Christmas presents: Experiences for kids / teens / families

[MeanMrMustardSeed]

I’m turning my mind to Christmas presents as we have 75% of all family birthdays September - December and I want to spread the headspace / planning.

I want to move away from stuff (and the children are 8-14 years old now so not that into toys / games) and focus on experiences, or shop vouchers at a push, but not give just money.

I would appreciate any ideas please. So far I’ve thought of Treasure Trails and cinema vouchers.

Budget is about £15 per child, mix of boys & girls.

Thank you!

MeanMrMustardSeed,
Are the experiences to be the presents, and given on Christmas day, or something you do along side the presents as 'christmassy experiences'?

One of the things I loved doing was heading off to the christmas tree farm to choose out tree.

Long ago i got riding lessons from my godmother. The price now means they're probably outside your budget but you never know...

What about an ice skating session, or lesson? It is great as a youngster to reach the point of being able to skate a bit without hanging on to the edge or falling over too often. Ideally choose a rink that has lots of other activities, such as an ice hockey team.

Alternatively tickets to a swimming pool with something extra like slides would be fun.

Is your local am dram doing a panto? Would the 14 year old go for that?
Am Dram usually quite a reasonable cost.

Thank you all. Sorry - I should have been clearer. The experiences are to gift as presents on Christmas Day, for soon afterwards.

Pizza hut vouchers?

I think in that budget you’d be looking more at vouchers than experience tickets although there has been a local Arcade Club open up near us you may be able to get day passes for, for that? Both adults and kids in our family love it.

If you are near cities then lots of painting/make your own accessory workshops are popping up.

Food vouchers like Nando’s or Pizza Hut go down well for kids we know too.

I'm afraid I absolutely hate experience presents, I just do. Perhaps it may be wise to consider them in a case by case basis?

I think I would go for cinema or food vouchers, the budget is not high enough for any decent experience.

I can't think of many expeiences which are £15 or less which are easy to give as a gift.

My DDs like going for coffee/hot chocolate/smoothie with friends, so a gift card for a local coffee shop has gone down well for them.

You're probably best getting a family voucher for the likes of a zoo/wildlife park/marine centre near you.
I do this for all of my friends and their children at Xmas. They really enjoy it

Bowling
Go-karting
Trampolining
Crazy golf
Ghost tour if you live near a historic city
Escape room
Voucher for bubble tea cafe
Train tickets to go to museum at big city

Sorry, are these for your children or gifts for relatives/friends?

What type of things do they like?

Agree an experience gift may well be out of your budget. Experiences would be location dependant too.

My DDs aged 6-12 have been given the following vouchers over the last few years

Build a bear
Cinema
Amazon
One4all - although I always end up buying these off them.
Robux
Costa

Indoor Go-karting and cinema have gone down the best when I’ve given gifts. Some experiences take a lot more effort to actually do even when the thought is there.

Greggs cards were surprisingly popular with my dc last Christmas.

I think they'd like Costa or Starbucks vouchers too.

You should keep an eye on TopCashback and buy a gift. Last year, TopCashback had them on 50% cashback and then buyagift had extra 20% on top. I got axe throwing, football stadium tour and a meal out for about £50 after I got the cash back back. They were great presents!

Depending on their parents opinion, the kids may appreciate gaming vouchers like Robux. Best check though because I wouldn’t want them bought for mine!

Otherwise maybe vouchers for a local cake or ice cream shop?

My 3 dc received gift vouchers for Ninja Warrior for Christmas. There's several venues around the country, it's an indoor arena set up like the tv show, with assault course and a large inflatables area. The voucher for 1 hour session costs £13.95. Really reasonable price for what they get out of it, my dc aged 16, 12 and 10 all loved it.

Yea weirdly my kids live the Greggs and Costa/starbucks vouchers as well. What about if you made them a movie night at home and gave them just eat vouchers so they could order anything they wanted for dinner while they watch the movie?

When my boys were teens they loved vouchers for coffee shops. They liked to take a girl out.
Moved on to a Wagamama voucher at uni which has now become a tradition in their stocking. Despite being high earners they still like free money!

I did cinema vouchers one year for all the teens/pre teens I was buying for. To consume at the cinema, I bought bag of popcorn, chocolate bar, a bag of sweets , bottle of Diet Coke, which I wrapped into a big cellophane parcel.