Holiday Gifts for Kids That Aren't Toys

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Last Christmas, I believe we could have outfitted a second location of Santa’s workshop in our home after all the untying and unwrapping had taken place. Holy Toys, Rudolph! And while each storybook and teddy bear and rainbow glitter wand for our then-2-year-old was ooh’d and ahh’d over, by January, most of them were piled in a new storage box I bought on sale post-holiday in an effort to contain the chaos. I started thinking about the next go-round of this gift-giving season, and how our family might approach it differently. Because seriously? Too many toys.

So I polled a few parents (and one teenager), who shared some pretty excellent ideas. Here’s hoping you can use one or two for your own holiday wish list:

“Give a Room Makeover. We did this my for daughter at age 5: Painted her room purple, got her a new bedspread, and put up a pink and purple gauzy canopy (from Craigslist) to go over her bed. She was so excited about her fairy princess room!” — Susannah H.

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“My mother-in-law has sent my daughter batches of homemade fruit leather the past two years and it’s definitely a holiday highlight. She uses her own fruit — either apples or pears from her orchard, or huckleberries that she picked in the woods — and doesn’t add any sugar, so my girl has enjoyed them from the time she was about 8 months old. I love that she gets to taste a little bit of her Montana heritage, even though it’s so far from where we live in the Midwest.” — Amy P.

“As a family, we always ask for a book of movie passes, which we save for rainy days. With three boys, the cost of a rainy afternoon at the cinema falls just under $50, so this gift is perfect. And we make sure to cheese it up for the camera (posing in front of the movie sign we’re about to use of card on) to send a monthly thank you to the gift-giver.” — Tennille K.

“We were given a charity card that showed we ‘adopted’ a chimp through the Jane Goodall Foundation — we saw photos and helped fund its care for a year. My kids liked it a lot, and you can also do this type of thing through the World Wildlife Fund, where you can choose any type of animal to sponsor.” — Emily J.

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“We give recycled items, which means gifting anything we already have or can make that we think someone else would enjoy. Last year I got my mother’s tea set, and my 3-year-old was delighted with a handmade magic wand!” —Jessica R.

“I bought my Portland nieces and nephew a Family Year to their local hands-on museum. They loved it, and my sister tells me they use it once a month!” — Heidi K.

“We gave our daughters, 5 and 7, a family camping trip. We had the tent set up in the living room on Christmas morning with sleeping bags for each girl from Santa. Then we all went camping at Table Rock and they loved it (so did my husband and I).” — Mary A.

“Tickets to see the Nutcracker ballet on the 26th or 27th of December are an annual gift. That helps the days after Christmas not seem like a let-down.” — Emily L.

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“When they were small, I began giving the kids coupons: for a day with Mom, pancakes on demand, no chores for one day, movie night, etc. They loved redeeming them over the year. They were also a good solution when I wasn’t quite ready for the holidays (especially when Chanukkah came early)!” — Sarah A.

And a teenage daughter’s best Christmas:
“One year, as a family, we decided that we were going to take some of the money we would have spent on gifts for each other and buy for another family instead. It meant we didn’t get as much that year, but together we went out shopping, then wrapped all of their presents and my mom brought them to a family at her work anonymously. It’s a favorite Christmas memory.” — Jordan B.