THE GIFT OF EXPERIENCE

During the holiday season, I have struggled with trying to find meaningful gifts for my two sons who are now 12 and 14. I LOVE to give gifts and always want to surprise my family members with something they will really love. 

A few years back, I decided to do some research on how to find the BEST GIFT for someone and came across a study published in 2016. I was not surprised by the  study’s findings. Here is an excerpt from the 2016 article, The Science of Gift Giving: Experiences Mean More Than Stuff, at Seeker.com written about the study: 

A new study from the University of Toronto Scarborough shows that giving an experience, rather than a material item, is more effective at improving your relationship with the recipient.

Lead researcher Cindy Chan, assistant professor at U of T and an expert on consumer relationships, explained that experiential gifts incite more emotion than material items because the person receiving the gift has a strong emotional response when they consume it.

"Material and experiential gifts are both likely to elicit emotion during a gift exchange," Chan told Seeker. “But experiential gifts should elicit more intense emotion during gift consumption as the recipient lives through an event.”

So, I went to the business of trying to find positive experiences for my own family members after reading more about this idea in order to incite great emotional response from my family.

The article went on to reference another source as well:

"Across the board, experiences seem to bring greater happiness than material goods," Dr. Timothy Bono, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, told Seeker. "What's key is that the exact type of experience be tailored to the kind of relationship you have with that other person, as well as their individual tastes. 

I ask you, who wouldn’t want to bring greater happiness to the person you are giving a gift to? Why would you ever defer to a material “thing” when you could do so much more by giving an experience? 

We, at Camp Telaphiba, pride ourselves on the EXPERIENCE that we provide during our summer dance camps for children. We care about the connection with our campers and the impact we have in their lives. We LOVE dance and everything about it but we also concentrate on the “fun” of just being kids with other activities that celebrate that like eating smores, fun games and so much more that the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provide outdoors.  

We want to be the “gift of choice” for your children in their LOVE of dance but also for YOU as parents trying to be thoughtful gift givers. By giving the gift of Camp Telaphiba, you will be channeling your child’s taste as well as building your relationship with them by giving  them all of the benefits of camp! 

Every year, we have many parents who give the gift of camp during the holiday season! We provide a small gift and a certificate for families to wrap to give to let the child know they get to go to camp in the Summer! But, don’t limit yourself to that idea for the holidays! Camp Telaphiba makes a great birthday present as well!!  

Here’s to thoughtful, meaningful gift giving by all parents for their children! Remember, experiences mean so much more than material things :)