Our boys are at an age (almost 5 & 2), that we go to a lot of birthday parties. They love them. They love the cake, they love the balloons, they love playing at other kids houses, or going to a fun place like a rec center. Wins all around. Yesterday, we were at a birthday party where they had cans of rosé for the adults. I’ll take that too, thank you!

Since we’ve been to three birthday parties over the last 2 weekends, this topic is certainly top of mind.

When we embarked on our simplification journey, one of the first steps was a massive purging process that has lasted for months and frankly continues each day. It has been exhausting and liberating all at the same time.

Then, when we moved to the mountains, we need to further streamline our toys as to not totally overtake my parent’s condo. So, we involved the boys (mainly our older son), to help purge further to make everything fit in the new space we had. I loved watching our oldest son make decisions on things he could let go of. We also took the liberty of packing up the things they rarely played with or things that allowed them to get bored easily (i.e. basically anything with batteries).

Involving them in the decluttering and purging process was awesome. This process, of course has not been without struggle. The first time we did this process back in December our oldest literally got rid of ONE toy. But, here he is a few months later getting more comfortable with donating things, or using some of his gently used toys as gifts for friends.

So, four paragraphs later, here are five ways to help simplify gift giving for kids. Thanks for your patience.

A few things we believe…gifts are awesome when they are heartfelt and meaningful. I know that one of my love languages is gift giving. I’ve always loved trying to find the perfect thing…but, when it comes to a kid’s birthday party, sometimes meaning can quickly go out the window when you are frantically running through Target to grab something, then heading directly to a birthday party. Anyone else done that? Or just me?

Ok…with that said, we like to give gifts that fall into one (or all) of these categories:

Practical

While kids may not think it is cool to give someone a rad t-shirt or hat, most of the times the parents can appreciate it. For instance, we found this pretty cool shirt for a good buddy of our boys. It had three hiking animals on it and perfectly represented our two boys and their friend. And, we know that when he wears it, either he or his parents will get a kick out of it, and maybe think of us. Practical and meaningful. Yes! For one-year old parties, we’ve also given families diapers before. Lame for the kid, maybe? But, let’s be honest those first year parties aren’t really about the kid are they?

Hand-me-down

Hand-me-downs sometimes get a bad rap, but seriously, why? For a party last weekend, our oldest decided we should give the boy who was turning one some of our old things that we didn’t need anymore. We found a bathing suit that was a bit too small for our youngest and a stuffed animal they didn’t play with too often, but was still in perfect condition. I think our Jedi mind tricks of simplification are rubbing off on our kiddos!

Consumables (or expendables)

Many families have plenty of toys that they have accumulated over the years, but sometimes things that have a shelf life are perfect gifts and don’t get replenished as often. My sister-in-law gave our boys a big kit of materials to make homemade slime at Christmas. So, we had a blast making it, but then when we were done with all the things she provided, it was done. Another example, washable paint. My mother-in-law got the boys a bunch of washable paint and while we were doing some painting jobs around our old Denver home to get the house ready to sell, we set them up on a piece of plywood and let them go to town. It was great fun and when they were done it all just went away. For yesterday’s party, we decided to get the boy turning three a simple mylar balloon. Our boys loved picking it out at the store and we know that our friend will have fun running around with it, batting it around, etc. for the next few days, then it can go away and not take up space, but the fun was still had! And bubbles, lots of bubbles. It’s all about the bubbles. Hours of entertainment and they are inexpensive.

Experiential

I’m sure you have all seen the studies and articles on how we should spend our money on experiences and not things, so why should a kid’s gift be any different? Experiences don’t have to be expensive to be awesome. We’ve given gift cards to ice cream shops a lot and it ends up being a fun experience for the whole family. Extra sprinkles, please! Day passes to a museum, mini-golf, or the movies can be fun too.

Homemade

We’re both work-outside-the-home parents (well, until a month ago when Kelsey stopped teaching), so sometimes homemade gifts can be a bit too time intensive, but I enjoy making things when we plan ahead. A few years back we made a fun coffee can drum for our friend’s daughter's first birthday. We filled an empty coffee container with dry beans, covered it with super cute flamingo duct tape, then covered the handle of a spatula with the tape too. I enjoyed helping by first drinking all the coffee (naturally). It looked super cute in the end and besides purchasing the tape, used things we already had at home. Bang that drum all day!

What other categories do you try to consider? Happy gift giving!

Lakewood Link Rec Center for a five year old's party!

A fun backyard party. Sandbox first, then slip and slide next!