A Crunched Christmas Gift Ideas: Create Your Own Experience

Companies like Red Letter Days and Virgin's Experience Days have become increasingly popular as gifts. If you're unfamiliar, these companies basically offer experiences – such as driving a rally car or a wine tasting afternoon – all wrapped into one neat, gift-sized bundle. They're something different from the usual Christmas fare of chocolates, perfume and socks and it's easy to see why these gift experiences are doing so well – but you'll pay for them. The ease of booking, with the entire day sorted out for you, comes at a huge premium – but if you're willing to put the day together yourself, you could save a packet.

One of the most popular gift experiences is sky-diving but it comes with a huge price tag. 'Experience Mad' price one tandom jump at £264 and they're among the cheapest. If you know someone who wants to skydive, instead of paying this ludicrous price you could instead enter them as a charity skydiver. To make it a gift, raise all the sponsorship yourself – you could perhaps talk to the recipient's family and friends and you could all club together. The bonus here is that, rather than all getting together to pay an arrangement fee to a company, you'll be helping charity.

Most skydiving centres offer huge discounts to those jumping on behalf of charity. For example, Target SkySports say that 50% of donations raised can be used to cover the cost of the jump. With a tandem jump costing £230, that means the cost of the jump will be £115 – a saving of £149 on the Experience Mad price. You'll still need to raise the rest – and hopefully more – through donations, but you will nevertheless be able to give a skydiving gift for only £115.

Even if you can't replicate an offer yourself, there's still savings to be had. Experience day companies are no different from any other type of company: prices vary. So shop around. I looked into the different prices available for a wine tasting experience, in London, for two:

Find Me A Gift: £80.10 (sale price)
Buy A Gift: £53.83
Experience Mad: £38
Red Letter Days: £73

These are just a few of the frankly ridiculous variants on offer, even though in every case I searched for a wine tasting for two people in London. While researching this, I found some companies offering the exact same session at the exact same vineyard but for totally different prices, one being £30 more expensive than the other!

What these experience companies can't do, however, is tailor something specifically to a particular person – but you can. Think of something a loved one has always wanted to do and hit the internet. Use discounts, promotions and advance booking wherever possible. Print off the confirmations and present in a nice envelope as a Christmas gift. It's cheaper than an experience company and you can get it exactly right for a person's personal interests.

Useful Links:

Red Letter Days: www.redletterdays.co.uk
Virgin Experience: www.virginexperience.co.uk
Experience Mad: www.experiencemad.co.uk
Target SkySports: www.skydiving.co.uk
Find Me A Gift: www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk
Buy A Gift: www.buyagift.co.uk