Experience Gifts For Everyone On Your List This Christmas

If you want to be more environmentally friendly this Christmas, give experience gifts!

A thoughtful experience gift is a great for so many reasons. It’s a way to relieve people from stresses or give them something they wouldn’t think to get themselves. It also can help relieve some of their expenses.

Plus, experience gifts prevent hundreds of pounds of packaging and gift wrapping from going to the landfill. They’re the perfect way to have a zero waste Christmas!

Find experience gifts for him, her, couples, parents and families.

WHY SHOULD YOU GIFT EXPERIENCES?

Christmas comes with A LOT of waste. Especially during Christmas 2020 with the COVID pandemic, a lot of us will be shopping online. What this means is the following trash will be created:

• The box that the item ships in
• The stuffing inside the box to protect your gifts
• Packaging of the actual product
• Gift bags and tissue paper that the gift is given to loved ones in OR
• Wrapping paper that you wrap your gifts in
• Bows, ribbons, sparkles etc that you use to decorate presents
• Christmas cards and envelopes that people will read once then discard

The other issue with gifting stuff is that sometimes, we give gifts just for the sake of giving a gift. The recipient might not even use or enjoy it. But we give it but of obligation.

If you want to reduce your waste and go for a low waste Christmas this year, a great way to do that is give experience gifts. Experience gifts are perfect for so many reasons:

• It reduces waste
• The recipient can use it whenever the receiver they want or have time
• It’s perfect for minimalists
• It’ll help you achieve a zero waste Christmas
• It can be the gift that keeps on giving
• You don’t have to wrap it (scroll down to see how you can gift it instead)

BUDGETING FOR EXPERIENCE GIFTS

When a lot of people think of experience gifts, they think that it’s expensive. Luckily, they don’t have to be!

In fact, there’s many ways you can save money on experience gifts. Use these apps to save money on your Christmas gift shopping this year:

Rakuten - check Rakuten to see if you can get cash back for your orders. You can use it for experiences AND items. Sometimes you get up to 10% cashback which is insane! It’s basically free money. Don’t have Rakuten? Use this code to get $5 after your first $30 order and start saving money instantly!

Groupon - Groupon is where I go when I look for experiences for myself. Why not get something for a loved one on it as well? With Groupon, you can easily gift experiences with the click of a button. (Bonus — you can use Rakuten on Groupon to double your savings!)

Airbnb - These days, Airbnbs are much cheaper since we can’t go out as much. Plus, they have online experiences you can do with celebrities! Click this link to get $90 CAD off your next stay or online experience!

EXPERIENCE GIFT IDEAS

1. For the one that is always busy and needs to relax, a gift card to a spa would be exactly what they need.

2. For the music lover, tickets to an upcoming concert will get them excited for the new year to come.

3. For the person that is always looking to learn something new, get them tickets to a workshop or a virtual class. Some fun ideas are a candle making workshop or a drink mixing class or cooking class.

4. For the one that loves to shop local, get them a gift card to a small business. This way they can get whatever they want and you’re still supporting local.

5. For the TV show fanatic, cover their streaming service subscription for a few months.

6. For the movie lover, buy movie tickets from the Cineplex store to a movie that’s currently in theatres. To make it even more special, pick a day to watch the movie together.

7. For the philanthropic individual, made a generous donation to a charity they support under their name. It’s a thoughtful way to show your support for the charity as well as your loved one.

8. For the one that likes a clean home, book them cleaning service from professionals for a day. Let them sit back and relax while their house gets cleaned.

9. For parents, get them a gift certificate for a family photo session at a local studio. This is a gift that they can look back at for years.

10. For the book lover, cover their Audible Membership for a few months.

11. For the traveller, get them an Airbnb away from home or an online experience on the app.

12. For the music addict, get them a subscription to Spotify so they can listen to all their favourite music ad free.

13. For the artist, get them a virtual paint night class. They can follow instructions to paint a beautiful image.

14. For the couple a great christmas gift idea is to get them a meal subscription to a HelloFresh. Cooking together is a great date night during this pandemic. Plus it’ll save the couple so much time and stress planning their meals. Use this link to get $40 off your first order!

15. For the fitness fanatic, get them session with a personal trainer.

BONUS: For the subscription addict, get them a subscription to CAUSEBOX. This gift does come with products but they are all eco-friendly! Use this link to get $10 off your first box!

HOW TO WRAP AN EXPERIENCE GIFT

There are plenty of ways to give an experience gift or to place it under the Christmas tree. Try these options:

• Create a ticket to remind them of the event. This is perfect for concert tickets or virtual classes
• For gift cards, put it in an envelope or wrap it without creating waste.
• For a subscription service, you can forward the email to your loved one on the day that you are opening presents.
• You can also get an item that will go along with the gift such as resistance bands for the fitness class or headphones for the Audible membership

I hope this list helped you find the perfect experience gift for your loved ones. Be sure to save this post on Pinterest for future reference!

Let me know in the comments below what experience gifts you plan to give out for your zero waste Christmas this year!

Originally published at https://sustainably-yours.com on December 7, 2020.