A Giftventure is a personalized treasure hunt service where all of the materials are custom made and delivered to you! You simply choose an adventure, a character, and a hiding place for a gift that you provide. Enter the location where you have the hidden gift, some of the child’s personal interests, (such as a favorite game, or a local landmark), and you’re all set! Using the information you provide, they create and mail a series of letters and puzzles addressed to the child who must solve the puzzles and follow the clues in the letters to discover the location of your hidden gift.
Trust me when I tell you that Giftventure is as cool as it sounds, if not cooler.
There are currently seven adventures to choose from with more coming soon, and there are seven characters that guide your child along their giftventure.
Giftventure has been undergoing some changes in the past months. Now customers can purchase general Giftventures without having to personalize them first. This means you can purchase, as an example, 3 giftventures. After purchase, you get a confirmation email with an individual ID code for each of the 3 giftventures. You can choose to personalize one right then, keep one saved on your member account to use for another occasion later in the year, send the ID code to a friend or family member for them to redeem on the site and personalize their own giftventure (just like a gift card) or any combination of the three.
Three families including my own were the first crazy Canucks to try Giftventure. They’ve just launched their company in to Canada and I know that if we spread the word it’s going to be huge here. (Canadians have good taste, after all.)
I used my Giftventure for my 9 year old niece. She is all about adventure and imagination and still firmly believes in all of the mythical people and creatures that children should. She was so pumped when she received the first letter that she drove me crazy until the next one finally arrived. The entire experience was wonderful and I know she’ll never forget it!
Read on to see what TOP writers Andrea and Raechelle thought of their own Giftventures:
A child’s imagination is something pretty spectacular. Just last night my kiddos were talking about zombies as if they were actual and factual, it was quite cute. Sometimes I find it difficult to feed their creativity to the length that they desire, but when we started The Treasure Map Adventure from Giftventure I could tell that they would be at their imaginative peak for the next few days.
The ordering online was very easy, just pick a character, fill out a bit of information like the children’s names (you can name up to three), a location by your house, and something that your children enjoy doing. This allows Giftventure to totally personalize your treasure hunt! I was able to order in less than five minutes and the checkout process was super easy. It arrived in the mail about a week later.
Upon opening the package I could see that this would be something the children would enjoy. It contained three envelopes that looked like they were sent directly from “Gunther the Dragon” (the character I chose), and inside them were a story and directions on how to find the hidden present! I had purchased a small gift to use at the end of the hunt. The treasure hunt lasted over the time span of about a week, where Gunther would drop off a letter with a few more instructions each time.
My two older children, ages 5 and 7, took part in the hunt. They’re still at the age where they actually believe dragons exist and that there’s a magical place called Cloudstead up in the clouds. For that week of fun my children went to bed speaking of Gunther and the hunt, and they would wake up looking for letters from this magical dragon. It was great seeing them so excited for something that I really didn’t even have to put any effort in to. All I had to do was buy a small gift, than play along, and giftventure took care of the rest. And now we have to figure out what to do with all of the letters that the kiddos have written to Gunther! And I think I may have to order more adventures for their birthdays (and Christmas, and Easter, and maybe Halloween too)! - Andrea
When Dad leaves for business trips it is always tough on my kids. My preschooler pines for her Dad, and the special time they spend together. This time I wanted something special to distract her while he was away so we had a Giftventure delivered.
We began the adventure on the first day her Dad was gone. We went to check the mail to discover a special letter for her. Being an avid fan of mail, she was extremely excited to open it up and start her Giftventure. (You can have them all delivered to the parents in one package or have them individually delivered to the children. If you’d like to have the control, you can just stick them in your own mailbox for the kids on certain days!)
I had hidden a special gift in our hall closet and on the following days she received more clues in the mail to guide her way. She absolutely adored that a fairy was taking her on this Giftventure. The map was AWESOME and we are now drawing treasure maps on a daily basis.
Before we knew it, Daddy was home and she shared her amazing story of her Giftventure with him. I would not hesitate to have more Giftventures in the future - especially now with the great service and very reasonable shipping rates to Canada. -Raechelle
Save 10% on your Giftventure with the code TOP10CAN.
This code is the newest addition to the TOP Shops - the most fabulous collection of online shopping discounts anywhere on the web!
Win it! We’re giving away a Giftventure to one lucky T.O.P. reader. To enter, leave a comment on this post by noon MST on May 29/08. (Yes, any comment - even the lazy ones will get through this time!) ONE ADDITIONAL WINNER will be drawn from those that blog about this contest and get the word out about Giftventure!
Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.
CONTEST CLOSED - Congrats Wendy and Angela!