Hey Guys! My husband had a great suggestion for men’s gift-giving this Christmas! … Be Thoughtful!
How? How about getting your wife’s Christmas gift before Christmas Eve! It’s amazing how “when” the gift was purchased might actually mean more to your wife than “what” was purchased. The earlier you purchase the gift the more it says, “I’m thinking of you” and “You’re important to me!”
How about spending more time thinking about the big-screen TV (I mean…your wife) than the big-screen TV. It’s hard to get your wants off center-stage, but putting your wife’s wants/needs first may be a good investment.
I was going to suggest that you guys spend some time thinking about and maybe even jotting down some thoughts about your wife–her likes, her dislikes, anything she’s mentioned in passing in the last while as a gift possibility. But my husband said I ought to scrap that, and just ask her what she wants.
If you’re wife is like me, though, you don’t get as many points if it’s not a surprise, so maybe ask for a list of multiple (specific) gift ideas, so that you can get one exactly right. (Women, help him out by making it as easy as possible for you to be delighted Christmas morning!)
Gift Ideas
Here are a few gift ideas for women to get you started:
- 12-days of thoughtful acts
- A couple hours of housecleaning
- A pedicure
- A gift certificate to her favorite store
- A gift certificate to her favorite restaurant (Date night!)
- A professional massage
- A PajamaGram (www.pajamagram.com)
- Movie theater tickets
- Her choice of household projects for you to complete without complaint
- A day to herself
- An overnight getaway with YOU!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
p.s. If you have other gift ideas for wives post them here and we’ll add them to the list!
I hope this isn’t too negative, but I’ve come to really hate gift giving. That doesn’t seem right, because I like it when my wife finds a nice gift for me, and I love the look on her face when I give her something she really likes. My problem with gift giving goes like this: This last month, I’ve been agonizing over Christmas presents (My gift(s) for my wife plus helping the kids find suitable gifts). As soon as the Christmas gifts are opened, I will have about 7 weeks to figure out what to get her for Valentine’s day. Then a reprieve until May when the kids and I need to come up with something for Mother’s day. (I’m really resisting the idea of a gift exchange at Easter, though it seems society is trending towards Easter becoming another gift giving holiday.) During the summer, I’ve got to come up with an anniversary present and a birthday present and help the kids find birthday presents. Then a few months break and we’re back to agonizing over Christmas. To add insult to injury, spontaneously during the year, I’m supposed to spontaneously give her some gift “just because. Quite frankly, I don’t see any way that I can make each of those gifts “knock her socks off” romantic! Fortunately for me, my wife realized this very early and does not “punish” me when I get a bad gift (are any of those “stories” of men ending up in the dog house over the wrong gift really true?).
McShorty,
Just a few quick comments, if I may. My wife and I have mutually decided to not exchange gifts for ANYTHING. Well, I’m not saying never, actually but I am saying that it is not expected of each other. If we do it at all it’s nice but neither side is terribly bummed out if the other one doesn’t do it. Our logic is this: We do enough nice little things for each other during the year so that we don’t feel that at Christmas time we need to go out and prove how much we love each other by buying yet another “thing” for each other. This year she mentioned that she liked some sort of spray at Bath and Body and I took her to the mall (we were in town already anyway) and told her to buy it and that would be my “Christmas gift” to her. I was with her, there was no surprise, and no pretty wrapping paper, no pretty card, etc. etc. She was happy enough. For me, I picked out some hacksaw blades and some emery cloth – stuff I needed. Again, we were together and it’s stuff I was going to buy anyway. I told her “Honey, you can count this as your Christmas gift to me.”
Now, before you think we’re athiests, we’re not at all. I spend a fair amount of time at Church but I resist the idea of Christmas being a time when you have to prove your love by going deeply into debt. Same with Valentine’s day, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. As for our society going towards Easter gifts, I hadn’t heard that one before but it seems believeable. I remember as a kid when Halloween was only a day. Somewhere along the way the fine folks at Hallmark (among others) turned it into a season complete with yard lights! Gag.
You said your wife undertands you’re not the kind who can “knock her socks off” every time a gift-giving occasion comes along. Good for her – she seems mature enough to realize that, in the real world it’s not like in the movies.
You don’t sound negative to me, at all; you sound mature, or maybe I should say realistic.
I think “realistic” is the key. As long as we are both realistic in our expectations, then it should work out just fine.
Dear McShorty,
I agree. It’s impossible to have every gift bowl someone over just like every kiss can’t make someone weak in the knees. If you buy the gift, for whatever the occasion, as long as your intention is to make her happy, that’s the main thing. The degree of happiness is up to her. But hopefully she can realize that the mere fact you thought of her and went to the effort to buy the gift is what makes it special Many times the actual gift itself is almost a secondary thing.
I hope your future gift-giving goes well.
God Bless you.