Editor note: This post was written by Andrea V. Della Ricca (twitter), which happens to be my girlfriend.
Every year, when Christmas is close, we all have one big question in mind: what should I buy? Personally I have few friends but sometimes I had the same problem, especially when they are long term friendships and in the previous years you spent all your ideas.
In 10 years I gave my best friend almost everything that came to my mind that could please her, but since last Christmas I have difficulty to choose. In order to solve this problem quickly I thought the better solution was to discover if she needed something, even stupid things.
For example, my best friend likes makeup and has two favorite makeup brands that, luckily have a store here in Madrid. Instead of buying her something she only liked, an eyeshadow or eyeliner, I thought the better solution was to buy her a product she almost finished and that she couldn’t buy again since in Italy it’s impossible to find.
In my case her favorite brands are a little expensive but Christmas comes only once a year and I was able to save some money for the presents.
In this example, the important concept is that is not necessary to try hard buying something expensive or surprising, many people prefers something that’s useful.
Here I want to share with you a basic list on how to choose the right gift:
- Find the passion. A basic solution is to find out what the real passions of the person you want to buy a gift are. It can be something crazy like a journey, sure, but people often like stupid things that are cheap and, buying them, you show the other person that you know him.
- Books. If you want to give books as presents, be careful: every person has a favorite genre and often we are not able to choose the right one since we think as we are buying the book for ourselves. If your friend is a bookworm, try to discover if he wants a particular book or if he has some missing parts of a series; in you don’t check, you risk to buy a book he/she already has (not a big deal, but buying something the person doesn’t have is better).
- Food. I never tried giving gastronomy gifts because we could buy something that he/she doesn’t like or cannot eat (for example, if you don’t know this person very well you could end up giving him meat when he’s vegan). If you want to give something regarding food as a gift, do it with a person you know well so you can choose the right products that will impress them. Usually sweets and chocolate are always appreciated.
- Games. Having a boyfriend who loves programming and everything where a computer’s involved can sometimes be a pain in the ass. His first Christmas gift was a pc game about Sudoku and, although I like the japanese game very much, I admit that I would’ve appreciated more a stuffed animal or even a romantic dinner. I too gave my best friend a couple of games as a present, but I was careful to choose a series she adored to avoid buying something useless.
- Jewels. Since I met my boyfriend I gave him jewelry, sometimes not really thinking if he would like it. If a guy has this problem, the girl is even more complicated: gold or not, silver, platinum etc. and even white, red or traditional gold…If you are not really sure on what to buy (your girlfriend or someone else showed you a preference for something) avoid jewelry and think of something simpler because if you buy the wrong thing you could spend a lot of money for nothing.
- Clothes. Buying clothes is usually an easy thing if you previously checked the person’s size. Personally, I force my mother/friend to go shopping with me and, while I make them believe I’m looking for clothes myself, I listen to all the things she/he likes or not; the next day, I go back to the store and buy the things she/he appreciated and that I think suites the person most.
- Holiday. Nothing better than spending a romantic or fun weekend with the people you love. Try to find a city or country that all people likes because sometimes they can have different interests like museums, pubs, discos etc. You don’t have to choose a high adrenalin holiday only because they like it, but try to satisfy them with little things (in Madrid there are romantic spots, artificial skiing center and the chance to do bungee jumping).
- Makeup. When I decided to buy makeup products for my friend it was easy because I perfectly knew which brand she loved. Normally choosing makeup and brand is not very easy and can be risky: most people have no problems if you give them relatively cheap products but someone can be allergic. If you, like me, already know where to buy the gift, you have solved half of the gift issue.
The second part consists in choosing the colors, the product type etc. For example, I look awful with colors like green or red so I prefer colors like brown, dark pink, violet and black. As opposite, my friend looks beautiful wearing pink reddish colors that for me are too flashy. Even foundation has different colors so check furtively which type she uses. - Shoes. If a boy wants to be loved forever, he simply has to buy a girl lots of shoes. There’s almost nothing a girls like more than a new pair of shoes. For this gift, I suggest to take the girl with you and let her wander through the shelves; if you are able to force her outside you can buy the gift the day after but you’ll probably end up buying them the same day.
- Beauty products. I recently discovered that men like bath or beauty products such as natural shampoos, body creams, bronzing products etc as much as girl. If you buy something sweet and glittering to a girl she’ll be happy, but last year I gave my boyfriend a foam bathing product and he liked it so much that he’s scared to finish it.
- Extra tip: Perfumes. Perfumes are also a great idea but try to discover which perfume the person likes in advance since everyone has different preferences. As for me, if possible, I would wear male perfumes because I don’t like sweet ones but know many girls that think the sweeter the better.To avoid commercial perfumes that can be also bought by another friend, I usually prefer to buy it at my favorite herbalist’s shop and I never chose the wrong thing thanks to the assistant’s suggestions.
I just listed the ideas that came to my mind and that often are great gift ideas. Obviously this is just a suggestion list and if you have better ideas I would be glad to hear them (the more the merrier) or to hear your opinion on the suggestions I listed. The only thing you have absolutely to have in mind when you choose a gift is that you have to choose something that exactly transmits your feelings and it’s not important how much money you spend, you only have to do or choose something that will make the other person happy.