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Last week, in Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Clutter-Free Experiential Gifts: Educational, we began our look at the importance of giving gifts that are experiential rather than tangible. As a reminder, experiences are not only more memorable, but unlike gadgets or clothing, they feel unique to us. As such, gifts of experience make us feel unique, as well.

In a recent Vox article, How To Become a Truly Excellent Gift Giver, the author turned to experts in the field of the art of gift giving. (I recommend reading it to help you for this holiday season, but for giving gifts in the future.)

Too often, we become fixated on spending too much, or getting the perfect gift to prove we know the recipient well. But in the piece, the author quotes Erica Cerulo, co-host of the podcast A Thing or Two, who suggests asking oneself:

“Can I introduce someone to something they might not otherwise know about? Can I get them a nicer version of something than they would buy for themselves? Or can I make them feel seen?” 

To this, I add, can I give a gift that someone might not think to lavish upon themselves at all? Whether they know of something or not, or whether they’d restrict ourselves to the bare minimum rather than an upgrade, when we gift someone an experience of delight, it says that we see them as deserving of something special and unique — that we see them as unique! What more could someone want?

So, today, we continue with a variety of experiential gifts to charm your holiday recipients.

GIFTS OF ADVENTURE

One person’s adventure is another person’s nightmare, so you do need to know your giftee. My sister once went on a blind date with a guy who leaned across the table and with great gusto pronounced, “Don’t you just love camping?”

No, she did not.

In fact, for my sister, as well as for myself (and Paper Mommy, too), the thought of hanging out with bugs and critters in a locale absent air conditioning and hot-and-cold running water is misery-making. For us, last year’s (COVID-safe) escape room was ideal Thanksgiving adventure. But for others, a few days in one of the 63 National Parks or 2000+ federal recreation sites is an adventure worth dreaming about. Know your person.

So consider what adventurous gifts might appeal to those on your gift list. Here’s a sampler platter of ideas:

• National Parks Pass — Give your recipient the chance to explore America’s natural beauty. An annual parks pass is $80; if this gift is for Grandma, note that annual passes for senior citizens are only $20 (and Lifetime passes are $80)! Purchase through the USGS. Each pass covers entrance fees at national parks and national wildlife refuges, as well as standard amenity fees and day use fees for a driver and all passengers in a personal vehicle at per-vehicle fee areas (or up to four adults at sites that charge per person). Kids age 15 or under are admitted free. 

• An AllTrails+ subscription is another great option for your favorite outdoor adventurer who wants some guidance in picking the best walking, hiking, camping, and riding trails. They can filter for distance from their current location, activity types, difficulty, length, suitability (is it dog/kid/wheelchair-friendly?), and more. For $2.99/month (billed once annually at $35.99), your giftee gets off-route notifications, downloadable maps so they can stay on track even when they’re somewhere without cellular service, real-time map overlays, and a Lifeline service to keep friends and family informed and worry-free.

• Axe-Throwing — For about $20-$25/per person per hour, your recipient can get a heart-pumping physical adventure without having to traipse out into the woods; they can then get dinner afterwards without having to build their own fire. Most places have throwing “lanes” where there’s a target on the wall, and players take turns throwing axes — like bowling except a little more apt to help get out those frustrations! Lest you think I’m making this up, here’s some news coverage about the trend.

• Escape Room — This is more of a gift for two or more people; consider escape room tickets for a couple or a group of housemates. There are always a number of different adventures, and it puts a variety of skills (logic, knowledge of trivia, creativity) to work, so it’s fun for a all types of personalities. Tickets tend to range from $25-$45/person, depending on the activity and location. While escape rooms have been popular for most of the past decade, they (like most venues) saw a downturn in attendance in 2020. You’ll find most now have great COVID-safe rules.
• Batting Cage Rentals — Google “batting cages near me” and you should find a bevy of solutions. Nationwide, D-Bat has memberships which yield discount pricing for batting cage rentals and lessons, but non-members can play too, for a slightly higher price. (Pricing examples; but expect to pay from $12-$30/half-hour rentals, depending on where your giftee lives.)
• Trampoline Parks — A few years ago, I went to a friend’s son’s birthday. When I heard “trampoline,” I was thinking of the kind we had in gym class, with one person jumping and lots of spotters waiting to take a turn. Fun for one, but boring while you wait. However, modern trampoline parks are enormous, with “bouncy” opportunities laid out across the floor. You can usually buy a pass for about ninety minutes or two hours for kids to get their bounce-mode on for upwards of $20, or an all-day pass for $25+. (Some indoor trampoline parks have memberships, like bouncy country clubs, for the young or young at heart.) Get a sense of what it’s like:

• Pre-paid rounds of golf at a public course
• Zipline rides
• Hot-air balloon rides
• A Getaway — literally! Could someone in your life use some time away — from a difficult situation at work or at home, or to finish a meaningful project? A gift certificate for Getaway (in increments from $50-$2K) for a tiny cabin rental for a night or a weekend surrounded by nature might give them the ideal experience to regain equilibrium or achieve that elusive goal. (Want to rent one for yourself? Try this link; it should get you $25 off, and send me some affiliate coin, too.)

• Fantasy sports camp — If you’re looking for a big-ticket adventure for your favorite big kid, fantasy baseball camps abound. Major League Baseball leads in this kind of project; Google your bestie’s favorite team and “fantasy camp” and you’ll see the (pricey) options. But there are other adult sports camps, Nike has sports camps for everything from baseball and basketball to water polo and pickleball, and there are other camp experiences, like for golf and tennis or surfing. 
• Racing Ride-Along — It’s another big-ticket gift, but if you’ve got someone on your list who loves racing, a day at the NASCAR Racing Experience program or Daytona Speedway course would be an experience to remember.
• DriveShare lets you rent a fun-to-drive “classic” car, whether you feel like that means a 1957 Chevy Bel Air, a 1963 Ford Falcon, or a 1981 Delorean. Type in your zip code, search the auto options, and book! Since this takes some advanced planning, consider making a gift certificate and let your recipients pick their own dream car; package it with a toy car.

GIFTS OF PRACTICALITY

On the other end of the spectrum from adventure, we find gifts of experiences that are practical in nature.

Practical gifts don’t have to be boring; but to be winning, they have to be something the giftees can use for an experience that makes their lives easier or better. 

If you save your BFF time she’d otherwise spend on the drudgery of adulting, she’ll have more time to focus on things that really matter to her (whether that’s work or play). Gift your favorite dude something he’d otherwise have to pony up the Benjamins to experience, and he’s got folding funds for fun! 

As with the adventures above, these can really range in price from stocking stuffers to once-in-a-lifetime presents, but with gifts of practicality, you can control the size of your largesse, picking how long an experiential subscription might last, or how many opportunities you’ll buy. So, it’s not only a practical gift for them, but a practical (affordability) consideration for you!

Does your giftee need to drive from here to there? How about gift certificates for:

• Car washes or detailing services — More card wash companies are offering membership services where, in return for a monthly membership, drivers can get their cars washed an unlimited number of times. Many people forgo the expense of getting their cars washed, especially in winter, but regular maintenance includes keeping a car clean; you’ll be saving the money in the long run! (For some busy folks, three quiet minutes in the car wash tunnel might be their only calm moments in the day, so getting to go more often makes this experiential gift good for the car and the care owner!)
• Oil changes — Yet another adulting expense I suspect most grownups resent.
• Annual AAA or other automobile club membership — I’m a huge fan of AAA because you get so much more than a tow when you’re stranded. Yes, your GPS has probably replaced those TripTiks of long ago, but AAA membership yields a variety of other benefits, from bicycle servicing to free travel services to discounted rates for everything from Disney World to local movie tickets. 

Does your gift recipients live in the 21st century?

If so, they’re paying for a lot of services nobody purchased (because nobody had them) 30+ years ago. It’s hard to find gift certificates for these, so consider them as kinds of gifts you could give in the form of cash, earmarked for specific services like:

• Internet Service — Pay for months or a year of service, or buy your favorite gamer an upgrade on the household internet plan so nothing is every sluggish when they’re on the cusp of achieving a big win!
• Cellular Service — Just about everyone has a phone, but not everyone has a plan that lets them do all that they want. If you’ve got a college student on your list who isn’t on a family’s plan, covering the costs for a few months to a year could make all the difference in how they experience keeping in touch with others, stress-free.
• Cable (yes, some people still have cable television!) or Satellite TV
• Streaming Television Services — There are the big guys, like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, AppleTV+, Paramount+, Disney+, or HBOMax. But you might want to give a year of a specialty service like BritBox or Acorn (for the Anglophiles), ESPN+ or Fubo (for sports fans), Fearless (for friends who care about stories about inclusivity, whether for LGBTQ+, women, BIPOC, or disability communities), Univision Now (for Spanish-language content), PBS Passport or Criterion Channel (for the classy stuff)…and so many others. For more ideas, check out Consumer Reports’ recent Guide to Streaming Video Services.
• Streaming Music/Audio Services — Video gets all of the attention, but from a Spotify Premium gift card to Apple Music to SiriusXM Satellite Radio (which you can listen to online as well as in the car), nothing improves your humdrum life experiences (commuting in the car or by public transportation, doing housework, waiting on hold) like listening to something fun.

Do they lead a digital life?

If the people on your gift list do literally anything with computers, tablets, or phones, there are so many practical options to make the experience of being in the digital realm less costly or stressful. Consider purchasing a year (or at least several months) of the following:

• Computer (and device) backup services — I’m a fan of Backblaze (and if you buy through my link, we will both get a free month) but iCloud, Carbonite, iDrive, and LiveDrive are all popular. Not convinced that backup services make for a sexy gift? Read through Paper Doll’s Ultimate Stress-Free Backup Plan and then imagine how your giftees might feel if all their photos or assignments or drafts of their novel went kablooie. (I have it on good authority that Kablooie is the technical term.)
• Digital password managers — Again, this is another one of those “if you know, you know” kinds of gifts. From LastPass to Roboform to 1 Password to Dashlane, digital password managers do so much more than just remember passwords. They help you create secure login credentials, safekeep important documents, and allow you to grant access to your important information to someone (like the person with your Power of Attorney) when you need them to handle your affairs. (Read more at How to Create, Organize, and Safeguard 5 Essential Legal and Estate Documents, if you’re not sure why that might come up.)

• Evernote — As an Evernote Certified Expert, I’d be remiss if I didn’t suggest that you gift a year’s worth of upgraded services to someone you know would benefit. (If your person uses Microsoft OneNote, Bear, Notion, or SimpleNote, that’s also a valid experience help get their thoughts and plans organized.) And while you can’t buy a gift certificate from Evernote for coaching/training, you can offer gift your loved one the services of an Evernote Certified Expert.
• Software Services & Apps — How are these experiences, you wonder? If you’ve got a writer in your life, Grammarly Premium or Pro Writing Aid can improve the quality of their writing, while Scrivener goes one step further to give them the ability to organize their research and their writing, and then format it for publication. Need a gift for someone visually creative? Canva Pro will give your special person some premium features to create and design like a pro, whether for a Science Club flyer or small business web site. And, of course, if your loved ones have a favorite app, a year’s membership or an upgrade is the cherry on the sundae for showing them you’ve been paying attention to the experiences that matter to them.

GIFTS OF PAMPERING

Somewhere in the middle, between high adventure and nitty-gritty practicality, is where you’ll find holiday gifts that acknowledge that your recipient deserves to be treated with kid gloves. Gifts of pampering can be found at all price points, but you might consider the following:

• Hair Care Services — Your giftee probably has a favorite salon or barber. If you know where they go, it should be easy to get a gift certificate for services or products.
• Massages & Spa Treatments — Having someone touch your body is a pretty personal thing; if you’re not sure if your recipient would be into a massage, consider buying a gift certificate to a full-service spa, where anything from a pedicure to a full-on shiatsu are all on the table (no pun intended). By the way, don’t overlook the men and teen guys on your gift list. “Sportsman services” — a manly rebranding of everything from massages to facials to manicures — have become very popular in recent years.

Massage photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

• Relaxation Apps — Not every pampering experience needs to be an all-day event. Sometimes, what your recipient needs most is a moment of quiet. Monthly or annual upgraded subscriptions to apps like Headspace or Calm can help your recipient achieve a moment of zen.
• Meal Delivery Services/Meal Kits — Mama is tired of cooking, and that’s true whether Mama is an actual mom (or dad) of three or a Grandpa or a one-year-out-of-college GenZer. If they don’t love cooking (or even if they do, but are busy), meal delivery services save shopping, measuring, and prep time, making the meal experience more delightful and less fraught.

And it’s not all Blue Apron or Hello Fresh or the other usual suspects; whether they prefer plant-based meals (Sunbasket) or high protein (FlexPro), there’s a meal kit alternative for everyone on your list. Check out Self Magazine’s article, The 35 Best Meal Delivery Services to Cut Down on Prep Work in 2022 to get identify your person’s best option.

• Personal Chef — Maybe what your giftee needs is a break from cooking altogether. I’ve used a personal chef, and it is definitely not always a fancy-pants service for rich people. A personal chef will meet with a client to find out favorite cuisines, flavors, and textures, and ascertain what dietary restrictions (kosher or halal, low-carb, low-sodium, heart-healthy, etc.) are needed. Personal chefs go shopping (saving your giftee time), cook the meals (more time), clean up (time and sanity) and package the meals so usually all they have to do is pop a meal into the oven. Search your local listings, visit Hire A Chef (run by the United States Personal Chef Association) or the American Personal & Private Chef Association, or search Chefs for Seniors to make dining a little easier for your older loved ones.

About a decade ago, I had a stellar personal chef who really understood my picky eating habits. She came once a month, left me with 4 servings of entrees sides for each of five meal experiences, giving me a month or so of dinners, not counting my regular evenings out. I saved money on groceries because I wasn’t roaming up and down the candy aisles, making impulse purchases (or well-intentionedly buying vegetables that would just die ignoble deaths in the fridge’s crisper). Personal chefs rock!

• Professional Organizing Services — Although organizing is a necessity to lead a calm, orderly life, some people would never consider hiring a professional organizer for themselves because it seems like too much of a luxury. So why not let your giftee luxuriate?

This is not to say that a gift of professional organizing services can’t be a sticky wicket. There’s definitely a right way and a wrong way to give a gift of organizing.

Most professional organizers offer gift certificates or gift services. When people call me to buy a gift certificate, I ask the husband/mother-in-law/adult children if the recipient has already indicated an interest in working with a professional organizer. If the answer is yes, it’s easy to go ahead; however, just as often, the inquiry may come from a well-intentioned person who doesn’t like someone else’s clutter. That’s an interpersonal issue, not an organizing issue. In those instances, the actual client may never call to schedule an appointment, or may do so reluctantly. (As the years have passed, I’ve encouraged gift givers to offer the gift, rather than immediately give it without inquiring. Your mileage may vary.)

While many professional organizers are generalist, there are dozens of specialties, from the spaces where we work (kitchens to closets to offices) to the clients we service (from new moms to seniors to executives). For example, I’m a generalist and in the past month, I’ve trained a client how to use Evernote, organized two clothing closets and a laundry room, and helped a small business owner plan her 2023 marketing needs. I specialize in paper and information management, as well as productivity training. But each professional organizer has different skills and offers different services.

If you’re in North America, start with the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO) or Professional Organizers in Canada (POC) and search the zip/postal code for an organizer near your recipient. (Many of us also offer virtual services, so if you find a professional organizer/blogger whose style you like, see if they offer organizing or productivity help virtually, via Zoom, phone, or similar arrangement.) Outside of North America, we have sister organizations around the world; check out the International Federation of Professional Organizing Associations (IFPOA) to find professional organizers near you.

If your giftee needs specialized assistance with chronic disorganization or organizing while dealing with brain-based challenges (like ADHD, anxiety, depression, hoarding disorder, PTSD, or traumatic brain injuries), you may also want to cross-check the organizing services of professionals who are subscribers with the Institute for Challenging Disorganization.

And while working with a professional organizer may feel like luxurious pampering, you’ll soon see how the experience is a gift that keeps on giving.

You may give a BIG WOW of an experience. Or, your gift could make some or all of the other experiences in someone’s life a little easier (or less expensive). Either way, there are lots of opportunities for you to give gifts that your loved ones will never have to dust or dry-clean or find a place to store. 

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EXPERIENTIAL GIFTS

What’s the best tangible holiday present you ever received? Hold that thought. Now, what’s best experiential gift?

If your biggest sense of delight came from a gift you got as a child, most of your gifts were probably tangible. When we’re little, our frames are reference are smaller, and our wished-for things take up a large proportion of our hopes and dreams: a bicycle, a dollhouse, a magic set. You probably remember getting stuff.

If the holiday gift came in adulthood, however, there may be a few special tangible gifts you recall, but I’d bet you’d be hard-pressed to talk about the gifts you received in 2021, or 2017, or a decade ago. Tangible gifts recede in our memories; gadgets get replaced by updates, clothing wears out, books and music gets consumed and blended in among our possessions. But experiential gifts, in part because our experiences are unique to us and are also separate from our everyday lives, live on in our memories.

Experiential gifts are not only more memorable, they are also more satisfying than tangible ones, overall. Research from a variety of sources, including Thomas Gilovich, the Irene Blecker Rosenfeld Professor of Psychology at Cornell University, found that enjoyment received from experiential purchases far exceeds that of tangible items. 

The anticipatory aspect is part of it. When we decide to do something, we start thinking about what we will be experiencing. Thus, our imaginations fill in the details in a way that makes thinking about tangible items pale in comparison. Most research has followed this with regard to the things we buy for ourselves, but when we get experiential gifts, they are endowed with the same anticipatory delight between when we get them and when we can use them. The gifts we give should have the same power to stir imagination in our recipients between when they unwrap their presents and when they get to use them.

There’s also a reflective or retrospective aspect that makes experiential gifts more powerful. While we shouldn’t compare the gifts we get to what our friends and loved ones gets, comparison is natural. My iPhone 14 to your Google Pixel; my air fryer to your InstaPot. 

If what I have is inferior to what you have in even one aspect, it it may decrease the delight I feel about what I received, even if I loved mine before comparing it with yours. And if mine is better than yours, well, the excitement doesn’t last. It’s just a thing. Moreover, very few tangible things retain their charm after weeks or months or years. (We’ve talked about the concept of the hedonic treadmill before, with regard to Diderot’s dressing gown in Toxic Productivity Part 2: How to Change Your Mindset. Basically, we get used to stuff.)

Conversely, it’s practically impossible to compare different experiences (yours vs. someone else’s) because there are so many relative differences. My family’s hour in an escape room is going to be completely different from the hour your family spent in one, even if it was at the same location following the same clues and scripts.

At most, you can compare elements of your memories (of the escape room clues, of locations in your trip to Italy, with someone else’s memories of their experiences, but you’re far less likely to compare and feel your own experience to be unfavorable unless your trip was a catastrophe. (Fell into a volcano? Well, at least you get to sell the movie rights!) Experiences, like the individuals who do the experiencing, are unique. 

Today, we’re going to look at a specific kind of experiential gifts — gifts of learning, which involve both learning how to do things and learning for the sheer joy of knowledge.

GIFTS OF EDUCATION

The opportunity to learn something new is a gift that keeps on giving. Outside of the formal education of high school or college, we rarely get permission to be a “beginner” in a subject, and the stakes are so much lower because we need not worry about our permanent record. Paper Doll didn’t study Italian or learn how to ballroom dance, two courses readily available at my university, out of a fear of failure. But as an adult, the stakes for “failure” are much lower if there are no grades or rankings.

Learn By Doing

We’ll begin with participatory educational gifts that let you learn by doing. Consider these gifts for your friends and loved ones.

• Music lessons — Whether your recipient wants to pick up where they left off in middle school and learn the flute without being forced to participate in the marching band, or learn guitar for the first time to play a favorite song, learning to play an instrument has been found to improve patience, memory, and self-confidence, among other benefits.
• Singing lessons — Your bestie may want to get up on stage or just feel more confident singing in the shower, but vocal lessons have been proven to improve posture, boost concentration, and even reduce sleep apnea.
• Dance classes — It doesn’t matter whether you want master the TikTok dances like Lizzo’s About Damned Time or Meghan Trainor’s Made You Look; dancing isn’t just for tots in tutus and hip GenZ kids. From ballroom to ballet, tap to jazz, if you know someone who loves to dance and wants to master some skills, a package of classes from a dance studio may make your giftee twirl!
• Physical education classes — This isn’t about passing that Presidential Physical Fitness Test. (Oh, how I hated that!) And obviously you don’t want to body shame a loved one into working out.

However, if your BFF wants to get leaner or stronger, you can gift several months of an in-person gym membership or a package of online on-demand classes, like at Obé Fitness, Barre3, ClassPass, Alo Moves, and Peleton.

From aerobics and bootcamp to Pilates and Peleton to yoga and Zumba, you can find classes that work for your recipient. Or maybe your bestie would prefer to have private fitness coaching sessions. (You can even secure gifts of session with online personal trainers, such as with Future.)

©Erik Brolin, via Unsplash

• Self-Defense Classes — This may seem like a downer; nobody wants to be reminded that the world isn’t safe. But there are so many other benefits to learning self-defense methods, from improved self-confidence and self-respect to better balance and quicker reflexes!
• Horseback riding — Horseback riding has been incorporated into some types of therapy because of a variety physical benefits (improved core strength, balance, and coordination) and mental ones (reduced anxiety, increased compassion, and relaxation). If your loved one shouts “Horsie!” any time you pass a horse while driving and can’t pass up a repeat viewing of National Velvet, consider riding lessons as a gift.
• Driver’s education — For teens or adults, a package of driving lessons can help give the twin gifts of safe driving skills and confidence. As a bonus, many 55+ drivers can find their car insurance rates reduced if they take safe driving or defensive driving classes.
• Language lessons — Learning a language may initially seem like a purely intellectual pursuit, but it’s definitely a learn-by-doing experience. Your mouth has to move in different (dare I say, “foreign”) ways, and learning a language can be a full-body experience. (You really have to throw yourself into listening, speaking, reading, and writing in a different language, and you may find yourself walking and gesturing in line with the language you learn!)

If you’ve been reading Paper Doll for a while, you know that I’ve been studying Italian since 2018. So far, I’ve been happy with the free lessons via Duolingo. In fact, I recently hit a milestone! 

However, Duo (as the cool kids call it) has a paid “Super” (formerly “Plus”) subscription with advanced features for $6.99/month.

Other options for giving online language learning subscriptions include Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, Mango, Babbel, and Memrise. If you think your recipient would prefer more structured, in-person classes, you could pay for a local university or community college class. Another alternative, especially if your giftee would like to refresh long-lost language skills, might be a package of lessons with a language tutor.

• Cooking classes — Whether your recipient is a post-college cooking novice or a veteran who wants to learn to specialize in a particular cuisine, there are so many great cooking class options. Just type “cooking classes” and the name of your recipient’s city into a search engine to find classes taught at local restaurants, culinary schools, community colleges, and cooking supply stores. 

Other in-person options include:

Eataly — With locations in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York City, and Silicon Valley, these Italian marketplace/restaurants have classes and special events ranging from cooking classes for adults and kids to market tours (to learn where the experts go), from butcher to baker.

Sur La Table, maker of fine cookware, offers both in-store classes as well as a variety of affordably-priced online courses (beginning at $29/household). Experts teach the live 90-120 minute classes, offered via password-protected Zoom sessions, so your giftee (and any other family members hanging out in the kitchen) can ask questions as they follow along step-by-step.

From Thai stir-fried dumplings to homemade tiramisu, they’ve got you covered.

Creampuff Snow People. ©Sur La Table 

Goldbelly Live! Cook-Alongs help you send a combination gift of food and education. You purchase a Goldbelly meal kit and the Live! (via Zoom) cook-along group classes are included. The ingredients arrive the day prior to your class, and you can learn how to make pizza to dumplings to cookies, class-and-kit combos tend to range from $99 to $159. 

Unfortunately, it looks like all the current classes are sold out, but take a peek at the video to get a sense of what might make a great upcoming gift. 

Would your recipients prefer more intimate cooking class experiences? Buy a gift card (from $100+) from The Chef & the Dish‘s to give private classes with “white glove service” taught by chefs around the world. Your giftee books a class, and a Kitchen Assistant makes contact to host a personal Kitchen Prep Session to check the camera settings, review the shopping list, and answer pre-class questions.

Recipients can pick from 100+ courses covering a variety of cuisines: American Basque Country, Brazilian, Canary Island, Caribbean, Dominican, Eastern European, Hungarian, Indian, Italian, Japanese Mediterranean, Mexican, Moroccan, Peruvian, South African, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, and Tuscan. (There are also group classes, if your recipient prefers that kind of conviviality.) See it in action!

One of my favorite finds is League of Kitchens, which features immigrant women from around the world who are experienced home cooks rather than restaurant chefs. League of Kitchens describes itself as is a “culinary dream-team of women from around the world who will welcome you into their homes, teach you their family recipes, and inspire you with their personal stories.”

League of Kitchens’ online cooking classes include an interactive cooking instruction session, a virtual dinner party, a packet with the instructor’s family recipes, and a video recording of the class. (For New York City-based learners, there are also in-person immersion cooking classes in the instructors’ homes, featuring lessons as well as a light lunch and beverage.) 

International cuisines represented include Afghan, Argentinian, Bengali, Greek (nomnomnom), Indonesian, Japanese, Lebanese, Mexican, Nepali, Persian, Russian, and Uzbek. Classes are $60/device, and you can buy gift cards so your besties can pick the cooking course of their choice.

This is just the beginning; the internet is full of intriguing cooking classes; review the courses for your recipient’s tastes and check the reviews. Other options:

Cozymeal offers live vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, and other healthy-option cooking classes for $29; you can buy a gift card in increments of $50+.

Traveling Spoon is an option if your giftees like to travel abroad and would like to have a cooking lesson with a home cook wherever they journey. Options include in-home meals, cooking classes, and half-day market visits. You pick the gift card, they pick the location. 

Speaking of travel, if your giftee likes to eat but (like Paper Doll) isn’t that enamored of cooking, another educational option might be gifting a food tour. Depending on the tour, one might learn the historical or cultural significance of different types of foods or dining experiences.

To find tours to give as gifts, use your favorite search engine and type in the recipients’ hometowns or wherever they tend to travel (i.e., where their parents, in-laws, or adult children live). Alternatively, for food tour ideas around the world, check out:

• 10 Best Food Tours in the USA
• 25 Best Food Tours in the United States
• 20 of the Best Food Tours Around the World

Similarly, winery and brewery tours might be just the surprise your recipients might enjoy to learn about their favorite adult beverages.

Learn for the Delight of Learning

Not all gifts of learning center around about doing. Sometimes, people just want to absorb knowledge, whether it’s about literature, music, and the arts, or about how the world has come to be the way it is.

The Great Courses is a perfect place to start, because there’s an absolute buffet of options, from history, literature, and language, to economics and finance, to philosophy and religion, to science and mathematics, and so much more.

Your recipients can take a (virtual) grand tour of England, Scotland, and Wales, or get tips on how to train a dog; they can get a handle on Norse Mythology or understand the Federalist Papers;  there are even language classes for those wanting to learn Spanish, Japanese, Italian, and more. The 2022 Great Courses Gift-Giving Guide is full of (currently) discounted course offerings — 537 of them! 

The Great Courses’ Wondrium YouTube channel provides playlists of video equivalents of free “ice cream samples” of various classes. Peruse them to spark ideas for which of your people would like which classes.

Courses are offered on online as “instant” audio or video (and on DVD!), and are priced anywhere from $29.95 upward. You can purchase a specific course for a gift, or buy a gift certificate so your giftees can choose what they like best.

Master Class is the ultimate option if you want to give a gift that’s educational but less academic. I’m sure you’ve seen the ads everywhere you go online, but in case you’re unfamiliar, MasterClass is a streaming platform where you (or, y’know, your recipients) can watch or listen to hundreds of video lessons taught by 100+ of the world’s best in their fields.

Master Class content is less like sitting in a classroom and more like being mentored by recognized experts. From business and leadership to filmmaking, screenwriting, and acting, to a melange of photography, cooking, music, sports, science and technology, and government, it’s all there.

Even within categories, there’s lots of variety. Does your recipient like music? Master Class has courses taught by Yo-Yo Ma, Big Nas, and Metallica. (Yes, really.) Bill Nye teaches Science and Problem Solving, Malala instructs on how to create change, and Gloria Steinem and colleagues present the evolution of feminism.

Melinda Gates teaches a course for using your powers (and money, one imagines) for good. From Indian cooking to how to think like an FBI profiler to courses on creating an athlete’s mindset to buying and selling real estate, your recipient will never get bored. From Neil Gaiman to Neil deGrasse Tyson, and from Jane Goodall to Christina Aguilera (and seriously, watch both those links to see how similarly these women begin their videos!), there should be something here your giftee will find compelling.

Master Class offers three annual plans: Standard, Plus, or Premium (at $15, $20, and $23/month, respectively, billed annually, though right now they’re offering a $180, 2-for-1 holiday special — buy an annual membership for yourself and get one free to give as a gift). The main difference is the number of devices one can be using simultaneously (1, 2, or 6, respectively), and if using the Standard plan, you can’t download the courses for offline viewing.

Gifts of learning are one kind of experiential gift; next week we’ll round out the gift advice with other alternative types of clutter-free presents that allow your recipients to have memorable, appealing experiences.

Meanwhile, please share in the comments about your favorite thing to learn. What kind of classes or learning experiences have you received, or would you like to get, as a gift? 

A good gift should be so much more than “stuff” that you end up having to dust or dry-clean, store or maintain. Over the past weeks, we’ve looked at clutter-free gifts in a variety of categories.

Holiday Gift List: The Useful and the Beautiful looked at practical gifts to help your recipients achieve their goals, be more productive, and get (and stay) organized. We also talked about how beautiful gifts uplift, support, stir action, lower blood pressure, and drive delight.

Paper Doll’s Holiday Gift List: Warm Their Hearts and Fill Their Tummies focused on two particularly categories, those dealing with yesteryear (family genealogy and legacy) and those to enhance the here and now. (Be forewarned, we’re not done with gifts of food, glorious food!)

Today, we’ll close out the gift ideas with gifts of experiences. Many researchers, including Thomas Gilovich, the Irene Blecker Rosenfeld Professor of Psychology at Cornell University, have found that the enjoyment we get from experiential purchases far exceeds that of tangible items.

First, there’s the anticipatory aspect. When we think about what we will be experiencing, our imaginations fill in the details in a way that makes thinking about tangible items pale in comparison. While this has mainly been studied in terms of things we buy for ourselves, it stands to reason that things given as experiential gifts are endowed with that same anticipatory delight between when we get them and when we get to use them.

But there’s also a retrospective aspect. When we compare our “stuff” to someone else’s “stuff” (my iPad to your iPad, or even to your Surface; my sports car to your sports car) there’s little joy to be had. If what I have is inferior to what you have, it lessens how I feel about what I have, even  if I loved mine before comparing it with yours. And if mine is better than yours, well, the excitement doesn’t last. It’s just a thing. And very few tangible things retain their charm after weeks or months or years.

However, it’s almost impossible to compare different experiences (yours vs. someone else’s) because there are so many relative differences. You can, at best, compare your memories of your trip to Italy with someone else’s memories of their own vacation, whether to the same places in Italy, or perhaps to other locale altogether, but you’re far less likely to compare and feel your own experience to be unfavorable. Experiences, like the one who does the experiencing, are unique.

So, what experiential gifts can you provide to those on your gift list?

EDUCATION

The alternatives for gifts of education are almost endless, and you can choose experiences that benefit either the body or the mind (or both).

For example, I love Jane Austen. I’ve read all of the novels many, many times, and I’ve read many books about the author, herself, and others offering up critical analyses of her writing. I can’t get enough. So, for my birthday this year, at the start of what I’ve been hearing called “the sophomore year of the pandemic,” my friend got me The Great Courses‘ set of lectures on The Life and Works of Jane Austen.

It was just what I needed to burrow in for those last few weeks until spring (and vaccinations) had finally sprung. Instead of feeling like someone seeking one more Netflix show to binge, I felt like a college student (and trust me, for Paper Doll, that is a very good thing). 

Options from The Great Courses include: economics and finance, history, literature and language, philosophy and religion, music and fine arts, mathematics, and so much more. You can learn Spanish or how to draw, take a grand tour of England, Scotland, and Wales, or understand behavioral economics (and then please, try to explain it to me). From Dog Training 101 to Law Training for Everyone: Constitutional Law, you should be able to delight every adult on your gift list.

The Great Courses does offer their Programs for Young Learners courses, but these tend to be focused on high-school-aged learners; unless you’ve got a Young Sheldon on your list, get the young’uns the games and toys they’ve been craving. (Clutter-free gifts have less meaning to tiny humans!)

If you’d like a sample of the kinds of material you can find in The Great Courses, their Wondrium YouTube channel (formerly Great Choices Plus) offers free video tastes.

Courses are offered on DVD sets and online as “instant” audio or video, and are priced anywhere from $29.95 upward. (This week, all courses are on sale and there’s a 15%-off coupon code: K5H9.)

Another popular choice of course purveyor, one with a less academic bent, is Master Class. It’s hard to surf anywhere on social media or YouTube without seeing a promotion with Ron Howard, Alicia Keys, Neil deGrasse Tyson, or Neil Gaiman. However, in case you’re unfamiliar, MasterClass is a streaming platform where your recipients (or you!) can watch or listen to hundreds of video lessons taught by 100+ of the world’s best in their fields.

Categories of courses include business and leadership, filmmaking and screenwriting, acting, photography, cooking, music, sports, science and technology, government, and more. These classes are less like academic coursework and more like getting to sit in on a series of mentoring classes with recognized experts. 

Because these are digital/video lessons, the material is available whenever your giftee has time to watch, and wherever it’s convenient for them: smartphone in the carpool lane, tablet while cooking, computer during a lunch break, or via Apple TV and FireTV streaming media players.

Master Class offers three annual plans: Standard, Plus, or Premium (at $30, $40, and $46/month, respectively, though right now they’re offering a 2-for-1 holiday special). The main difference is the number of devices you can be using simultaneously (1, 2, or 6, respectively), and if you’re using the Standard plan, you can’t download the courses for offline viewing.

So, whether someone on your list wants to learn mindfulness from Jon Kabat-Zinn or philosophy from Cornel West, cooking from Gordon Ramsay or how to hit a high note from Christina Aguilera, there’s something to excite and charm.

But I get it. Not everyone wants to feel like they’re sitting in the front row of a college seminar. Some want the experience of learning by doing. That’s OK, because educational options run the gamut; if you can imagine learning it or doing it, there’s someone or some place that’s teaching it. 

Cooking & Food

Google “cooking classes” and the name of your recipient’s city, and chances are good that there will be classes taught at local restaurants, culinary schools, community colleges, and cooking supply stores. 

If your recipient is in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas or Dallas, consider Eataly. They offer classes and special events ranging from straight-forward cooking classes for adults and children to market tours where you can learn where the experts go, from butcher to baker.

However, if your gift is for someone who lives far from these kinds of courses or is wisely, cautiously waiting out the next surge in the pandemic, private classes by Zoom or Skype may be an option, locally or at a distance. 

While Sur La Table, maker of fine cookware, is better known for their in-store classes, they have a nice schedule of online course options starting at just $29/household. Would your culinarily-inclined friend like to learn how to make a Salted Caramel Lattice-Top Apple Pie? What about the Feast of the Seven Fishes (pictured below)?

Might they be interested in a 2-day croissant workshop or learning how to make traditional tamales? Each live 90-120 minute class is taught by experts via a password-protected Zoom session, so you (or your giftee) and the other attendees are free to ask questions as you follow along step by step.

League of Kitchens describes itself as is a “culinary dream-team of women from around the world who will welcome you into their homes, teach you their family recipes, and inspire you with their personal stories.” Their online cooking classes include an interactive cooking instruction session, a virtual dinner party, a packet with the instructor’s family recipes, and a video recording of the class.

International cuisines represented include Afghan, Argentinian, Bengali, Greek (nomnomnom), Indonesian, Japanese, Lebanese, Mexican, Nepali, Persian, Russian, and Uzbek. Classes are $60/device, and you can buy gift cards for recipients to use for the cooking course of their choice.

Goldbelly Live! Cook-Alongs offer a combination gift. You buy GB’s meal kits and the Goldbelly Live! cook-along classes are included. It’s live via Zoom, so you get to ask the chefs questions as you cook with the ingredients that arrive (the day before) in your meal kit. From pizza to dumplings to cookies, class-and-kit combos tend to range from $99 to $159. 

Want to give a more intimate cooking class experience? The Chef & the Dish offers private classes with “white glove” service. Pick your course by mood, dietary preference, or craving — options include homemade pasta, Pad Thai, paella, ceviche, jambalaya, baklava, goulash, curry, and more. Once you book, a Kitchen Assistant makes contact to host a personal Kitchen Prep Session to check the camera settings, review the shopping list, and answer any pre-class questions.

For more online cooking class ideas, check out The Spruce Eats’ post, The 8 Best Online Cooking Class of 2021.

Maybe the loved ones on your list, like Paper Doll, love to eat but aren’t such fans of actually cooking? In addition to the gifts I covered in last week’s post, consider experiential gifts like food tours. To find tours to give as gifts, check Google for your recipients’ hometowns or wherever they tend to visit (like where their parents, in-laws, or adult children live).

There are also national food tour companies, with operations in multiple cities. One option is Secret Food Tours, with domestic and international tours that blend food and culture. Gift vouchers can be used for group or private tours.

Similarly, winery and brewery tours might be just the surprise your recipients might enjoy.

Lest you think Paper Doll only has food on the mind, there are still more educational classes and tutoring you can give as gifts of experience, including:

• Music lessons
• Singing lessons
• Self-defense courses
• Physical education classes — Forget old-school PhysEd; you can gift your loved ones gym memberships in-person or online on-demand classes like at Obé Fitness. From aerobics to yoga, there are in-person and virtual classes for everyone on your list. Or, instead of a specific class, perhaps private fitness coaching sessions might please.

©Erik Brolin, via Unsplash

• Dancing — From ballroom to ballet, tap to jazz, if you know someone who loves to dance but might not think to buy lessons for themselves, this might be a dream come true.
• Horseback riding 
• Driver’s education — Local school districts have pared down their offerings; those that do offer Driver’s Ed often have four kids (and an instructor) to one car. For teens or adults, a package of driving lessons can help give the twin gifts of driving skills and confidence.

ENTERTAINMENT

As with last year, the COVID pandemic has made the choice of entertainment gifts somewhat problematic. Experiential gifts that entertain are still a great choice, but tickets to date-specific events can turn delight to dismay if there’s a cancelation. (This week alone, ten different Broadway shows and many musical performances around the country had to cancel. This weekend’s Saturday Night Live went on, but barely, with only two cast members, minimal crew, and no audience. Buyer beware.)

So, if you and your giftee are bold and willing to brave the possibility of cancelations and rescheduled events, consider experiential gifts like one-off or seasons tickets to:

• Sporting events — Hint: outdoor sports are somewhat less likely to be canceled
• Concerts — From your giftee’s favorite band to a night at the symphony, there’s a reason that the quote, “Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast” has stuck around since 1697!
• Comedy clubs — because we could all use a reason to laugh these days
• Academic lecture series at local universities
• Theater — Don’t limit yourself to big-city theater performances. Consider local community theaters, universities, and even high school schedules for their musical and entertainment offerings. From a booklet of movie tickets to a big theatrical show, your recipient’s memories will live on after the big holiday night or Christmas morning.

Thanks to technology, and specifically streaming services, you can give experiential entertainment gifts that last the whole year. 

Start with the big platforms for TV. Get someone a gift of three months ($39) or a year ($119) of Amazon Prime, which along with all the other great benefits (including fast shipping), they’ll get a variety of original and beloved entertainment on Amazon Prime Video.

If they already have Prime, look to the other obvious options. Buy them a gift card for Netflix, or a monthly or yearly subscription to Hulu.

Instead of one of the big platforms, you could get them AppleTV+ for classics and original shows (including the absolutely hilarious and life-affirming Ted Lasso), Disney+ (for friends with kids or fans of Marvel movies), ParamountPlus (previously CBS All-Access, for those who love all of the Star Trek shows, and for fans of CBS programming, including NFL on CBS).

Some niche networks (like Acorn or BritBox for fans of shows from the UK) can be purchased directly or as sub-subscriptions through Amazon Prime Video. Because almost any streaming service offers a gift option, whatever kinds of viewing your giftees like can be delivered directly to them, wherever they are.

If the folks on your gift list are music fans, a Spotify Premium gift card for three months or a year is the obvious first choice.

For giftees who spend a lot of time in a (compatible and fairly modern) car, a pre-paid SiriusXM gift card is a fun choice for a ridiculously wide variety of streaming music, news, sports, and talk. (I’m a fan of their Radio Classics channel, which plays old radio shows from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, everything from noir to comedy, westerns to music.) And did you know that if you have a SiriusXM account, you can also play the stations in your computer browser? That’s a fun option even for those who don’t have cars!

Do you have movie fans on your list? If they’ve already seen everything on the TV streaming services, consider some of these more niche options.

Metrograph bills itself as, “the ultimate place for movie enthusiasts to experience prestigious film and content. Metrograph represents a special, curated world of cinema, harkening back to the great New York movie theaters of the 1920s and the Commissaries of Hollywood Studio back lots, a world inhabited by movie professionals screening their work, taking meetings, watching films, and collaborating together.”

A $50 gift membership includes Metrograph At Home, with live streaming events, special premieres, exclusive films, conversations with favorite filmmakers, and more. Members in (or visiting) New York City also get discounted tickets at the Metrograph Theater there. (Stream Metrograph via any Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Google TV and Chromecast.)

If someone on your list is a super-serious cinephile, The Criterion Channel might be your best bet, with gift subscriptions at $10.99/monthly or $99.99 for a full year. Criterion brings your movie buff one thousand “important” classic and contemporary films, plus a constantly updated selection of Hollywood, international, art-house, and independent films from major studios and independent distributors.

And if the folks on your gift list prefer the stage to the screen? To keep them entertained all day and night, whether they prefer Shakespeare or ballet, absurdist theater or Sondheim, consider a monthly or annual gift subscription to BroadwayHD, ranging from $11.99/month to $129.99/year. 

ADVENTURE

Adventure is in the eye of the beholder. For Paper Doll, Paper Mommy, and our ilk, adventure should be climate-controlled and have clean restrooms nearby. Over Thanksgiving weekend, we went to a Knight’s Quest-themed escape room.

For us, it was the perfect kind of “adventure,” as we didn’t need to buy a special wardrobe, and neither our hairdos or our bodies were ever at risk. As a private group (to better assure pandemic-era safety) we solved puzzles and laughed a lot!

We went to Project Escape in Marietta, Georgia, but almost every community has a few escape rooms these days, so you shouldn’t have to look beyond your nearest search engine.

Want a physical adventure that gets your heart pumping without having to set out into the woods? A recently exploration of my own city found that axe throwing is a thing! (Who knew?) In fact, we have three different axe throwing venues within 15 minutes of my house!

I’m not sure I could lift one of these, but apparently you get one hour in a lane with a target at the end…and an axe! It certainly does seem like a great way to get out frustration, so if you know someone who is feeling more “grrrrrrr” than “fa la la la la,” this might be their style. (Google “Best Axe Throwing Near Me” for your options.)

As always, adventure gifts depend on your recipient and your budget. For real thrill-lovers, zip lines and hot-air balloon rides might be just the thing. Your more athletic friends might prefer sporty adventures; for a reasonable gift, time in the batting cages or pre-paid rounds of golf might work, but for a big-ticket present, you might opt for a week at fantasy baseball camp.

For car fans, a ride-along at the NASCAR Racing Experience program or Daytona Speedway course would be a gift to remember. But if they might prefer a less adventurous car adventure? DriveShare lets you rent a fun-to-drive classic car. Type in your zip code, search the auto options, and book! (You might want to make a gift certificate for your recipient and let them pick their own dream car.)

And while things are still all pandemicky, consider gifts that allow for adventures with a social distancing component, like an annual National Parks Pass ($80) to explore the country’s great natural beauty and experience some elbow room. (Note: annual passes for senior citizens are only $20, and a lifetime pass for seniors is $80.)

A pass is your ticket to more than 2,000 federal recreation sites. Each pass covers entrance fees at national parks and national wildlife refuges, as well as standard amenity fees and day use fees for a driver and all passengers in a personal vehicle at per-vehicle fee areas (or up to four adults at sites that charge per person). Kids age 15 or under are admitted free.

ONE LAST THOUGHT—ON PRACTICALITY

Over the past three posts, we’ve looked at gifts that are exciting and special in different ways. But bear in mind that some of the people on your holiday gift list might actually appreciate practical gifts. No, not a vacuum cleaner or a toaster (unless they’ve really, really requested one for the holidays). But sometimes, a gift of something to make life easier really is a special present.

Drivers on your “nice” list would benefit from gift certificates for oil changes, car washes or detailing, and even annual memberships in AAA or their favorite auto club. Unlike the streaming entertainment services mentioned above, you generally can’t purchase a gift certificate for multiple months of internet, cable, satellite, or cellular service but you could gift your recipient cash earmarked for pre-paying those services. (If your recipient is in college or just out of school, this might be especially appreciated.) And if you really want to be a hero, you can definitely give the gift of computer backup services. (I’m a fan of Backblaze.)

Just because something is practical doesn’t mean it won’t be loved. As always, you have to really know your recipient.

Whatever you give (and get) this holiday season, I hope you have healthy, happy times with the people who mean the most to you! Happy holidays from Paper Doll!