For most people, purchasing gifts during the holidays can be stressful. You want to buy gifts that they love, but don’t want to break the bank doing it. Also, there are always a few people that have everything they need – what are you supposed to buy for them?
While we might not be able to answer all your questions, we can offer you some hints based on some new research. In addition, one blogger has come up with a great strategy for purchasing gifts for your children. Here is our advice for what holiday gifts you could buy this season.
Give the Gift of Experiences
A new study came out this year from Cornell University that said that money only makes us happy to a certain extent. Once our basic needs are met, more money doesn’t make us that much happier. However, what does make us happy is experiences. So, instead of spending money on purchasing a thing (like jewelry or clothes), purchasing an experience (like an outing) will bring much more happiness.
With that said, why not give the gift of an experience this year? It doesn’t have to be a fancy vacation, it could simply be surfing lessons, or movie tickets. It’s a great way to give a gift that is different and that can actually have an impact on their happiness. And isn’t making people happy what we are trying to do when we give gifts?
Something they Want, Need, Wear, Read
A blogger recently published a post about how they approach purchasing gifts for their children. The blogger, Chrystie from Money Saving Sisters, explains that she always purchased way too many gifts for her children. Because of this, it ended up having the opposite effect on her children – they weren’t appreciating the gifts and it was costing her a fortune.
So, she boiled it down to four gifts:
Something they Want
Something they Need
Something to Wear
Something to Read
When we heard this idea, we thought it was a great. It creates categories for the gifts and allows you to focus on each gift instead of just purchasing everything you think they might like.
The best part about it is that you can create your own categories as well. For example, maybe you add a category for “Something to Do” and give a gift of an experience?
Either way, consider creating categories to help you narrow your focus when you purchase gifts for your children.