If you’ve still got to buy Christmas gifts for children in your family, but have no idea what to get, why not try something different this year?

Instead of giving them tangible gifts, consider giving them an experience instead.

One advantage to giving experiences is that you can make it fit most any budget. Many of the experiences listed below cost around $10 per person or cheaper. Some are even free, like the St. Louis Zoo.

Another great thing about giving someone an experience is the recipient eagerly looks forward to the event until it happens. When the event finally rolls around, he enjoys it, and then he gets to enjoy the memory forever.

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Even though the actual experience might last for only a single day, the enjoyment of the event can last for months, if not years.

The opposite often happens with a tangible gift, such as a toy. Many times, a child opens his present, plays with the toy for a couple weeks, then moves on to other things and forgets about it forever.

If you want to give an experience for a gift and stay in the Springfield area, you have many options.

Have a child who loves animals? Take him to Springfield’s Henson Robinson Zoo.

Do your children love movies? Give them a coupon book good for a certain number of trips to the movie theater, complete with a bucket of popcorn. Or for a different kind of theater experience, take them to the Route 66 Drive-In Theater just off of Recreation Drive.

And what child doesn’t love swimming, water slides, miniature golf and go-carts? Knight's Action Park has all these activities and more. Give your children a couple passes to Knight's Action Park.

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These last two will require some waiting, of course. The drive-in theater won’t open until April, while Knight's Action Park’s peak season is the summer. But that’s OK. It will give your children something to look forward to.

If your children enjoy sports and being active take them bowling, ice skating, roller skating, or take them to Sky Zone. Or offer to pay for lessons in their favorite sport.

If they love music, take them to a local concert or the Muni to watch a musical.

You could also take them to one of the many museums in the area, like the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, Illinois State Museum, or Kidzeum.

Springfield offers a lot of things to do, but sometimes it’s fun to get away. Be sure to check out what St. Louis, Chicago, and Indianapolis have to offer. You’ll find no shortage of concerts, sporting events, museums, festivals, conferences and activities to enjoy if you don’t mind the drive.

Or don’t drive. Give your children a bonus experience and ride the train to your destination.

Still need to shop for adults? Experiences work for them, too.

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Several years ago when the musical "Hamilton" was all the rage, my wife started listening to the soundtrack. She raved about it and said we should try to go see it in Chicago.

I looked into it and told her that the tickets were a little too expensive. For us to afford them, we’d have to sell her car and our cat.

I think she would’ve been OK selling her car, but not the cat. (You know how cat-people are.)

In the end, I ended up buying tickets for us for Christmas. We decided to make a weekend of it. We went to another concert the night before, ate at some really good restaurants, and just explored Chicago for a couple days.

Somehow, we were able to afford all that without selling her car or our cat. And we had a blast.

Did I spend more money on tickets for one show than I ever thought I would? Absolutely.

But had I given her some perfume, jewelry, books, or an electronic gadget for Christmas instead, probably neither one of us would remember those gifts today. But "Hamilton" and our weekend in Chicago? We will never forget it.

So this holiday season, consider giving your loved ones an experience instead of a tangible gift. Children in particular will love it because you can share the experience together, and then you’ll both have the memory to enjoy forever.

Just don’t sell any pets to make it happen.

Dave Kinzer is a music teacher and a financial coach in Springfield. Contact him at www.davekinzer.com. His column will appear here every other Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: This Christmas, tryin giving some experiences rather than gifts