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How to present an experience gift?


MomtoCandJ
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We are trying to do more experience type gifts for our girls for Christmas since dd1's birthday is month before Christmas and dd2's is a month after Christmas. I know right now dd2 isn't going to really give a rip but I need ideas for dd1.

This year we are thinking Chicago (not too far but still has things we want to see/do). We want to do Chicago this year and things closer to home for the next 3 or 4 years because of nursing school. Once I'm done with school we can do larger, more expensive ones because I will be working and my income will be savings/play money.

Please help me come up with ideas, we plan on going to the AG store, Shedd's Aquarium, Lincoln Park Zoo and possibly Legoland.

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Can you think of a symbol to draw or something physical to buy (like at the Dollar Store) that represents the trip?

Wrap it in a box, just like a present. Then when it's opened, talk it up excitedly!

 

For your one year old, I wouldn't even bother. Just cake/confection, sing, and let the presents be from other people.

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I like to do t-shirts or other useful items as a symbol of the experience gift.  Maybe you could get each of them a Chicago t-shirt to wrap up for Christmas.  Then they could wear it frequently between Christmas and the trip to be reminded of what is coming.  I've also printed maps of places we are going to go (like a zoo or aquarium) and wrapped those so that the kids can get excited about specific things they will be able to see.

 

Wendy

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We've done something small that relates to the trip/experience. One year we did Medieval Times and I wrapped up small knight figures. One year it was a family trip to a water park (kind of like Great Wolf Lodge) and we wrapped up new goggles. Last year I took ds to the zoo for a special reptile behind the scenes experience and I just printed out the certificate for it and made it into a scroll with a ribbon tied around it. I think younger kids like something slightly more concrete to open, so something they can use on the trip or has to do with the trip. 

 

If you know you're going to all those places you could do a treasure hunt for gifts, my kids love that at the age of your oldest. Hide small items (a water animal figure, a zoo animal figure, a cup of Legos, maybe something from AG or just wrap something from AG that you already have) and leave a series of clues to find them. You could have the last clue be a bigger gift...like maybe a special Chicago T-shirt with a Chicago map. 

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We do trips every 3 years or so.

 

When we went to Mexico for the family Christmas present, we put sunscreen and pesos and travel-sized shampoos and sunglasses into the kids' stockings. We put flip-flops and sun hats and a travel fun pack (for the plane, though we didn't say that--travel games, pencil puzzles/coloring book and pencils or crayons, a book to read) under the tree to unwrap.

 

Then we had a huge box within a box within a box. Inside, we had smaller boxes to unwrap individually: Fake plane tickets, a stuffed dolphin and a brochure for a dolphin swim, and a beach towel with a brochure for a special beach outing.

 

It was super fun to see the kids trying to guess what the big surprise was, and most of the gifts were things we'd have purchased for the trip anyway. :)

 

The year we went to the snow (which ended up being a trip to the RAIN but was a blast anyway!), we gave them each mittens and disposable handwarmers and other cold weather items in their stockings, and snow pants to unwrap.

 

Cat

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Could you get a cool kids' book about Chicago? I also like the t-shirt idea. You could get (or make your own) passes to places you are going to visit and wrap those, too. Are you flying or driving? You could include fun things to do (coloring books, small puzzles, etc.) for them to take along on the trip.

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Could you get a cool kids' book about Chicago? I also like the t-shirt idea. You could get (or make your own) passes to places you are going to visit and wrap those, too. Are you flying or driving? You could include fun things to do (coloring books, small puzzles, etc.) for them to take along on the trip.

We are driving... Hmmm well just came up with another gift... A DVD player for the car, we had one but it wore out. (It was her primary DVD player for a while after we moved back to MI from GA, they are not meant for a lot of use).
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I've done some of these ideas, but also sometimes when the gift is tickets for the future, I've made finding the gift part of the experience with a treasure hunt to get to it. I feel like for little kids there's two elements of the gift - the gift itself and the fun of opening and having the gift in those first minutes or hours. Doing a fun hunt always helped the gift feel big even when it was just the promise of something.

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Last year we went to Disneyland as the kids' Chrismas presents. We got them each a small backpack (really a lunch box) with Disney characters and put a t-shirt, map, the Disney info DVD and a countdown calendar inside. They loved it and the countdown calendar made it much more real to them (they were almost 5 and almost 3 at the time).

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