There’s more to today’s family reunions than getting relatives together at a local campground or hosting a holiday meal. Complex family structures, geographic separation, limited leisure time, demands of different life stages and individual financial constraints all make planning a challenge. Yet, reconnecting and making memories with family – and today that often means your network of friends as well – is an experience that most of us crave on a regular basis.
Whether you’re an empty nester who has the time to map out a get-together with far-flung kids and grandchildren or single and mapping out your next opportunity to gather with global friends, here are three ideas for creating an experience that everyone will remember:
Buying experiences, not things, is one of the very best ways to achieve happiness, researchers repeatedly tell us. For example, Cornell psychology professor Thomas Gilovich has been studying the impact of experiential versus material purchases since 2003. In a Psychological Science article, Gilovich and colleagues wrote that spending money on experiences not only “provide[s] more enduring happiness” but also creates happiness while an experience is anticipated. What better gift to family and friends than giving them the gift of happiness?