Only a few days left before Christmas!! I wanted to do one last post this year to share ideas for last-minute gifts. I was inspired by my brother who sent me an email last Friday, asking what kind of gifts our family members wanted for Christmas.

I decided to compile a list of “experience”   ideas for him, knowing full well that the Sweet Peas are already receiving lots of “stuff”,  along with the fact that shipping costs might be exorbitant to get anything tangible here by Christmas.  The neatest thing about experience gifts IMO is that we will get to talk about and remember the person who shared the gift every time we use them, and that is especially sweet in this case because he lives so far away.  Every time we use his experience gift is a time for him to be loved, appreciated and remembered fondly. What a sweet bonus!

I am sharing links to local Phoenix, Arizona venues.  If you are not local to Phoenix and you have a favorite place in your area, send me the link so I can share with others (sweetpeafamilies{at}gmail{dot}com). Or, if you are local and your favorite family-friendly place isn’t on here, let me know what I’m missing – thank you in advance 🙂

Movie tickets – bonus when you can support a local movie house!
Harkins Theatres (We do not attend shows at AMC theaters since they allow open carry)

Trampoline Park or Bounce House
Jump Street (running a GC sale)
Pump It Up – party hosting and play time
Bounce U – party hosting

Family-friendly Arcade+Dining 
Main Event 
Dave & Busters

Nature
Phoenix Zoo
Zoo Lights
Sea Life Aquarium
Butterfly Wonderland
Desert Botanical Gardens

Museums
Science Museum 
Children’s Museum
idea Museum
Musical Instrument Museum
AZ Museum of Natural History
Phoenix Art Museum

Theater
Great Arizona Puppet Theater
Childsplay – this is a gift with options…Childsplay is a performance group that offers family-friendly theater experiences in Tempe, AZ. Childsplay also offers class experiences in the form of workshops that children can attend during school break in the school year or summer vacation.

Gift of Time
Plan a date when you take your nieces/nephews/grandchildren out to a state park or for a walk in a nature preserve.  Think about bringing some paper or art journals and art supplies.  Pack a picnic, bring a blanket, and just be with the children. It’s amazing what fresh air will do to inspire conversation and art.  If you are not used to speaking with children, HERE and HERE are a couple of lists of conversation starters. You can write out a few and put them in a jar for the children to pull out, or print them out and take them with you.  Notice that I *did not* write, “download them to your phone,” because our children see us with devices in our hands often enough. I feel like the gift of time is even richer when they get 100% face time with us.

I hope this list inspires some of you to do some literal “out of the box” holiday gifting this season. Wishing you and yours a blessed time this season, and most especially as we celebrate the beautiful gift of the Christ-child.  It’s a struggle with all the commercial focus, however, may Jesus find a way into your heart this season.  Happy holidays!!

There might be time to make THESE gifts with your children – check out four easy-peasy gifts we made with our Sweet Peas this year.