How can we know someone so well and yet be completely clueless about what to buy them for their birthday? Perhaps we run through our best birthday gift ideas after the first 10 birthday parties. While psychologists and social anthropologists have concluded that birthday gifting does take an important role in the establishment and nurturing of family bonds, they also reassure us that we put too much pressure on ourselves in pursuit of the perfect present. Why do we do that?
Researchers tell us to RELAX. The best birthday gift ideas help recipients feel pampered or known. Make getting birthday gifts for family members easier by letting the suggestions below juice your own creativity.
Birthday Gifts for Mom
Moms, accustomed to self-sacrifice, tend to say they don’t need or want anything. They want you to spend your money on warm sweaters, healthy food or the social activities that will get you married off. Their generosity doesn’t help the giver very much! Don’t let mom take away your opportunity to give back. Showing gratitude for all our mothers have done makes us happy, too, after all.
If mom really is the type to just go out and get herself the things she needs, birthday flowers are a great option. A gorgeous bouquet containing one of her favorite flowers spoils her, and moms rarely get spoiled. Money spent on such a luxury helps you convey the importance she has in your life. A message about the relationship you have with her is the greatest gift mom can get.
Spoil moms who are watching their weight (and what mom isn’t?) with a fruit of the month club gift. The challenges of dieting can be eased when healthy foods come in the form and variety a monthly fruit gift basket provides. To ensure maximum flavor, fruit of the month clubs choose fruit for each month by peak harvest time. In December and January, oranges and mandarins arrive carefully wrapped. By February, pears have reached full flavor, and of course spring time produces the sweetest, ripest strawberries. With food this delicious, dieting is a pleasure!
Birthday Gifts for Dad
If you have no idea what dad needs, chances are dad doesn’t either. Birthday gifts for dad can confound even more than those for mothers. Dads, fathers in law, stepdads and grandpas often get by with little. If they do need something, chances are they’ll jerry-rig it from materials left over in the basement or garage.
The big gifting secret is that dads, too, like a little pampering from time to time. Because they get into food and television ruts, giving them a food gift basket energizes their snack routine. Dads love grazing, and a food gift basket like ProFlowers’ Snack Attack that offers several, unique products is just the boredom cure the snack doctor ordered.
If a food gift basket doesn’t suit, consider creating a theme gift for dad so that it becomes a tradition that you get him a different member of a certain item each year. This way, you don’t have to come up with new birthday gift ideas annually, and dad starts to look forward to what version of your gift subject you’ll come up with this year. Great gifts that can go the distance year after year include: books, plants, tools, classic map prints, photography gear and, of course, gadgets.
Birthday gifts for brother
Where we stay in close touch with mothers and fathers, keeping up on their activities and interests, siblings have a way of drifting apart. When you’re at a loss as to the details of your brother’s life and what he needs, trust gourmet gifts to send a birthday message that’s happily received. Whether he’s outdoorsy, intellectual, athletic, artsy or altruistic, every brother loves delicious gourmet foods.
While many think of gourmet gifts as premium chocolates and cheeses, baskets also arrive filled with premium hard-to-find coffees, organic fruit and dried fruit. The brother with a sweet-tooth will relish a fancy gift of chocolate strawberries, chocolate covered apples, cake and brownie pops, all of which are hand decorated into lovely or charming figures. Finally, to join the birthday celebration when you can’t be there, send along a gourmet birthday cake to convey your wishes for a happy event.
For the brother who is more of a drinker than an eater, considering hopping on the premium craft beer band wagon. In the last ten years, the number of independent, high-end breweries has exploded. Many of them make beers far better than the huge national brands. A quick internet search for top beers of 2011 can get you started in the right direction.
Birthday Gifts for Sister
If you’ve already gotten her all the earrings and candles she can handle, it’s time to switch gears. The premium treats she may not have run across yet are cake pops. Chances are, she’s not expecting these from you and they’ll make a delightful surprise. The fun part about cake pops is that they come in all kinds of adorable forms including pirates, zoo animals, soccer and baseballs and more. Handmade with fine icings, cake pops scratch sisters’ itch for cuuuuuuuute!
For sisters without sweet teeth (are there such sisters?), consider putting together a small photo album or even a digital collage or slideshow of family photos. When you left home, you probably scored some of the family pictures and she got others. Making copies of or scanning your half and organizing them with positive captions into an album amounts to a gift that she’ll return to again and again.
Make Giving Gifts Easy
When did gifting get so hard? Researchers tell us the difficulty lies in the fact that, typically, the giver reviews several potential birthday gift ideas and agonizes over the final selection, well aware of the alternatives given up. The recipient, on the other hand, has absolutely nothing to compare the final gift to. They have no idea you were comparing jewelry and candle birthday gifts to that flower bouquet or premium fruit basket. They’re just happy you took the time to acknowledge their importance in your life.