Gift Guide for Him: What I have Gifted before//My Picks!

Why are boys so difficult to shop for

If you are like me, then you have a boyfriend that is literally impossible to shop for. I do not know how I have made it through four birthdays and, this Christmas, four Christmas holidays without completely losing my mind from trying to shop for him.

The thing is, me and Doug are very different. He is not the kind of guy that likes all these clothes and (manly) accessories like I do, which makes it difficult for me to imagine what he would want. He always says “fishing stuff,” but will never show me anything specific. For some reason, he just cannot understand that telling me to go pick out fishing gear for him is basically like me opening the doors to Ulta or Sephora and saying “I want makeup for Christmas, go pick it out.” He would be completely lost. I get pretty lost in those stores myself. And it does not matter how many times we look at fishing gear in Dick’s Sporting Goods, I will never understand it on my own. I have no idea what types of water we even have around here let alone the types of fish and what hooks and whatever else they are attracted to. With my luck, I would pick out the most useless fishing item that he could only use if we were on the other side of the country.

What I have Gifted to Doug:

The first time I ever got Doug a gift was for his birthday; his fifteenth birthday to be exact, not that age will really matter with these gifts. Anyways, I got him a long sleeve tee shirt and a hat. Pretty basic. We had only been dating for about 3 and a half months, so I did not endlessly contemplate over this purchase. I just went with it.

For Christmas later that year, I got lucky. We went to the outlet stores in the mountains near our hometown and he found a coat that he really liked. After we left the store, I ordered the coat and saved it for Christmas. We also got him an Eno this Christmas just before they started being super popular.

For his next birthday I was a little stuck so I got a bunch of littler things like cologne and photos of us– things like that. This is not my most impressive gift, but like I said before, I struggle.

For the next Christmas, I was stuck yet again and gave him a bunch of small stuff that I don’t even really remember what it was. I know he always used to like it when I made him stuff, so I did that a lot. I think I made him some ornaments with our photos on them and things like that.

For his next birthday I found his favorite slip on shoes on sale when we thought the business was being discontinued (it was really just bought out by another company) and gave that to him.

For the next Christmas, everything went wrong. I was completely stuck on what to get him (like always) and I waited until the last minute. He had lost his Patagonia pullover so I decided to replace that. I did not have enough money to buy it full price, so I found it on sale for about $65 at North River Outfitters. Purchasing from them was a HUGE mistake. Pro Tip: ALWAYS shop from stores you know and if you are on a new website, LOOK UP REVIEWS FOR THEM. If you were following me on Instagram (brightestofthebunch) at the time, then you know my experience with them. Basically, they took my money and NEVER shipped the item, even though I got an email that it was out for shipment or whatever. Scams. I had to call customer service, which always went to voicemail no matter what, and email them MULTIPLE times. Over a month later when I had basically given up on getting my money back, I decided to report them to the Better Business Bureaucracy after reading that SO many people had had the same experience. After reporting them I emailed them to let them know and my money was returned within the week. After all this trouble and thinking his package would come any day, Christmas had come and gone and Doug had either found or replaced his Patagonia. I don’t even know what. I ended up giving him a Patagonia tee shirt, candy, and a huge scrapbook I had worked on for years for Valentines Day to try to make up for it. He still thinks (teases me) that I never really bought him anything. If he only know the struggle I went through.

His most recent birthday was definitely the most easy to shop for because he actually picked out a few things. He wanted three different tee shirts from Back Roads Apparel and then while we were in the Florida Keys he found a Pelagic sweatshirt that he liked and I went back and bought it for him and saved it for his birthday. Now that I am stuck, I sort of wish I had saved it even longer. I always say to myself “I am just going to buy for Doug throughout the year every time he expresses that he likes something and then I’ll always have something to give him.” But then I get excited when I have good stuff and want to give it to him right away. I can’t win.