There are all sorts of reasons for buying someone a gift. Gifts can come during the festive season, or as part of birthday celebrations. They can be given to wish someone well as they leave a job they’ve held for some time, or can be a great way of saying sorry. A gift can be a gentle act of encouragement, a thorough treat for someone you adore, or perhaps an item given to yourself in order to exercise a little self-care.
Gifts can also come in various degrees of importance and relevance. For instance, a light gift you might purchase someone, such as a treat for your child if they’ve behaved well during a long shopping trip, or a full investment, such as gifting a child their first car as a means to help them secure freedom.
In this post, we present gifts that are intended to last some time, be that in the form of their usefulness, emotional import, memorial potential, and relevance to the situation. It might be that an anniversary is coming up, or you just want to that special person in your life to know exactly how much they mean to you.
Experiential Gifting
Of course, no one can take an experience away from you, and so they make fantastic gifts. Even something as simple as heading to the countryside with your partner for the weekend, or something as evocative as heading to Venice for your anniversary, what matters is experiencing a shared activity with someone you appreciate – or allowing them to go and do so on their own. Gifting a friend a pair of theatre tickets for them to go and see a performance on Broadway or the theatre scene in your city, or booking them a table at a lovely restaurant, all of this can make a tremendous impact and build memories. Sometimes, this can be even better than a fixed good or possession, because they get to hold that with them forever.
Keepsakes
Keepsakes and memory gifts are special, in that they can really become a beautiful and emotive gift that someone will hold onto forever. Think of a small engraved bracelet for a baby, keepsake coins, or memorial gifts to always remember someone special to you.
These items can be held with love for a lifetime, and bring us back to a certain time in our lives when we regard them. Keepsakes can be used to celebrate, to provide a beautiful rendition of our memory for a lost loved one, or simply call back to a time important to us, such as having our first child.
These are the possessions that you don’t have to worry about losing because you’ve already made sure to keep them safe in your bedroom, in a locked chest, or somewhere secure you can return to as and when you wish to. It’s not hard to see, then, how these gifts can last and stay even more relevant over time.
Supportive Gifts
Supportive gifts can mean a tremendous amount to someone, especially when given at a certain time in their life. For instance, it might be that giving your friend an oil painting set at a time when they seem to be finding themselves creatively, or using this practice to help cope with a misfortune in their life, is a really thoughtful gift that can help them learn to heal and improve their skills via such a practice.
If a friend of yours is trying to lose weight you might consider gifting some equipment they’ve been looking at to help them work out, or perhaps you can purchase you both a subscription to a gym and attend with them, in full support of their goals while trying to achieve them yourself. Or maybe your friend is pregnant, and since you’ve already been through that entire ordeal, you know that providing them with a maternity pillow and calming implements to help them sleep each night is tantamount to a scared gift that they will never forget. You get to decide what supportiveness means, and how to express that in the form of a tangible gift.
Life Implements
Life implements can always serve as a useful and compassionate gift, because they tend to help someone get to the next stage in their development. This doesn’t have to be as massive as purchasing a child a new car, but it might mean renting their prom suit for them, helping them look sharp on the day. It might be that you make a contributive gift to their parents to help them assist with college funds, or purchasing them an instrument and a block of lessons should they express interest in this. Life implements often have a lasting effect because they are highly practical and useful, and can be applied to either help someone experience an event more appropriately, or get to the next stage in whatever they’re planning.
Jewellery
Not everyone wears jewellery, but it can still serve as a wonderful gift. This is because good jewelry tends not to decay over time, and with maintenance and upkeep, can potentially last decades. You can also personalize jewelry in a whole host of ways, from which stones you select to the tone of the metal, as well as what engravings you use to provide that sense of goodwill. Jewellery can also conform to the sensibilities of the person you’re gifting it to, be that a nice, humble watch for your son, or a pair of gorgeous earrings for your daughter, and vice versa. In some cases, jewelry can even serve as a fantastic investment worth keeping hold of – in some cases, it may even accrue value.
Rings by Reeve & Reeve – see them at Giving & Living from January 16-18
Meaningful Gifts
Meaningful gifting is an interesting topic to talk about, because sometimes, even the most inexpensive and seemingly disposable item can hold great emotional weight to it. For instance, it might be that your wife has spoken about a certain Teddy Bear they loved as a child, with photographs to show them as a little girl holding it.
Perhaps you know that since then, they have become separated for decades. For an anniversary, finding a bear just like that as an extra supplementary gift can show you’ve really tried to source something special. Of course, it’s up to you to decide how much meaning a potential gift has, and to what degree it’s worth making that statement.
Gifts You Create
Of course, there’s always something special in crafting a gift yourself, if only because no one else could have created that which you have taken time out of your day to do. No matter if this is a painting you’ve decided to create for them, or even something as ephemeral as a song, creating a gift always has a sense of real import to it, because it comes directly from the heart. This is why many of us still find it heartwarming when our grandmothers knit us a sweater, or when our children draw a picture for us. It shows that someone has taken positive action in a way intended to make your day better. It’s hard to argue with that.
Milestone Gifts
A milestone gift helps mark out a certain point in someone’s life and helps them remember it fondly. A ‘well done’ plaque for achieving something great could be a wonderful idea. Perhaps your child has moved into their own first house, and having a beautiful name plate made for the exterior of the property could help show off its name or number, helping the home come into its own. Whatever milestone you find it necessary to celebrate is absolutely up to you. It could be for something serious, sincere, heartfelt or amusing. Perhaps it’s been ten years since you filmed your partner having a comical fall while snowboarding, and you wish to have a cake made of that scene for the anniversary. As you can see – enduring gifts don’t have to be the most profound message ever. They just have to have positive meaning.
Appropriate Contributions Or Donations
Sometimes, a tangible gift given to the person isn’t, particularly what matters. Perhaps you can show your support through a contribution instead. For instance, it might be that your nephew has decided to run a half-marathon in support of a charity they find important since a friend or family member has suffered from an issue said charity is designed to alleviate.
Giving them a donation and showing up on the day could be a great gift to provide, and it’s sure to be appreciated. It might be that making a donation to a charity yourself should that happen in your life can serve as a tribute to someone you care about. Perhaps your local church has suffered from damage, and thanks to the help they’ve given your community, you find that helping out with this is a real necessity that can make a thorough difference. The effects of that are sure to last.
