For many years now we have had the kids draw names for Christmas presents to their siblings. It's a little logistically daunting because we have to help the little ones find presents, and sometimes we forget to do that till Christmas Eve…which is stressful. Usually we end up with a lot of inexpensive presents from D.I. from the younger kids, which is fine, and then those who have jobs can get something a little nicer, but we end up with a lot of presents that aren't necessarily as well-appreciated or of as lasting value as they might be. Which you could also say about any Christmas presents in general, I suppose…but that's a discussion for another place and time. At any rate, the kids like to get each other presents, so we have to have some system or other for it!
This year we decided to have them try giving "experience" gifts. It has the same problem of imbalance (some siblings being able to afford much more monetary output than others), but we figured even if the activities varied in cost, there would be still be benefit in the kids getting to spend positive time together making (hopefully good) memories. There is nothing quite like being taken out by an older sibling to do something fun! I have many great memories of the times my brothers did that for me.
Most of these activities took place the week after Christmas when everyone's schedules were mostly free. It was fun for the kids to have fun things to look forward to that week! I didn't get pictures of all the things, but here are the ones I did get. Daisy took Sebastian out to take pictures with their cameras together. She surmised (correctly) that Seb would really enjoy giving her photography tips. She got them ice cream afterwards.
Abe spent a LOT of time planning his date with Daisy. It was all themed for the movie they were going to watch, which was some kind of time travel movie about things traveling backwards from the future, I think? (It was called "Tenet," Daisy tells me.) The activities had something to do with Abe doing a thing backward while Daisy did it forward (or something??). They went miniature golfing and then watched the movie together while eating food from Taco Bell Abe got for them. It all fit together somehow.
Clementine "took" Ziggy (Sam had to make this one happen) to the Nickelcade. First time for both of them. They liked it.
Junie took Clementine to a playground where they had a picnic. (We've been lucky to have picnic weather even in January this year! Chilly picnics, but picnics nonetheless.) They got gelato at Harmon's after.
Teddy took Gus to a toy store so Gus could spend his birthday money from Grandma. They had fun looking at lots of toys together! Gus settled on buying this stuffed Southwest airplane, to be friends with the Spirit airplane Sebastian got him last year!
Goldie took Abe bowling, and then to Cafe Rio for dinner after. She spent a lot of time before Christmas saving up so she'd be able to pay for both those things, even going without some things she wanted so she'd have enough. She didn't want to do something Abe would just humor her and pretend to like, but something he'd actually like, she told me. Sweet, good Goldie. They had fun together!
Ziggy "took" Teddy to the swimming pool (we have a free pass) and then bought them ice cream at Macey's afterwards (Macey's soft serve ice cream is so inexpensive, it is perfect for things like this!)
Gus chose a movie to watch with Malachi after Ky got his wisdom teeth out, and they sat on the couch together and had ice cream and watched it. Fun.
Ky took Goldie to do "cold things." Ice skating, then ice cream. This is the lovely picture he took of them.
Sebastian took Junie ice skating a few weekends after Christmas when he came home to visit. This group was dressed up as Anna, Elsa, and Olaf, and Sebastian told them (in a completely serious tone!), "My sister really wants a picture with you guys, but she's too embarrassed to ask you herself! Would you mind letting her get a picture?" He thought it was the funniest thing in the world. You can see in Junie's face what she thought of that trick! In fact, for Valentine's day she drew him a picture of how it would have been for him if the tables were turned! Ha!
So! I think this experiment was a success. There were lower-cost choices available for those who needed them, but I think everyone had a good time and got to do some fun things with their siblings! We will see if they want to do it this way again next year!
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