Gift Local Experiences

Too often, stuff ends up in landfills because people don’t have room or use for them. So, when you are thinking about holiday presents, consider gifting a local experience. It will give the recipient memories of a great time while also supporting people in your local community.

Art, Music and Theater

After two years of in-person performing arts being closed down, arts organizations are back and eager to welcome audiences back into their spaces. Many of them are creating special packages with built-in flexibility or offer holiday gift packages.

Check out your local symphony, community band, art collective, dance troupe, opera house or community, regional or touring house theaters. Buy tickets to a single performance or season flex tickets.

Consider creating a package that caters to the unique interests of the people on your gift list. For example, if your sister enjoys stand-up comedy, consider getting her two tickets to a local comedy club with a gift certificate to a nearby restaurant.

Sporting Events

While the holidays feature big national games, you can bring some delight to sports fans by purchasing them tickets to local games. Whether it is a nearby college, a minor league baseball team, the local hockey team, find out who is playing what in your community. There may also be such things as pickleball tournaments or a golf tournament at a local course.

Put together a package that includes game tickets, some team swag or even signed memorabilia from local stars.

Museums and Landmarks

What is your town known for? Was it the site of a historical Civil War battle? Does it have a museum of something unusual? Is there unique architecture or home tours? Often people living near tourist attractions or the home to special events and festivals never get the chance to visit them.

Consider gifting people on your list passes to a museum, a state park or a historical museum. If there is a major festival — whether a music festival or an ode to turkey gizzards — buy them tickets or create a coupon promising to go with them.

Curated Experiences

Perhaps you want to give something a little different, something unusual or adventurous. Travel agencies and organizations put together curated local experiences. They can make great gifts for those who want to be a tourist in their own town.

The website “Let’s Roam” offers scavenger hunts, ghost hunts and bar crawls in a variety of communities. City Hunt will create custom scavenger hunts in your town that can be themed to holidays or many other events. Have them create a hunt that you can give to everyone local on your list.

Or, if you know your community well, curate unique experiences yourself as gifts. Organize a personal

cooking class with a local chef, schedule a photo-shoot at iconic local settings with a local photographer, arrange for a local stylist to provide a beauty consultation or makeover, or hire a journalist from your local newspaper to interview your gift recipient and create a memory book.