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How to Give the Perfect Gift to the Man in Your Life
If you are anything like me than shopping for your husband, father, brother, son, or some other man in your life is one of the most difficult holiday tasks to accomplish. After almost forty years, it hasn’t gotten any easier. Why is it so hard to shop for the men we love? I have no idea. What I do know is that buying him the latest set of tools to fix up the house or just grabbing another tie or pair of socks because you have no idea what to get him just doesn’t cut it. Sure he’ll say “thanks,” but there just won’t be that look of joy in his face that one hopes to get from giving gifts during the holidays!
One way to think about shopping for men is to equate it to a treasure hunt. Half the fun of giving a gift during the holidays is finding that perfect item that brings a look of glee to the receiver’s face. In order to find that, you may have to dig deep into the personality of your man to figure out what that special item is. While television ads would have us believe that all men want is some electronic gadget or new power tool, many of us have learned first hand the hard way how this is simply not true.
Besides, most women know that if it was something he thought he needed, he would have already bought it for himself! Your task, then, is to find the gift that he wouldn’t give himself. This might involve a lot more detective work on your part if the man you have in mind doesn’t reveal a lot of personal details about himself or what makes him happy.
Let’s say for example that your husband loves fishing and goes out several times a year. He owns his own boat and all the gear that he needs, but fishing is his one greatest passion. You know that everything he needs for fishing he pretty much has already, and besides you may not even know the first thing about fishing yourself. If your man is this kind of outdoor-loving fisherman, its time to get creative. Say you live in Texas and know that he goes out to the lakes for some bass fishing, maybe trolls for catfish on the weekends, and for something exotic he takes you and the kids down to Corpus Christi for some sea fishing. Still I will bet there are plenty of areas your husband has never fished and has always wanted to. Maybe he’s secretly desired to head up to Washington or Oregon for the spring salmon runs. Perhaps he’s always wanted to try his hand a hooking a swordfish. Or maybe his dream is to spend some time away in the wilderness at some Alaskan fishing lodges enjoying time removed from the cities and getting back to nature. His perfect gift may be a trip to one of these places with you (or one of his buddies if you really can’t stand the outdoors!) I’ll bet his face lights up brighter than Time Square when he opens your thoughtful gift this year!
Next we have the couch potato man. His idea of hell on earth would be to have to fish or hunt for his own food. He considers pizza and beer to be primary food groups and his favorite past-time is hanging out with his friends playing cards, shooting the breeze, or watching college football any day of the week. You can try getting him gear from his favorite team, but my guess is he already owns enough to start his own franchise. Does he ever step foot into the garage? My guess is not unless he’s dragged kicking and screaming unless its to prepare for this week’s barbeque. If you really want to get his attention, show him that you understand him. My sister’s husband would definitely fall into this category. To truly turn his head, we built him his own playground right in their unused garage for the last holiday season. From the ground up we installed a Hawaiian-style bar with modern barstools, installed a tap, and of course stocked plenty of supplies for mojitos and cosmos for the lady friends. In the other corner we installed a plasma screen tv for watching the games and a card table for other types of fun. Its been almost a year and he still hasn’t stopped telling everyone what an awesome wife he has – not to mention that its fun now to be around him while he’s enjoying the things he loves!
And what about that gay man in your life? You know, the one who knows the difference between cologne and perfume and who loves to deck himself out in cubic zirconia jewelry? Ladies, Mr. Gay USA doesn’t have to be such a challenge to shop for, but you have to know a little bit more about what makes him happy. Does he like art shows and wine tastings? Is he into drag and cross-dressing? Let’s say for the sake of argument that he’s always had a passion for food – gourmet food perfectly paired with a complementary wine is bliss to him. If he cooks himself you may want to consider gifting him with some classes at the local culinary arts school. I would work with the school to have something open-ended so that he can choose to take classes in the types of cuisine he most likes or wants to knowmore about. If this man is your partner, you may even consider taking him on a culinary tour through wine country – Sonoma is a nice area to spend a week driving around sampling the pleasures of the valley and getting closer at the same time.
Shopping for the perfect holiday gift for that special man in your life doesn’t need to be as hard as we make it out to be. It will however take some detective work on your part to get to know what really drives the man you are shopping for. If you really want to show him how much you care and have the pleasure of giving that perfect gift this holiday season, find something that connects at a base level to who he is or who he wants to be. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by his reaction!
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