I have to admit...I'm not a fan. Men are so difficult to buy for. I've talked about it before on here, but it needs to be said again because I'm in "man buying" season. No, I'm not buy me a man, but a lot of important men in my life have special occasions in fall. November brings my Dad's birthday and then my oldest nephew's birthday. Then there's Christmas, which means I need to decide what to get my Dad, my brother, my oldest nephew, my youngest nephew, my Grandpa, and more importantly, T. Add our wedding anniversary in there, and you have a ton of men to buy stuff for, and man, that's a lot of pressure!
I keep asking my Dad "what do you want for your birthday" and I get the same response. "Nothing." Really? Nothing? You want me to give you, the man who gave me life, e man who took care of me when I was sick, the man who changed my oil in my car until I got married, the man who answered my math questions as a young child, the girl you just shelled out a great deal of money for a big wedding? Nothing? Sorry, pops, not gonna happen. I'm afraid I can't do my standard Dad gift because I think I did it for his birthday last year and Father's Day this year. What's that standard gift? The gift that keeps on giving, ladies...beer and coffee. I could do a new shirt for him because God knows he needs one of those. Buying a CD is next to impossible because I never know what he doesn't have or what he likes. He doesn't read books, and he doesn't watch movies. He jokingly said he wanted world peace, so T suggested I get him a piece of paper that says "world peace" on it. I still might do that. Who am I kidding? I'll probably just get him a shirt....
I could do what I plan on doing for my oldest nephew who will be turning 14 this year...give him money, but something makes me thing he won't accept money from me. I could be mean and pull the old man card and give him a gift card to MCL or something, but....that might just be a waste of money. So see my dilemma here? And I have until this weekend to find a solution. Augh what to do????
I'm afraid that as soon as I come up with a decent present it will just delay the inevitable breakdown I will have over what to get all of the men in my life come Christmas. Maybe I'll just give them all coffee and beer...That might come with a frown of disapproval from the mother of the two minors in the bunch. Plus, I am a child protective services attorney....
Augh! Why are men so hard to buy presents for every year? Any ideas? I'm desperate for suggestions!
With MB, we don't do "gifts" anymore. We both have the stuff we want, so we give "experiences". Tickets to games/shows/events or gift cards for scuba diving, golfing, etc. Or sometimes I'll pull a theme like "date night" and do a gift card to his favorite restaurant, movies, popcorn and guinness.
ReplyDeleteWith my family, we all vacationed together in Colorado in the summer, so gifts rotated around that. Fly-fishing gift card, spas, etc for the area that we always went.
For MB's family, we are giving Savannah themed gifts to entice them to come visit again! (We are also throughing in gift cards for an airline) But we picked out a few of our favorite things in/around Savannah and packaging it in personalized bags.
For my godsons, iTunes/Apple gift cards are the most requested. I do tend to throw tickets to events in their for them a lot.
So, hope that helps!
Why don't you bake a cake? Or cookies?
ReplyDeleteOr maybe you plan a trip to a national park?
That's what I do for my birthday! haha And I enjoy it a lot!
Try uncommon goods..excatly what it says! Very unique gitfts!
ReplyDeleteI also like month clubs...like your dad likes beer so beer of the month club and every month he gets a new shipment of unique beers. You can choose3, 6, 9 or 12 months of giving. I did the salsa of the month for my dad and he LOVED it!!
For T for Christmas try lovebookonline.com it's only $25 and very unique! I am in the process of making Karl's for Christmas.
Good luck...keep us posted on what you decide!
We're also big on experience gifts in our family. Maybe a father/daughter day?
ReplyDeleteI'd also suggest donating to a charity you think he would support or be into. That's always a big hit for the men in my life who also say they want nothing (because they have everything!)
And my final suggestion would be a sport related theme. Last year we got my father-in-law new shirts from all the colleges we had gone to. He obviously had some old ones, but now that his kids have been out of school for many years, they had gotten old, so new ones were appropriate.
Good luck!
UGH - I completely agree. I suck at buying gifts for guys. And while there are certainly stereotypical options (i.e. sports stuff, car stuff, video game stuff) each one is just as likely to not be appreciated, as like girls, guys are actually all different. But unlike girls, there's no lotion option.
ReplyDeleteOk, when I was stuck for a gift for my hubby, I ended up buying him a big comfy hoody and then put his nick name on it. No, it wasn't my nick name for him, but what the guys call him at work! He loved it!(this was not a nick name he loathed either).
ReplyDeleteHe also gets a new pair of "grandpa" slippers every year.
But you could try one of those build your own model car things if the men in your life are into that?!
Hope those ideas help!
CBG
I have the same problem! It's so hard to pick out gifts for men... and Christmas is right around the corner.
ReplyDeleteFather's Day is a hard one too, because my dads birthday usually falls on fathers day, and so I have to try and think of two gifts!
If the men in your family are like the men in mine (where they love little gadgets and things) then I would suggest looking at these stores -I've found a lot of good stuff here! Or you could search for these types of things on Amazon too.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/all/
http://www.uncommongoods.com/