You often run into different gift-giving situations where you don’t know what to give. Maybe the person has the ability to get what they want whenever they want. Maybe they’re a very picky person to buy for. Maybe you don’t know what to get for that age. In our case, for Christmas, we have our 5 kids to buy for and so that could be very expensive so we thought we could get a gift for the whole family.

Some ideas we’ve come up with:

  • Grandma asked if there was an Xbox equivalent for small kids and so I directed her towards LeapFrog where they have some fun things for the kids and they’re educational
  • Nanny (Grandma on my wife’s side of the family) asked if the kids want another swing set (she bought their current one 3 years ago and we have a small backyard) so I redirected her to the idea of getting them an experience instead. She then thought of ideas like the Zoo, dinner and activity night out at Chucky Cheese (which they’ve done once before and loved)
  • we’ve all seen the kids open their gifts throwing them aside to play with the box the gift came in. You can approach people or companies that need to get rid of the big boxes (from things like fridges, freezers, stoves, or treadmills) and help the kids make a big house or castle. Something they’ll play with for hours and have great experiences using their imagination
  • our kids often ask for a holiday at Grandma and Granpa’s or Nanny and Poppy’s and so arranging a weekend with the grandparents would absolutely thrill them
  • my family chooses names for Christmas and so we only have to buy for one other couple, my brother has a limited list of people for babysitting and so we’ve thought that we could arrange for a night out for them with a very reliable babysitter for them (which they could then add to their list of babysitters)
  • we were considering getting a gift between all of my siblings and parents that we can all take part in. One idea was to arrange to get together every other month and have a movie night together at someone’s house since we have a hard time getting together more than the birthday’s and special holidays. Another idea was to buy a couple of games that we would all like and keep them at the grandparent’s house, then have a games night every now and then to have some time together.

There are many ways you can be creative to give something more meaningful and lasting without making it a huge expense. The thing of most value is your time.

What creative ideas have you given in the past and had fun giving?