Going away on vacation is a perfect opportunity to immerse oneself in local cultures and traditions and experiment with native cuisine. Traveling on holiday is also a great time to pick up unique, one-of-a-kind products from local merchants and craftspeople, to visit charming back-alley boutiques, and to buy goods indigenous to the area in which are your visiting. Sadly, many of us have only so much disposable income to pump into those local economies.
Luckily, you can parlay your child's (and your own) appetite for strolling the shops and marketplaces of your destination(s) into thoughtful holiday and/or birthday gifts for friends and family. What a perfect excuse to keep shopping and spending money!
And, if you budget separately for holiday/birthday gifts and vacations, as OWTK does, you get to pay off some of those credit card bills with money from a different jar!
My nephew's 5th birthday party is scheduled for the Sunday after our return to the States. We will be shopping for his gift while in France (I already have something perfect in mind, but cannot disclose for fear his father may be reading this!). We also plan on looking for cool holiday gifts while overseas (something we tend to do on all our trips - there is just something neat about giving a present that has no chance of being a duplicate, like the engraved mini-baseball bats we purchased while in Cooperstown, NY).
The only thing to consider, aside from blowing your budget(s), is luggage space. If you are packed to the gills on the way, you will probably have a difficult time squeezing in your newly acquired goodies! It is for this reason that we plan on traveling with an extra bag and packing both a little lighter than usual. Another option is shipping packages back home to yourself. Unfortunately for us, the cost of international shipping is too great to justify that convienence.
The idea behind this tip is to share your travel experiences with those you love. Encourage your children to think of (and buy for) others while on their own vacation. Long-term, the hope is that engaging in such thoughtful activities will help in some small way to create a few more selfless, kind, and considerate individuals in the world.
With any luck, OWTK will to unearth a variety of offbeat treasures and bring them back as holiday gifts for the folks we know and love. And hopefully, the next time you are out with your kids you will decide to pick up a trinket or two for the family, friends, teachers, or neighbors that you left back home.
Jeff Bogle
Out With The Kids
http://www.outwiththekids.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment