Gifts for experiencing not playing with
Travel advisory Josh Martin
This year my wife has insisted, sorry, politely requested, that for Christmas we get each other tangible gifts. Gifts that come in boxes, wrapped up in bows. Gifts you actually have to hide then place under the tree. Ones that can be shaken and rattled. Ones, I halfjokingly suggest, that will be forgotten by Easter and broken by the time the holidays roll around again.
No e-vouchers for shows, spas or skydives. No e-tickets for flights this time. No ‘‘I paid for all of that really nice villa on Airbnb for our summer holidays, so Merry Christmas love, that’s your gift’’.
For some, it seems, products not places still provide the consumerist hit of instant gratification and over-indulgence. And isn’t that what Christmas is all about? No?
Research from San Francisco State University in 2016, found people who spent their money on experiences rather than material goods were happier and were more likely to believe their money was well spent.
Well, I could have told you that. Anti-consumerism ideas such as downsizing, ‘‘peak stuff’’ and the experience economy (where people are choosing ‘‘doing’’ over ‘‘buying’’), have not taken long to filter down to the practice of Christmas gift-giving.
Applying the research results to Christmas isn’t much of a stretch, even if it’s your money buying said purchase obviously you want good value and for them to stay happier for longer.
Buy a loved one clothing or electronics and it satisfies them maybe until the next season’s release. Send a loved one on an adventure or even a 48-hour escape, and the memories last far longer.
It’s almost as if we – us millennials in particular – are belatedly adhering to advice from our childhood that we ‘‘stop staring at the screen all day before your eyes go square, and get outside and explore’’.
Of course, there’s still plenty of money to be made in experiences. Forecasts from retail analysts, Euromonitor International, predicts that by 2030 the travel, leisure and hospitality spending globally will reach US$8 trillion.
Even if I’m not contributing to the travel industry total this year, travel purchases and tourism-related gifts are likely to reach a record this Christmas.
My 2015 gift of a weekend away in Bologna was clearly ahead of its time, now everybody is on the experiences-beat-items buzz. They really are the best gifts – and not simply because there is less tidying up to do after opening an email or an envelope with boarding passes in it.
Even if you can’t wear experiences like a (not quite right) shirt from Gran, play on it like you can a bike, or get the Christmas lunch table laughing like a soon-to-be-binned novelty festive gift, travel still wins out in the long run. You will be offering them the chance to see, meet, eat, learn, and grow.
So what to do about my loved one who simply must have a boxed gift to open on December 25? Surely some highly fashionable airplane compression socks, a neck-pillow, and a bum-bag is a fantastic festive compromise?
It’s almost as if we are belatedly adhering to advice from our childhood that we ‘‘stop staring at the screen all day before your eyes go square, and get outside and explore’’.