Presents outside the box

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For those of you scratching your heads and wondering what to get this holiday season for the person who has everything, how about a $75,000 book containing the 10 best stories of your life, written and edited by professionals? Or maybe a series of singing classes for your friend who sits next to you at choir practice but can’t carry a tune?

These ‘experiential gifts’ have become popular items for boomers and others who have everything -- except perhaps singing skills. Sadly, some of the companies founded in the booming days when a $300 bungee jumping expedition seemed cheap have gone bankrupt, but still more are popping up to fill the void.

European transplant Smartbox, for instance, offers ‘leisure in a box.’ Gifters choose a region and a price range, and then give the recipient a Smartbox themed around adventures, getaways or a number of other experiences. The recipient then chooses which experience he or she wants to do, creating more choice than traditional experiential gifting companies, which asked the gifter to choose.

Giftybox does much of the same thing. The New York company offers themed gift boxes for men, women and couples. Recipients of the wine-tasting gift box, for instance, can choose to redeem their gifts at one of dozens of wineries. The crunchier recipient who receives the outdoor box can choose from more than 100 outdoor adventures.

If you want to make sure your mother-in-law uses the experiential gift you got her to ride along in a stock car, though, you can check out Cloud 9 Living, which offers 1,700 different experiences nationwide. You get to pick what experience you give.

A hint for the frugal: For many experiential gifts, it might be more cost-effective to arrange the experiences yourself. So rather than buy a surf lesson through a gifting company, call up a surf school and get a gift certificate. Or rather than get a wine tour package, see if any of the wineries offer gift packages.

It could save you some money, though it probably won’t come in the pretty boxes that most experiential gifting companies promise. Either way, it could be the most fun you’ll see in a box since you watched that skit on Saturday Night Live.

-- Alana Semuels