Now that we’ve officially entered the month of December, countless parents around the world are scrambling to make this Christmas as joyful as possible for their children. And, of course, we all know that the first thing that comes to kids’ minds when they think of Christmas is all of the new toys they get to unwrap and play with.
I’d like to look back on my own childhood and think that I received each new toy with a heart full of gratitude, making it a regular part of my play times and showing it the love it deserved, but I think we all know that’s not true. More often than not, unless it’s something they absolutely adore, when kids are given new toys, they’re enthralled with them for a little while and then just move on. Maybe that’s why, this Christmas, parents are choosing to spend their money on something else.
Parents are still buying their kids gifts, but it’s not the traditional toys and games we’re used to.
According to new research from Kiddie Academy, the brand that provides educational child care programs, what parents are spending their money on for their kids’ gifts this year can’t be wrapped up and put under a tree. The brand surveyed 2,000 parents of children between the ages of zero and 6 and found that, instead of buying more things for their kids, most parents wanted to give them experiences to remember.
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An overwhelming majority, 73% of parents, are choosing to spend their holiday money on things “like learning and traveling, over physical things, like toys and games,” a press release from PR Newswire said of the survey findings. Just 49% of the parents surveyed said that their own parents prioritized experiences as gifts when they were growing up. It seems times are changing.
Joy Turner, the vice president of education at Kiddie Academy, said, “Not only does this research show an increased emphasis on parents wanting to expose their children to memorable activities instead of giving material possessions, it also shows parents are more focused on teaching their children the importance of giving by helping others in charitable ways.”
Parents of young children aren’t the only ones embracing this change in gifting.
According to TD Bank’s 2024 Merry Money Survey, 45% of overall consumers planned on giving experiences as gifts instead of material things. Younger generations were the most enthusiastic about this change, which probably explains why parents of young children are such big fans. 68% of Gen Z and 61% of millennials planned to follow this trend.
There are a lot of benefits to giving experiences as gifts. Stanford Lifestyle Medicine reported that Cindy Chan, an associate professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and Cassie Mogilner, an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied the effects of experiential gifts.
“They consistently found that receiving an experiential gift created greater strength in a relationship than a material one,” the report said. They also found that experiential gifts “produced greater emotional reactions and feelings of gratitude among recipients compared to material gifts, therefore having a greater capacity to strengthen the relationship.”
Gifting experiences creates a greater sense of gratitude based on Kiddie Academy’s other findings.
In addition to studying what kinds of gifts parents were giving, Kiddie Academy also found that parents are striving to “model gratitude” for their kids, which has had a positive impact. Sixty percent of parents surveyed believed that their own children were more grateful than they were themselves at that age, and 91% said their own sense of gratitude had increased through teaching their kids about gratitude.
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Between teaching children about gratitude and giving experiences over things, which leads to a greater sense of gratitude, it’s clear that parents are all about showing their kids the importance of being thankful. An overabundance of toys may not exactly teach kids about the importance of this season of giving, but gratitude certainly will.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
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