AS A PARENT, the holidays bring many things. Joy, for one. It’s delightful to watch children experience it all: the lights, the decorations, the music, and the family traditions. Stress, too. Making all that magic appear for the little ones, seemingly out of the ether, takes energy for us bigger people. (Yes, seeing their faces light up makes it all worthwhile.)

Another thing the holidays have the tendency to bring is more stuff. In my family, where we celebrate both Christmas and Chanukah, the holidays unleash a particular torrent of material objects right into my home. And I’m not the only one who can find it a bit overwhelming. One Christmas morning when my eldest was still very small, I watched as his face changed in the midst of unwrapping presents. There were a lot of them — too many, it turns out. The sheer quantity turned an exciting process into a chore he was just trying to get through.

It’s a moment that my husband and I return to when we feel inclined to buy just one more gift. (Okay, so it’s really a moment I bring up. I have never met anyone more entranced by the magic of Christmas than my Jewish husband, and he often has to be gently reminded that more doesn’t always equal better.)

There’s plenty of research to remind us that accumulating stuff doesn’t actually make us happy. Experiences, on the other hand, are where it’s at. Just thinking about how much we will enjoy something, or how much we have enjoyed it, provides true, lasting happiness. Even a bad experience can leave us with a good story to tell.

Children love — love — getting mail. It’s an experience of anticipation. And who wouldn’t love getting mail when the contents are only positive? Even my smallest asks if there is anything for her when the mail arrives. She is four, so the answer is generally no, but she still looks hopefully toward every catalog that arrives, remembering the one that was sent to us from Amazon in triplicate, filled with pages and pages of toys. She sat for hours, circling the things she wanted (every single item in the catalog), a fun experience unto itself even if I didn’t fulfill any of her wishes.

So if you are looking for gifts for the littler ones in your life that will bring them (and their grownups) happiness, the clinically proven kind, read on. And as a bonus for the procrastinators among us, it is worth noting that subscriptions make great last-minute gifts. I say that with authority because guess whose kids are getting subscriptions this year because their mom dragged her feet? (But don't worry, their dad has the extra presents covered.)