When we talk about gifting, we are often asked this one big question: to gift or not to gift? Well, more specifically, what kind of gift. A designer watch or the latest gadget is thoughtful, but imagine getting a pair of Beat the Bomb tickets — now, that’s an unforgettable experience. In today’s day and age, where experiences outclass material things by a long shot, experience gift ideas have been on the rise.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss material things vs experience gifts and why the latter is more satisfactory. And for those of you who are on the lookout for the crème de la crème of experience gifting, we introduce you to Giftory, a luxury platform for amazing experiences.
Why Experience Gifts Are More Meaningful
Gifts are more than just things you own; they can be a token of love, thanks or even a shared moment. For all it’s worth, an experience gift just encapsulates this shared essence, while material things rarely do.
Be it a cooking class, a skydiving session or just something unique, an amazing experience tends to be much more impressionable in the long run than any material gift can be.
Here are a few reasons why experiences are better:
Memories Over Materials: Material things may make a person happy, temporally, but an experience gift makes for memories. A new bag, albeit appreciated, would only be good till the next season. But gift someone a hot air balloon ride or a concert and they will treasure the memory forever.
Shared Experiences Matter: More often than not, experience allows people to be with their loved ones. Be it a weekend family holiday or a group event, the essence of bonding is what gives experience gifts that extra edge.
Personal Growth And Exposures: An experience may give people the opportunity to try something new that they wouldn’t have otherwise. Personal growth happens when there is exposure to something brand new. For example, if you gift your friend a pottery class, who’s to know that she might end up falling in love with the art of ceramics? And, that’s something not many other gifts can offer.
Declutter and Be Happy: In today’s day and age, more and more people want to be minimalists. Giving and receiving experience gifts are the perfect way to not add to the unwanted paraphernalia. It makes the receiver happy, minus the added hassle of finding storage space.
The Pros of Material Gifts
While there are many other benefits of gifts by experience, material gifts do have their charm. Like the following, for example:
Instant Pleasure: More often than not, beautiful moments have memories attached to the anticipation of them. But with experienced gifts, you’re left wanting after the gift opens and there may not be an instant satisfaction at all.
A Long-term Keepsake: An experience, as amazing as it can be, may not leave many keepsakes or memorabilia. For example how a material gift can — like a watch or a piece of jewellery.
Practicality: A product that makes life easier and more enjoyable daily is a wonderful gift to give and receive, providing it’s exactly the right product for the recipient. E.g. a fancy new coffee machine for a coffee lover.
Still, even with all these positives, we’d argue gifts and experiential gifts are in some sense comparing apples to oranges, with the latter providing more emotional and longer-term value in many cases.
Discover Unique Experience Gifts with Giftory
If it’s experiential gifts you’re looking to give, it’s important to get the right ones. This is where Giftory comes in. Touted as “the luxury experience gifts store”, Giftory offers a catalogue of unique, exciting and enjoyable activities for pretty much anyone (with high adrenaline options like bungee jumping, escape rooms; relaxed spa days, gourmet dining experiences, etc.), sourced from the best providers around.
Giftory is the one place you need to go for exciting and personalised experience options based on your recipient’s interests — adventures, food or culture options, often with group options available, for those looking to celebrate with friends or family.
What made this platform extremely helpful, is that you can easily find and book activities in any city around the world through the website.
How to Decide: Material Things vs Experience Gifts
Know who you’re giving to: This sounds obvious but the appropriate choice very much depends on who the recipient is and your relationship with them. If you know they value experiences, love making memories or simply don’t place a high value on the stuff, then in the battle of material things vs experience gifts, experience is going to come out on top.
In general, we’d say that experience gifts offer the deep sense of satisfaction that comes with giving an experience that will become a memory and story for years to come. They are also perfect for those who “have everything” origin and don’t want to collect more stuff.
Disclosure: This is a featured post.