Considering giving experiences not stuff? Here’s 12 unique Kansas experiences.

If you’re not finished with your holiday shopping – or haven’t yet started – we are here to inspire you to give something that doesn’t fit in a box: Experiences.

Think gift certificates for learning a new skill, tickets for activities or a performance, time set aside to explore something new in your neighborhood or travel farther afield.

It can be as simple and open-ended as a handwritten IOU for a specific experience or as deluxe as a certificate showing completed enrollment in an upcoming activity.

Look in your community for ideas, from tickets to concerts to memberships at museums and cultural attractions to classes at studios. If you have a favorite chef in town, find out if they offer private lessons. Consider a day trip or something longer. It could be an activity intended for time spent together or something for your recipient to do on their own.

Here are some ideas for experiential gifts in a range of budgets.

Tasting experiences

Learn about the textures and cultures of cheese made from scratch through a tasting event at the Elderslie Farm creamery. Their 2020 scheduled isn’t posted yet but they plan to again offer the tasting events that regularly sold out in 2019. The cost this year was $26 for a tasting of artisanal goat and cow cheeses plus $12 for an optional wine pairing. The farm, about 15 miles north of downtown Wichita, sells gift cards online at eldersliefarm.com/gift-cards or at their farmhouse that is open for dinner by reservation year-round.

The Mid-America All-Indian Center typically offers A Taste of the Indian Center several times a year. This year the adult only evening cost $25 per person and included access to the museum exhibits, food such as Indian tacos and frybread, wine from the Cedar Band of the Paiutes and chocolate from the Chickasaw Nation.

Botanica Wichita offers a seasonal Taste This: Bee Tour & Honey Tasting at its new Alexander Bee House. The adult-geared events were $20 this year. Both museums offer gift certificates since their event schedules are not yet set.

Animal experiences

For an extra fee, you can feed and interact with the wildlife at Sedgwick County Zoo and Tanganyika Wildlife Park. They both offer a variety of options, from the zoo’s $40 penguin encounter to Tanganyika’s $50 behind-the-scenes sloth experience. Visit their websites for details.

Boot Hill Distillery tours

You can buy their spirits at stores, restaurants and bars across the state but a visit on a Friday or Saturday afternoon gives you a chance to tour Kansas’ only soil-to-sip distillery.

The one-hour walking tour shares the history and restoration of their site, a historic building that sits atop Dodge City’s former Boot Hill Cemetery, and walks you through the distilling process that starts with their three farmer-owners planting the grains used. Enjoy tastings along the way of gin, vodka, whiskeys, Prickly Ash bitters and, just released this summer, the 4-year-old distillery’s first batch of bourbon.

The final stop is the tasting room, where visitors can purchase a cocktail or try one of the Boot Hill’s experimental batches. Tours are $10 and offered at 1, 3 and 5 on Friday and Saturday afternoons. Book online at boothilldistillery.com, call 620-371-6309 or info@boothilldistillery.com.

National and state park passes

For the outdoor enthusiast, consider an annual national park pass for $80 or $20 for seniors. The America the Beautiful card admits up to four adults per vehicle (children are free) into more than 2,000 recreation areas managed by five federal agencies, such as national parks, national wildlife refuges, national forests and grasslands. Purchasing the card can save you money if you visit often enough but regardless it supports the parks and lands. You can buy the card online at store.usgs.gov/pass or in Wichita at the Great Plains Nature Center gift shop, 6232 E. 29th St. N.

Kansas Wildlife, Parks & Tourism also offers an annual park vehicle permit for $25 that gives entrance to 28 state parks. Purchase the pass at kshuntfishcamp.com.

Hire a celebrity to make a cameo appearance

Pay $100 to have Kansas City second baseman Whit Merrifield record a personal video message for your favorite Royals fan. For $25, you can get former Wichita State basketball player Rashard Kelly to wish your Shocker fan “Merry Christmas.” Quite a bargain compared to the $2,500 fee Caitlyn Jenner was fetching this week on Cameo.com.

Choose from thousands of athletes, musicians, comedians, actors and other celebrities whom you can hire to record a personalized message based on information you provide about the recipient. Search the website by category of celebrity or type in a phrase. There’s a page for personalities who are discounted 25% or 50% if purchased before Dec. 15. Celebrities set their own prices and typically have up to seven days to deliver the video, though from Dec 16-24 select talent will deliver within two days for last-minute gifts.

Chiefs, Royals or Sporting KC stadium tours

The Kansas City Chiefs offer tours of Arrowhead Stadium starting at $25 per person. See a schedule at chiefs.com/stadium/tours. The Kansas City Royals offer tours of Kauffman Stadium throughout the year starting at $17 per adult, $12 for kids as well as special game day experiences and tours. Find details at mlb.com/royals/ballpark/tours. Sporting KC gives tours of Children’s Mercy Park on non-match days. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for children and can be reserved at sportingkc.com/stadiumtours.

Outdoor skills for women

Becoming an Outdoors Woman is a weekend workshop for women ages 18 and older who want to try new activities, improve their skills or enjoy the company of like-minded women. Participants get to choose their classes, from wilderness survival to hunting and fishing skills to water activities.

It’s offered by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism twice a year at Rock Springs 4-H Center in Junction City. Spring dates are May 1-3 and the fall workshop usually happens in September. Last year registration was $250 per person, including seven meals, two nights lodging, instruction, supplies and use of equipment.

Registration for 2020 isn’t yet open but you can find out more at ksoutdoors.com/bow or by calling 785-845-5052 or emailing KansasBOW@sbcglobal.net.

Fiber arts workshops on an alpaca farm

Heartland Farm started out offering an annual workshop for guests to learn, renew or develop fiber arts skills on an alpaca farm just west of Great Bend in central Kansas. Guests asked for more, so the resident Dominican Sisters of Peace and staff have developed about a dozen workshops across a range of interests. A few examples they offered last year: home beer brewing, making homemade pasta, composting and making your own natural beauty products. There are set dates for the workshops, though many are also available on demand for couples or friends weekends, as are classes in the art studio such as weaving and pottery. The original Fiber Space workshops are still going, too: Jan. 17-18 and Feb. 7-8, $75 per person. You’ll find other things to do on the farm, which is home to alpacas, chickens and organic gardens. Affordable on-site lodging is also available. Visit heartlandfarm-ks.org or call 620-923-4585 for more information.

Space camp for all ages

If you have a child or adult on your gift list interested in space exploration, they won’t have to travel far to train like an astronaut or navigate the landscape of Mars. The Cosmosphere in Hutchinson has revamped its camp options for 2020, the 35th year of day and overnight camps at the Smithsonian-affiliated space museum.

There’s a new capsule experience, including a lander for the first time, that aligns with NASA’s current efforts. Drone and robotics assemblies and virtual reality are now incorporated, and the Cosmosphere has broadened activities within every camp for kids to cover more career choices. These multi-day experiences happen over the summer and start at $149 per person. There are also travel experiences to Texas and California for 14- to 18-year-olds.

See a full list of camps for ages 8-18 at cosmocamps.org/camps. Registration is already open for next year and discounts are available for registrations made before the end of 2019. The schedule for adult astronaut adventures are not yet available but you can email camps@cosmo.org or call 620-222-0201 for information.

Artisan classes on a goat farm

Growing food, working with animals and making things by hand are what Christy Harris likes to do on her small farm 3 miles west of downtown Atchison in northeast Kansas, where her family shares 5 acres with 16 dairy goats. And she loves teaching others what she’s learned.

Options range from a $25 goat yoga session to $75 and $150 workshops on making a variety of artisan products: Goat’s milk cheese, soaps and lotions or products using herbal extractions. She teaches two versions of the workshops: One for someone wanting to make the products on their own regularly and one for the person who wants a few hours of fun.

All classes are currently being booked on demand. Descriptions are at providencehillfarm.net. Harris said to contact her by email at providencehillfarm@sbcglobal.net or call or text 913-360-0497 for availability.

Every Saturday starting in late March when baby goats start appearing, she will offer Goat University for $150 per person. It’s a full day of fun starting with goat yoga, then making mozzarella cheese and creating your own wood-fired pizza for lunch, following by a walk in the woods with the goats and finishing with making soap.

Work in a yarn mill

From alpaca to yak, The Shepherd’s Mill in the north Kansas town of Phillipsburg produces yarns and fabrics from natural fibers. Get a look inside the operation during a two-and-a-half-day Fleece to Fabric workshop. Students spend a day in the mill working through the 14-step process to produce their own pound of yarn, then a day using that product in a project of their choosing. It’s customizable based on skill and interest, and costs $450 for up to five people, including a motel room that sleeps up to five. Participants also need to purchase supplies ranging $50-$100 per person.

The Shepherd’s Mill also offers on-demand classes covering all fiber arts and ranging from beginner to advanced starting at $25 per person. Purchase a gift card that can be used for any class or material at kansasfiber.com. More information is available at 785-543-3128 or by emailing sally@kansasfiber.com.

Explore the Flint Hills

Depending on your recipient’s interests, there are many options for gifting a Flint Hills experience from no cost to several hundreds of dollars.

You can dedicate time for a hike or a bus tour at the always free Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Strong City, about 80 miles northeast of Wichita. Check hours and events at nps.gov/tapr.

Purchase tickets to the 2020 Symphony in the Flint Hills signature event, scheduled for June 13 in Wabaunsee County. If you order the holiday package for $250 by Dec. 19, they will send two general admission tickets for the day-long activities that culminate in a Kansas City Symphony performance plus a field journal, note cards, a stone trivet and a prairie icon sticker. Order at symphonyintheflinthills.org.

Sign up for a tour of barns or arched roof cellars unique to the Flint Hills. These tours have been organized every spring and fall since 2016 by The Volland Store, an art gallery and event center in a repurposed historic general store in Alma, about 40 miles west of Topeka. This year the tours were $26.50 per person. Schedules are announced first through their email newsletter, then posted online at thevollandstore.com.

Volland’s team is off for a short winter break but typically releases an event calendar around the first of the year. You can buy electronic gift cards online that can be used for tours and other events, which last year included art exhibitions, readings, panel discussions, receptions and concerts from February through mid-December.

Cookbook author and lodging owner Kris Larkin offers participatory gourmet cooking lessons in the semi-professional display kitchen at Lark Inn on Main, one of the Cottonwood Falls properties she and her husband have renovated into a rental for Flint Hills visitors. Overnight guests can request a gourmet cooking lesson for $50 per person. Overnight stays are not required; the Larkins will host private, customizable cooking sessions for five to eight people as long as the kitchen is not rented. The fees from the cooking classes go directly to support sewing schools in Kenya. Find Larkin’s contact information at larkinnpropertymanagement.com