I keep seeing posts about not giving toys for holidays. Instead, gifting experiences. Can I please tell you…
I AM HERE FOR IT!
Our house feels like it is bursting at the seams with toys when my children have just as much fun playing in a cardboard box. As much as I love the thought of experiences, I wasn’t really sure how to implement it in our family.
Until now…
I decided to make gift cards for my daughters and niece. The gift cards would be for things for us to go do with my niece – not just for her parents to do with her. For example, going to get donuts one morning, at-home pedicures, going bowling, baking cookies, going to play at the bookstore or library, and calzone on a Wednesday night at Rotolo’s. 
There are a few reasons I decided to do it this way:
- I’m not spending a bunch of money at one time.
- The cards don’t have a financial value, so no big deal if they lose them.
- We will *hopefully* make more time to spend together as a(n) (extended) family.
Number 3 is a big one for me. I feel like we are always zooming from one place to the next. The kids are starting to have extracurriculars and family dinners with our extended family are becoming less frequent (even though we all live within 3 miles of each other). 
To make the gift cards, I used Canva.com because I already had it open resizing a graphic. But you could also use MS Word or if you have the skills Adobe Illustrator (or Photoshop if that is your preference). I picked 6 things we could do together – some that would cost and some that were little to no cost. Canva has templates you can (I used the business card template) use plus pictures and graphics if you want to design your own.
When I finished designing the cards, I printed them on cardstock and laminated them. I did not put a date on the cards so that we can use them year after year. When picking out a wallet, I knew I wanted something that zipped up so that the gift cards would not fall out and were less likely to get lost. I also put each girl’s monogram on their wallet to make it more personal.
It was super easy and I’m looking forward to a year full of fun family experiences.
