60+ Experience Gift Ideas (For Spouses, Friends, and Kids)

Experience gifts are the most meaningful of all gifts. Even with COVID-style times, there are still some fun experience ideas that are still safe to do! These ideas will blow your mind.

What better way to show someone you love them than with a gift of experience. I’m sharing 60 experience gift ideas that are perfect for your spouse, your friends, or your kids. Most of these should even work with COVID-guidelines (depending on your area!)

Give an experience gift this year – they’re so meaningful and special!

I think every person should receive an experience gift at Christmas. It’s such a special kind of gift that keeps giving or allows the person to have an amazing experience. I compiled 60+ experience gift ideas, all of which are incredible.

Whether it’s an intense adventure like skydiving, or a simple one like doing a painting night together, experience gifts are meaningful and special.

The best experience gift ideas for kids, friends, and spouses

National Park Pass | Mantry Subscription | Giant Jenga | Skillshare Courses | Ski and Snowboard Lift Tickets | StoryWorth Subscription | TopGolf Night | A Year of Disney+| Extreme Car Racing Experience | Gift Card to Favorite Restaurant | Kiwi Co Boxes

Experience Gift Ideas for your spouse or significant other

• Tickets to their favorite sporting event or to see their favorite team play – some college and professional teams are allowing limited fan attendance!
  • • It would be fun to gift it with a t-shirt or jersey or baseball cap from their favorite team.

• A year of planned, prepaid dates
  • • We did this one year and it’s so fun! There’s an entire resource for setting up this kind of date right here.
• StoryWorth Subscription
  • • This would be a great gift for your spouse or even parents or grandparents. It’s a service that emails a question a week, the recipient replies with a story, and StoryWorth combines it all into a bound book at the end of the year to keep for generations to come. What a fun and seamless way to pass on family stories!

• Mantry subscription box
  • • This is an artisan food box that’s delivered every two months. The gift that keeps on giving!
• Hire a Chef for the Night
  • • What’s more relaxing than a delicious dinner at home that you don’t have to prepare or clean up? Plus, it’s COVID-friendly!
• Camping Kit
  • • Include tents, chairs, a dutch oven, sleeping bags, you name it! What a fun way to plan a camping trip.

• Exotic car racing
  • • This is an unforgettable, crazy fun experience. Philip and I did this earlier this year at a local racetrack and I got to drive a ferrari! It was exhilarating and so much fun. It’s expensive, but I definitely recommend it. Plus it’s not in a large group setting!
• Escape room – at-home or in person.
  • • Escape rooms are so popular and fun! Depending on where you live, escape rooms may be open at limited capacity. If they aren’t, there are some fun escape room kits you can buy.

• Couples massage
  • • If you want to win all the spouse points, this is the gift for you. You can even find local places that will come to your home, set up massage tables, and give you a massage right at home – perfect for COVID. Maximum relaxation!
• Ski or Snowboard passes
  • • Ski resorts in most areas are planning on opening, so give your spouse a lift pass for the season so they can spend some time de-stressing on the slopes!
• Helicopter ride of your city
  • • Such a fun idea!! This is pricey, but how romantic!
• Weekend getaway.
  • • Yes, please.  Especially if you’re a parent. Leave those kiddos at home with grandparents or friends and get out of town for a little one on one time.
• Movie rental vouchers for each month of the year.
  • • Set up your spouse with a voucher for a an at-home movie night each month where you can rent movies from your smart T.V. Of course, include some candy!
• Lessons together
  • • Philip and I have talked about dancing lessons and tennis lessons. These would make great gifts if you’ve pre-paid for a few months of lessons. You could also do skiing lessons, shooting lessons, pottery making lessons…the possibilities are endless. With COVID, there are a ton of virtual lessons available too through platforms like SkillShare.
• An adrenalin rush adventure
  • • If you and your spouse are adrenalin junkies, get a voucher to go bungee jumping, cliff diving, sky diving, ziplining, or another wild activity.
• Simply on Purpose parenting class
  • • These parenting classes are priceless, and would be a great thing to ask for from your husband. She is even offering virtual classes due to COVID!
• Tour of your city
  • • Look up the best restaurants, things to do, etc and make an itinerary for you to complete together on date night.
• Give your wife a “momcation”
  • • Book a hotel room for her and send her off for at least one night.

• Paintballing tickets or laser tag. 
  • • Have you even been paintballing or played laser tag since high school? How fun would this be for date night??
• Hot air balloon ride
  • • This is a bucket list item for me.
• Jeep tour
  • • This sounds like a blast.
• Rent a sailboat 
  • • Or take lessons and then go out on it for candlelit dinner on the water. I’d love to do this.

Experience Gift Ideas for friends or sisters

• Online courses
  • • There are so many incredible online courses out there for photography, decorating, calligraphy, and so many more. Skillshare and Masterclass are both great places to start, but there are also lots of individuals who sell classes. Keep your eyes open when you’re scrolling instagram – you might find a good one!
• Cooking or baking classes
  • • I’ve always wanted to do a cooking class — I’ve seen them set up inside Sur la Table in the mall and they look so fun! Sur la Table is even offering virtual classes due to COVID! One reader said her in-laws gifted them a sushi making lesson. How fun is that??
• Gift cards to favorite restaurants
  • • This would be great for anyone, but a gift card with a note that promises a lunch date would be a good gift for a girlfriend.
• Facial gift certificate
  • • Give the gift of relaxation, rejuvenation, and beauty with a spa facial gift certificate. Such a great gift for any girl!
• Yoga class or other exercise class
  • • Going to a new kind of fitness class is way more fun with a friend. Of course, check local gyms for up-to-date COVID guidelines. Get a voucher for both of you to go together to a spin class, hot yoga class, high fitness class, or whatever other fitness classes she’s into.
  • Trapeze class.
    • This sounds so fun to do with girlfriends! You literally learn how to do the flying trapeze up in the air above a trampoline. It looks so fun!
• Voucher for a manicure or pedicure
  • • Literally this is all I want in my life.

Experience Gift Ideas for Kids and Whole Families

• Lessons
  • • Horseback riding lessons, art lessons, cooking lessons, swimming, ballet, karate lessons, gymnastics, etc — figure out what they want to try and gift them lessons. Look into virtual lessons too with COVID!
• Tickets to a sporting event to see their favorite team play – some college and professional teams are allowing limited fan attendance!
  • • Wrap up the tickets with a t-shirt or baseball cap from their team!
• Disney World tickets 
  • • This is a pricey one, so you could maybe ask grandparents to chip in rather than giving gifts that year.
• A year of Disney+/Netflix/Hulu
  • • A great gift to give to an entire extended family!
• Museum, aquarium or zoo seasonal pass
  • • This is a great gift the whole family can enjoy! Find a local museum, aquarium, or zoo, and get the whole family a pass. A lot of these places are still open with COVID, but make sure to check local regulations! Just make sure it’s a place you’d like to go back many times!
• Barnes and Noble gift card
  • • Going to the bookstore is one of my favorite things. Make a special trip out of it with some cozy reading and picking out a new book at the end.
• National Park Pass
  • • Road tripping is now the preferred method of travel with COVID, so why not help a family enjoy some pretty national parks on their trip!
• ABC Mouse Subscription
  • • I have loved using ABC Mouse with Sanny, and he loves it too! It has helped with his reading so much. Gifting a subscription would be perfect for your own kids or any nieces and nephews.
• High tea experience.
  • • Lots of places do these fun high tea experiences with moms, grandmas and little girls. 
• A night at Top-Golf
  • • Most Top-Golf locations are still open with COVID, and it makes for the perfect family outing!
• JackBox.TV Party Pack
  • • QuipLash and other JackBox.TV games are such a fun family night activity. Your family will enjoy playing the digital games all year long!
• At-Home pampering night
  • • Treat your kids to an at-home pampering night! Facials, mani/pedi’s, hair styling, whatever they want! If you want to indulge too, hire an at-home salon service so it can be an family relaxation affair.
• Indoor rock climbing
  • • This would be a fun one for a one on one date!
• Voucher for a family staycation
  • • Camp in the backyard, or build a fort inside!
• Subscription boxes
  • • The gift that keeps on giving. We love our KiwiCo monthly boxes, but there’s a whole list of subscription boxes for kids RIGHT HERE.
• Build a bear gift certificate
  • • Go together and build the bear in the store. 
• Bubble soccer
  • • Have you seen these? They’re hilarious and so fun. Find a local place that does them and then buy a gift certificate!
• Trip to the Great Wolf Lodge
  • • This is a great gift for the winter because their water park is inside!
• Giant jenga for backyard
  • • So fun for when their friends are over!
• An at-home Escape Room Night
  • • Kids love fun games, but this at-home Harry Potter Escape Room I put together is so fun – my kids loved it. Give it to your kids in a fun Hogwarts Letter-style voucher that they can redeem at some point in the coming months.

OTHER CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDES YOU MIGHT LIKE

• Gifts for men

• Big Christmas Gift Ideas

• Gifts ideas for Parents and In-laws