PENCINTA
ALAM DECEMBER 2016
GREEN
LIVING COLUMN
A
BASIC GUIDE TO EXPERIENCE GIFTS
By
Wong Ee Lynn
‘Experience
gifts’ are non-physical, non-material gifts that can include a charitable
contribution (e.g. wildlife ‘adoption’ programme through a donation to a
registered organisation), a form of service (e.g. an offer to do dreaded
chores), a special trip or outing, registration for courses and workshops,
tickets to performances and special
meals and parties, among others.
Research
by the Olin Business School, Washington University, revealed something
interesting: People continue buying and giving material gifts because they
believe that opening and keeping a gift will make their friends and family
happier, although material gifts consistently lose out to experiences as
sources of positive feelings. Remembering the details of a trip, surprise
birthday party or concert brings recipients more pleasure over the years than
the memory of unwrapping an electronic gadget or trinket.
Advantages
of giving experience gifts:
1.
You
help to create wonderful memories for the recipient.
2.
Executing
the experience gift with the recipient (e.g. taking your father out to watch
his favourite sports team play in a match) often means quality time.
3.
Experience
gifts will not end up in the back of a closet or charity pile.
4.
Experiences
give you more social and emotional connection with others.
5.
Fewer
physical gifts means less clutter, less waste, less extraction of natural
resources and less packaging. Hence experience gifts are usually better for the
environment (except for those that involve long distance travel and the burning
of fossil fuels).
Disadvantages:
1.
Experience
gifts can often be very costly.
2.
It
takes time to execute an experience gift. (E.g. meeting up with the recipient
to take them out for a museum outing and then taking them home)
(A picnic party in the Lake Gardens)
Below
are some basic tried-and-tested guidelines to affordable and
environmentally-responsible experience gift-giving.
Experience
gifts Dos and Don’ts:
1.
Avoid
passive-aggressive gift-giving. Is the gift more important to you than to the
recipient? Who will appreciate it more – you or the recipient? For example,
offers to clean house for someone, do gardening and yard work, babysit or
petsit will only be appreciated by someone who has expressed willingness to
accept help in those areas. It could otherwise be seen as a criticism of their
housekeeping or parenting skills. Someone who is less bothered by the
untidiness of their house or garden than you are will not appreciate it as much
as you will. Giving gifts of gym memberships or health food store vouchers may
also be seen as passive-aggressive criticisms of someone’s weight and is best
to be avoided unless specifically requested. Also, someone might be very
particular about the way they clean house or care for their children and pets and
may not appreciate strangers doing it.
2.
Don’t
make the gift about you, for example, tickets to watch you perform, unless the
recipient has specifically asked you for it. Also, the intended recipient might
not really care about learning to cook or to play the piano as much as you do,
so before giving the gift, think carefully about whether it is you or the
intended recipient that the gift is really for.
3.
Avoid
gifts that will still end up becoming ‘clutter gifts’, for example, studio
portrait sessions where the recipient receives framed professionally-taken
photographs of himself/herself, pottery / painting classes where recipient
returns with half-used tubes of paint and semi-dry half-used tubs of clay
(unless you know they will continue using the art materials for future
projects), and magazine and club subscriptions where they end up with more
clutter even if educational and well-intentioned.
4.
Understand
your intended recipient’s financial situation and plans before giving a gift for
which they will have to pay for extras, e.g. sports equipment and sportswear in
order to attend sports coaching workshops or musical instruments in order to
attend music lessons. Give these gifts (i.e. where they will have to invest in
tools, uniforms or equipment) only if they have expressed an intention to take
up the said sport or hobby. For example, one set of grandparents paid for their
grandchildren’s guitar and hip hop dance lessons for the rest of the year. The
grandchildren were already taking those classes and were interested in
continuing with advanced classes. The grandparents’ gift was thus deeply
appreciated and lifted a financial burden from the parents.
5.
Know
and understand your recipient. Pay attention to what they like and what their
interests are. Ask their family members and closest friends if you are unsure.
Ensure that you are aware of their food allergies, phobias, idiosyncrasies and
financial means before you choose an experience gift for them. Someone with a
fear of heights will be unlikely to jump with joy at the idea of a helicopter
ride or bungee jumping outing.
6.
Do
not fall into the consumerist crafter’s habit of making elaborate cards, boxes
and gift card holders in order to present the experience gift. The point of the
experience gift is that there should be nothing physical that the recipient
would have to find space and storage for. In our age of camera phones and
social media, the recipient will not need to keep your ticket/card holders,
boxes and packaging in order to remember your gifts -- They would have had
enough memories and taken enough photos to last a lifetime.
7.
Handmade
gifts may have more ‘character’ than experience gifts, but be forewarned that
handmade gifts do not fall into the category of clutter-free or experience
gifts. A lovely painting may not fit into the recipient’s décor scheme, and
crochet doilies may be hard to wash and keep clean and a quilted tea cosy might
not be practical for our tropical weather.
Ideas for Inexpensive
Experience Gifts:
1.
For
the overwhelmed family member or friend, parents of young children, someone who
has been unwell or injured, elderly parents and grandparents: Housecleaning
services, gardening services,
babysitting services and pet-sitting services. You can perform these
services yourself or together with other family members or friends, or hire
professionals to carry them out.
2.
For
the animal lover: Visit an animal shelter with treats and homemade toys for the
shelter animals. The recipient gets to present the toys and treats to the shelter.
Volunteer together for a few hours. If you can find a wildlife sanctuary with a
good reputation, visit it together and make a donation for its upkeep.
Examples: SPCA and PAWS animal shelters, Borneo Sun Bear Conservation Centre,
Langkawi LASSIE, KL Pooch Rescue shelter and boarding centre, or the Cherating
and Pantai Padang Kemunting Turtle Sanctuaries.
3.
For
the nature lover: A hiking / trekking / birdwatching outing. Bring rubbish bags,
gardening gloves and rubbish claws for cleaning up the trails with. Pack a
picnic in your rucksack consisting of juice, water, fruit, firm buns and food
items that won’t get squashed or crushed easily. Take lots of photos. If you
can afford it: Go camping, kayaking, rock climbing, caving or paddleboarding. Examples:
Bukit Gasing, Bukit Nanas KL Forest Eco Park, Kota Damansara Community Forest,
paddleboarding at Kundang Lake, kayaking down the Perak River, doing the Dark
Caves Adventure Tour in Batu Caves and exploring Gua Tempurung.
(A paddleboarding outing for a friend’s birthday.)
4.
For
the college student / struggling family member or friend: Grocery store /
supermarket vouchers, restaurant vouchers, gift baskets of good quality
groceries and movie tickets.
5.
For
the Instagram / selfie addict: Street art in interesting locations, followed up
with coffee and desserts in a trendy café or dessert bar. Examples: Street art
walkabout in Section 52 PJ, Laman Seni Shah Alam, SS2 PJ, Ipoh or George Town.
(Go street art hunting in SS2, Petaling Jaya)
6.
For
the young and young-at-heart: Visit to an old-fashioned fun fair or a games
arcade (for instance, those often situated in shopping malls near the cinemas
and that open late) and a pocketful of tokens for games.
7.
For the art enthusiast: Visit an art gallery,
art museum or open-air art installation that he/she has not been to before.
Follow up with coffee and cake in trendy café. Examples: Shalini Ganendra Fine
Art Gallery, Galeri Petronas, Art Square in Bangsar, the ASEAN Sculpture Garden
at the Lake Gardens, Galeri Taksu and Galeri Chandan.
8.
A
workshop or class. Examples: Bushcraft and outdoor survival camps, vehicle
maintenance workshops at The School @ Jaya One, and watercolour painting or
calligraphy classes at Stickeriffic.
9.
For
the gardening enthusiast / urban farmer: Visit and volunteer at a community
garden or farm. Bring plants to share, buy seeds as a gift for the recipient
and help to plant trees and do garden maintenance. Examples: MNS Urban
Community Forest, Eats Shoots and Roots edible garden in PJ, Free Tree Society
of Kuala Lumpur and the TTDI Edible Garden Project.
10.
Throw
a treasure hunt to make even the most inexpensive gift feel special: E.g. a
scavenger hunt in an art gallery (E.g. “Find artwork by Bayu Utomo Radjikin.”
“Find a pre-Merdeka work of art produced by a female artist”) or in a forest
reserve (E.g. “Find an introduced species”, “Find all the letters that make up
your name spelled out in objects found in nature, e.g. “Y” in the fork of a
branch.) It is good to have some hunt sheets ready if you are taking a child or
young person on an excursion and you fear he/she might grow bored halfway. If
you have a gift prepared, e.g. a card stating that you will be going to his/her
favourite restaurant for dinner, hide it somewhere and have the recipient look
for clues leading him / her to the gift.
11.
Special
outings, for example, to the theatre, orchestra, museum, science centre, urban
forest, or sports stadium.
12.
Go
on a scavenger hunt, for example, to visit and photograph 20 major landmarks in
the city, taking only public transport. This will be especially fun for someone
who is not a local.
13.
For
the sports enthusiast: Try a new sport: Bowling, archery, ice skating, roller
blading, trampoline park or going to an indoor extreme sport park or water
park. Examples: Tandem cycling around Titiwangsa lake at night on bikes lit up
with LED lights, going indoor rock-climbing at Camp 5 One Utama, having a day
out at the District 21 indoor adventure park or at the Jumpstreet trampoline
park.
14.
For
the foodie: Cooking and baking workshops. Check out major bakeries and ‘like’
their FB pages for access to class schedules. If you are a skilled cook or
baker, you can offer to teach. Supply the ingredients and let them bring their
edible creations home.
15.
For
the athlete: Participate in a road race / marathon / fun run together. Bonus
points if it is to raise funds and awareness for a charitable cause. For
beginners, you might want to sign up for novelty runs, for example, Colour Run,
Bubble Dash, Music Run, Night Run, Glow Run or some other themed run.
16.
For
the life of the party: Organise a karaoke party or picnic in the park with
other friends. Parks you can utilise include Central Park Bandar Utama, Desa
Parkcity, Lake Gardens, and KLCC Park. Make it a potluck to share the costs and
keep things interesting.
17.
Look
up online magazines e.g. Time Out KL and SAYS.com to find out the best and
latest attractions in your city. Inexpensive local experience gifts can include
visits to theme parks, 3D movies, laser tag, escape room, board games cafes,
stand-up comedy shows, live performances, Dining In The Dark, visiting new
concept restaurants and cafes, staycations in interesting and quaint chalets
and boutique hotels and local historical walks and factory tours.
