Alternative to Gifts for Birthday

Toys are the thing that make me the most crazy! Yet how do you tell your family, enough & no more toys? Listed are some alternative to gifts for birthday.

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Toys just pile up and no matter how much we purge toys or how many organizers I buy, they are never ending and frankly end up being a waste of money sometimes. This is why I wanted to ask for alternative to gifts for birthday.

Kids play with them for few weeks or if you are lucky, a few months and then its on to the next newest greatest latest thing. At least for my kids it is.

Now I’ve tried to combat this by telling people do not buy my kids toys.

Buy books or something else for them because its frankly a waste.

Do people listen? Nope! At least the majority don’t.

Once my oldest turned 3 and my youngest was a few months old, I really starting putting my foot down with people.

I told them to not buy them toys or its staying at your house because I was done purging toys monthly!

I was frank with people when I said I will return the give for store credit or I will donate to kids in need because mine do not need any more toys.

It’s one thing to tell people “no more toys” and then give no alternative so they are left trying to think of things to buy and end up buying toys because that’s the easier thing to think to get.

There is a toy for everything and every show out there now. So I decided to implement this tip for family and friends who ask “what do they want for their birthday/Christmas/Easter/etc./?”

I told them, buy them experiences.

Experiences are things they will cherish in their memory and have photos of forever.

They will be able to look back and think how fun that experience was with said person!

Experiences cannot be tossed aside a week or month later like a toy can.

So when the next holiday or birthday came around and family started asking me what the girls wanted/needed for that event.

I told them experiences.

And the best part, I gave examples of what exactly to get. Because lets be honest, most aren’t going to do the research or know time frames of classes that work for your family.

So I gave examples like:

• one year zoo membership
• one year membership to children’s museum/theme park
• dance classes
• gymnastic or jungle tot classes
• ice cream date with said person
• park play time with the gift giver
• getting nails done (my oldest loves having her nails painted)
• kids cooking classes
• movie date or gift card
• swim classes

Also, if you need age specific ideas, check out my previous blog about gift ideas for a one-year-old here.

Hopefully now you have an idea.

Look around for local memberships in your area or classes you think your kid would love and ask for a membership or have them take your child to ice cream or a movie date instead of a cheap (or expensive) toy.

These memories will last longer than any toy you would give them.

Plus most kids would rather have the quality time and adventure with people rather than some toy they will love for 5 minutes.

Choose the memories.

Hopefully this gave some inspiration and ideas for future gift items to tell your family and friends.

Leave a comment below some other cool non-gift ideas and let me know if you’ve implemented any of these for your family!