Throughout the holiday season, many of us have gift giving on our minds. High on the list to give and receive every year are experience gifts. A toy has high excitement value, but it’s a gift of an experience that is the greatest memory maker. It’s also a great opportunity to get the family out of the house and into our local Twin Cities communities to learn and play with our neighbors. We gathered a HUGE list of opportunities in the Twin Cities to give the gift of an experience for kids of all ages and interests this season.
Museums
Museum memberships are a gift children or the whole family can use over and over again. Here are some of our local favorites:
Minnesota Historical Society | Various Locations
Membership into 26 different Historical Sites around Minnesota including Mill City Museum, Minnesota History Center, and Fort Snelling, just to name a few.
Minnesota Zoo | Apple Valley
This zoo needs no introduction. Fun year-round for all ages.
Minnesota Children’s Museum | St. Paul
A place to learn and play, perfect for the younger crowd. Save $25 on a gift membership or $3 off gift tickets when you use code FACEBOOK25. Visit their Facebook page for more details.
Science Museum of Minnesota | St. Paul
You will never be bored at this multi-level museum all about science and technology. Great for all ages, including tweens.
Baaken Museum | Minneapolis
A museum geared towards all things STEM in a beautiful old mansion.
Sporting Events
Don’t forget about the sports fans on your list! There is a sporting event for any kind of fan here in the Twin Cities and game tickets make the perfect gift.
Theater Tickets
The thrill of a stage performance is a magical gift to receive under the tree. So many of our local theaters offer wonderful programs sure to delight the whole family. Many of these local theaters also offer theater classes to your future thespian, which would make a great gift as well.
Children’s Theater | Minneapolis
Circus Juventas | St. Paul
Hennepin Theater Trust | Minneapolis
Stages Theater | Hopkins
Stepping Stone Theater | St. Paul
Active Adventure
Keep that active kid in your life busy all winter with a pass to keep them moving so they aren’t climbing your walls–just other people’s walls.
Vertical Endeavors | Various Locations
Minneapolis Bouldering Project | Minneapolis
Obstacle Academy | Eden Prairie
Edinburgh Indoor Park | Edina
Sky Zone | Edina
Zero Gravity Action Park | Mounds View
Artist Date
Inspire creativity at these locations for the artists in your life.
The Art Academy | St Paul
Art classes taught with an apprentice approach for the serious artist, each class building new skills.
Articulture | Minneapolis
Fun workshops on themes during school breaks.
ARTrageous Adventures | St Louis Park
Not only does this studio offer amazing art kits for gifting, they also give fun hands-on creative classes and camps for all ages.
ArtStart | St. Paul
ArtStart is an amazing place to find art scraps as well as a place to donate your unused art scraps. You and your kids would have a blast checking out their selection of merchandise. They also offer great classes for kids, and kits to take home and enjoy.
The Blue Fox | Minneapolis
Painting classes that focus on art therapy.
Cheers Pablo | Various Locations
Cheers Pablo hosts a variety of painting classes for all ages and experience levels. This would be a fun one to do as a date night with an older child, or with friends.
Kid Create Studio | Eden Prairie & Woodbury
Workshops, camps, classes, kits, and more centering on all things artistic for kids.
Park District Classes | Various Locations
Many local park district programs offer excellent opportunities to take hands on learning art classes, camps, and more at an affordable rate. See your local park district to learn more and to ask about gift cards.
The Workshop | Minneapolis
Pottery classes for kids or the whole family.
Future Engineers
Your budding engineer will love to check out these great STEM based experiences.
Leonardo’s Basement | Minneapolis
If you’re kid can’t sit still but you want them to be creative, this is the perfect place for them. Leonardo’s Basement provides inventive workshop classes to help kids “apply the powers of imagination, curiosity, problem solving, and risk-taking to create engineering, art, and technology projects.”
The Works Museum | Bloomington
A hands-on engineering and design museum for kids and their grown-ups, this is a great place to tinker and play with real tools.
Music Making
There are so many wonderful communities to learn and play with music in the Twin Cities for musicians of all ages.
Macphail Center for Music | Various Locations
This school offers Sing, Play, Learn classes for preschool children and their adult in addition to learning classes for older children.
Sarah Jane’s Music School | Minneapolis
Sing Play Move and Family Rock classes for babies through pre-K as well as classes for older kids and adults.
Songs with Sarah | Minneapolis
A locally-owned, research-based music school in South Minneapolis specializing in parent/child classes.
Wee Bop | Various Locations
Locally owned and developed music classes for young children taught by certified music educators.
Briana Lyn Studios | Various Locations
Briana Lyn Studios is a traveling music studio that brings personalized, music lessons into the comfort of your own home.
Brighter Minds | Various Locations
Brighter Minds offers music classes for babies through adults.
Kindermusik | Various Locations
Kindermusik is a national early-childhood music program with Twin Cities locations.
Music Together Classes | Various Locations
An international music program with several local franchises, the curriculum is research-based for early childhood with play-centered classes that incorporate parents into the fun as well as teaches parents how to bring music home.
School of Rock | Various Locations
The school offers special music programs for kids from preschool to grade schools.
Sprouting Melodies Early Childhood Music Classes | Various Locations
Classes for babies, toddlers, and preschool-age children focusing on parent and child bonding, having fun, and earning to use music to calm, stimulate, and engage.
