We do a 4 gift rule in our family that at the heart focuses on sharing with one another. It has really been a positive shift for our children for both birthday and Christmas. But what’s more is that it’s helped even shape our family culture to be less self-centered and more together-driven.
And I am constantly asked for family gift ideas that can be shared. I usually give a few ideas and end with “the ideas are limitless!” to which sometimes I have been told that is what makes them difficult.
Shared Family Gift idea lists
The first year we ever did a shared gift, we did a New York City trip. And from the outside that seems really elaborate and expensive. But in reality, we used points for our hotel and attractions, plus NYC is a 3 hours drive for us. So it was about $65 out of pocket. While I believe that even a low key getaway is a really wonderful share gift that can positively shape culture — memories! — I’ve tried to compile an assortment of smaller scale items into a gift list. But a big trip is definitely one to save up for in the future if you can.
9Fun FamilyExperience Gifts
Experience gifts are one of the easiest ways to involve everyone in a shared gift. We’re all about collecting experiences and memories versus just a bunch of stuff and these are some fun ways we’ve done this in the past.
Wrap up the dry ingredients individually for each family member to then bake a special recipe together. My favorite way to make this work is to also choose an old family recipe that’s been passed down over the generations.
Put together a monthly “subscription” box for the family to open up something new each month to do together. It could be as simple as having a granola bar for each person of the family to take on a hike with you. And another month might be each person’s family candy to go to a movie.
Plan a staycation… even if it’s just a day. Wrap up items to unveil during the day or weekend… or week if you’re going for distance here. This could include tickets somewhere or maybe DVDs, indoor snowballs for an impromptu battle, or a whole number of “normal” gifts.
Find a local class that would allow you to go together as a family. Boston Public Market has cooking classes that even involve kids that we’ve done before and is a fun memory we all have together! [You could wrap up aprons or something similar].
Sometimes experience gifts are about trying to be more intentional about visiting certain places together. Grab a National Park pass if you’re doing some road trips through the year but if not, pick up a pass to a favorite museum. You can even do this for free by planning out say a museum every month and reserving passes through the library.
Wrap up the trimmings to an awesome candy or ice cream bar to do at home! Once everyone unwraps it, set it all up including the wet, gooey, and sticky stuff and indulge in a great family ice cream social.
We’re very big on the idea of shaping the culture of our family by cultivating rich conversation and inspiring intellectual pursuits. We like to give one big sibling gift at times or even give multiple of the same thing to each child.
Wrap up a board game! Whether you’re giving a game to every person as their share gift or just one gift that everyone gets to play, this is a great way to better the family but also to encourage higher-level thinking. One of our favorite ways to do this is to choose a new cooperative family game. I also run Board Games for Learning; visit us there for more on using games educationally.
Gift everyone the same brain bender or something similar. One year, my mom gifted my brother and husband the same maze and they faced off against each other. As kids, my brother and I both got the electronic game “Simon” and we had an ultimate challenge to see who could last the longest.
Arrange classes with an expert in a field that is super unique or interesting. It could be forging or glass blowing, or… the sky is the limit. But unlike the cooking classes it’s a super unique skillset you can all learn together and gain a deep love and appreciation for. Also, if you do either of the above mentioned ideas, you could wrap up something like “Forged in Fire” or print out fake tickets to watch the glass blowing program on Netflix.
Utilize streaming services to watch the movie after reading the book. You can even plan out a reading calendar to gift. Use this list of over a hundred books to read and watch the movie on Disney+. Whether you want to tackle a book per month, or even one every week, there are so many great opportunities. We seemingly inhale family-friendly audiobooks just from doing our regular errands. So that’s a great way to start.
Plan an entire excursion revolving around a book, a person, or something else. Learning about something as a family brings about discussions in a unique ways because of the unique ages, experiences, and perspectives of everyone. In fact, when we were a family of 5, visiting the Benjamin Franklin museum in Philadelphia was interesting for all of us and we got to discuss it when we left; we all left with different takeaways!
Pick a family puzzle. Whether you’re all able to do the same complexity level or all at different levels, choose something to complete. So much conversation can be had around a puzzle board and they even have puzzles with pieces that are all different sizes to suit different learning levels.
Wrap up something like a musical instrument to write or sing a song together. Maybe if you’re not music people, then gift something like the components of a story, escape-room type thing, or something you know your family would love. If you collect things through the year, from things your children do, then you could gift them back those memories to share in creating a scrapbook together.
Gift the family a framed map. Then the share portion is to plan out trips and you can either color it in, mark it off, or something. The great part about this idea is that it can be hyperlocal like a city transit map or something on a much grander scale. Learn about an area or study geography more holistically!
Continue to shape family culture by reframing negativity!
Using the word “SMILE” this is a cheat sheet on how to reframe negative thoughts and words into something more positive for the family to focus on. And it’s an immediate shift from negative to positive! Click the image below to get an email of the printout.
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