayside this time of year.

The second is something I have to remind myself of ALL THE TIME. Right now, it feels like I’m catching myself hourly.

I get so wrapped up in The List and fitting in as much holiday cheer as possible that I forget to just be. Live. Enjoy this gift of a beautiful, healthy, hilarious, crazy family.

Related: 10 Unique Stocking Stuffers for Girls That Will Delight Your Kids {Printable}

Here’s the Perfect Gift This Holiday Season

Which brings me to this: About a week ago, I got an early Christmas present. An email from my friend Amanda.

It was completely unexpected, and completely wonderful.

There was no iTunes gift code inside. No promise of baked goods.

Just a simple letter, thanking me for how I’d touched her life this past year.

In the time since she sent it, I’ve reread it three or four times. I don’t know if she intended this, but she happened to remind me of something important I have a bad habit losing sight of.

She touched me, more than she can really know.

So today, in honor of Amanda’s sweet message and in honor of what’s really important in the stressful holiday season, I am sharing a free printable you can give as a present to anyone on your Christmas shopping list. But this gift is something you can’t get in a store, and yet it will be the most treasured of all.

Use this sheet to record your favorite memories of your loved one.

• Maybe you’ll write about that road trip you took together right after college.
• Maybe you’ll recall the time you made the Thanksgiving turkey and botched it beyond belief.
• Or you could record forever and ever the memory of you pouting and whining about working alongside the love of your life to rake the yard on a perfectly beautiful day when there was nothing else that had to be done at the moment.

Writing down these moments is a gift that says, You know what, holiday stress? You can suck it. This is what life is about.

Here’s the first page…

And the last page…

With a couple pages in between for recording more memories.

Get Your Free Memory Pages

1. Get the pages. You’ll get the printable, plus join my weekly newsletter! Just click here to get it and subscribe.
2. Print. Any pretty paper will do the trick, but card stock^† would be ideal. Or shoot, just use regular paper – your memories are the gift here, not the paper.
3. Fill out the pages. Just do the first and last page if you’re short on time, or go all out and fill in a memory for every prompt.
4. Put the pages in an envelope. Or if you want to really mess with your loved one’s head, wrap the pages up in a HUGE box with a ton of tissue paper. That’s good times, right there.

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Your Turn

How do you keep the cray-cray at bay during the holidays? Share in a comment below!

The post Fill out This Printable for a One-of-a-Kind Gift Your Loved One Will Treasure appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.

Most people appreciate when someone makes a donation to charity in their name instead of giving a physical gift.

It’s a totally thoughtful way to show you care during the holidays. A gift from the heart, not a shopping cart.

But can I be honest?

A donation as a gift can be kind of boring.

If you’re lucky, the charity will send your loved one a note to let them know about your donation. Which is sort of on par with texting a marriage proposal. Impersonal and heartless – exactly the wrong fit for that kind of gift.

More often than not, though, you’re left with having to let your loved one know. Let’s say for your favorite Aunt Susan, you made a donation in her name to the animal shelter where she found her beloved labradoodle Flopsy.

So you find the perfect card at the store with a super cute dog on the front. Thinking of your sweet aunt, you sit down and write a message about how much she means to you and that you can’t wait for her next visit.

Then you get to the point where you’re going to tell her what you’ve done. But it feels a bit…self-serving.

I made a donation in your name.

Love,
Your Goody Two-Shoes Niece

I mean, you want CREDIT. It is a thoughtful gift. You just can’t bring yourself to write it all out in your own handwriting. It looks like you’re trying too hard.

To solve this problem, I created three cards specially designed for donation gifts.

Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get three free printable cards to give to your loved one when making a donation to charity in their name.

3 Free Cards to Give With a Donation Gift

These cards do the heavy lifting for you – telling your loved one you made a donation in their name. All you do is fill in the charity’s name and add a personal note, if you’d like.

Instructions for getting the printable are below the card previews.

To see the inside of each card, get the PDFs below.

And don’t worry – the cheesy URL watermark isn’t on the actual cards you’ll get.

Related: 10 Unique Stocking Stuffers for Girls That Will Delight Your Kids {Printable}

Get Your Free Donation Cards

1. Get the cards. You’ll get the printables, plus join my weekly newsletter! Just click here to get it and subscribe.
2. Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock^† would be ideal. Be sure to print double-sided, with the flip on short edge setting.
3. Fill in the charity name, sign, and throw in an envelope. You’re done! (Unless you haven’t made the actual donation yet. You’ll probably want to make sure that happens at some point.)

^† This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Your Turn

How do you feel when you receive a donation as a gift? Share in a comment below!

The post Donating to Charity As a Gift? 3 Cards to Make Your Loved Ones Smile appeared first on Happy You, Happy Family.