What do you give the person who has everything?
Give the gift that’s impossible to wrap up. Give the gift of experience.
We give gifts because we want to bring happiness to a particular person in our lives. We want to show them that we are grateful for them and value the role they play in our lives, right? As we enter into the holidays, it makes sense to pause for a moment and think about gifts and what the point of them is.
How do you wrap up happiness and gratitude? There is no material gift that can reach this human level. So why don’t we give in a way that will genuinely make the other person feel appreciated and happy?
Material gifts are short-lived; however, an experience is felt for some time after, often they become landmarks in our lives and are remembered forever. Every experience a person has is as unique as the person living it. It’s incomparable to anything else.
As Maya Angelou famously stated: “At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”
Giving the gift of experience also keeps us out of the mass consumption cycle, and it’s good for the environment, and we like that. We also like the idea of not having to dedicate an entire day to wrapping gifts.
Here are some ideas of experiences we can help you can gift this holiday season.
Pura Vida. This is a popular thing to be said in response to almost everything in Costa Rica. However, it is the essence of its meaning, Pure Life, that everyone in Costa Rica embodies. It symbolizes the idea of simply enjoying life and being happy. It’s no surprise that Costa Rica is one of the top 10 happiest places on the planet. It is also home to one of only 5 blue zones in the world (designated zones where some of the world’s longest-lived people thrive). Costa Rica is undoubtedly one of the most magical places in the entire world. It’s a natural playground for hikers, surfers, paddle boarders, animal lovers, snorkelers, divers, and anyone who feels happiest in nature. Give the gift of Pura Vida, give the gift of happiness.
Awe. Witness underwater stars. An evening paddle on Bahía Culebra in Peninsula Papagayo can take your breath away, especially during one of the seasonal upwellings in the Golfo de Papagayo. This is when plankton blooms occur, and nature’s most delicate creatures—millions of them—drift with the current just beneath the surface. Imagine yourself a shooting star as you soar through the warm ocean waters amongst bioluminescence. At night these micro-organisms which populate the waters glow when activated by motion, like fireflies or stars, only underwater. Glowing as though flying through the night sky and in this experience be reminded that life on earth is much more than the everyday, more than we can see with our eyes.
Adventure. Send the kids to Camp Jaguar. Send the kids to camp in Costa Rica! Bring the whole family and gift the kids a week at Camp Jaguar. Tailored to 12- to 16-year-olds in search of adventure, self-discovery, self-confidence, new friends and a deep connection to our world and its denizens. Give your kids the freedom to discover and listen to them tell their exciting stories at the end of the day. Also, it helps eliminate the influx of “stuff” into our homes. Just 3 percent of the world’s children live in the United States, but they consume 40 percent of the worlds toys and play with only 5% of the ones they own.
Here’s to a holiday of giving, rather than taking. Of kindness and consideration. A season that brings joy and abundance to all.
Let us help you give the experience of happiness and joy.