Father’s Day Gifts ~ Winning at gift giving

I’ve mentioned before that gift giving is my love language. It’s why I ignore everybody’s attempts at setting gift limits, why my kid has a million things, why announcing the winner of my giveaways is my favourite day of the week and why I should technically have shares in Takealot.com when Christmas rolls around.

Seeing somebody light up or their eyes fill with tears or run hooting and squealing in excitement (my daughter AND my husband), fills me to overflowing with happiness. It’s rare that receiving a gift has the same effect as giving one does for me.

And my husband is amazing. He does so much for us; all the shopping and cooking (yes, you read that right) and generally making sure Charly and I have everything we could ever want or need. He spoils us all year round, so I love spoiling him for any occasion and am so happy to add Father’s Day to that list of occasions.

I’m sure the father in your life is someone worth spoiling too, or you wouldn’t be reading this post… So I thought I would share some of my greatest gift successes with you so that you can win at gift giving too…

Just so you know, this is a completely unsponsored in any way post. The items I’ve listed I have bought for Brett with my hard-earned money over the past 9 years or ideas I have read that I loved.

For the man who likes to cook
My hubby loves to cook – I know right? Best thing ever – and he’s really really good at it too. So every now and then I splurge and get him some great kitchen gadget or cookbook.  I think one of my first gifts to him was a Weber braai; but the biggest winners so far have been –

The Kenwood Multi Function Slow Cooker (6.5L)
Brett LOVES this thing! He especially loves making caramelised onions and lamb stews overnight, which also makes my house smell amazing!

The Philips Viva Collection Air Fryer
I think this may be both of our favourite thing in our kitchen. You can cook an entire roast chicken in it, or make the perfect pork sausages, and don’t even get me started on the different ways you can fry potatos – without oil.

*Both from Takealot.com; though I see they don’t stock this slow cooker anymore

For the fanboy
If the daddy in your life is a major fan of anything, particularly series or movies, shopping for him can be loads of fun. There are often collectables available that can really light them up like little kids again…

Star Wars Jedi robe & Light saber
Brett is a huge fan of these movies; which gives me an endless pool of ideas for gifts. The best of them I ordered from overseas though, which was the Jedi robe and the light saber… I’m sure you’ve seen the light saber on my Instagram feed in the past as our daughter has claimed it as her torch when the lights go out (Take that loadshedding!)

Chewbakka
This guy is SO cute, and makes the awesome Wookiee noises we all know and love. There are loads of Star Wars items you can collect, from t-shirts to fluffy toys to Lego airships.

Firefly: A Celebration (10th Anniversary Hard Cover Book)
Firefly is a “thing” for Brett and I. We watched the entire series in our first few months together, so it has all kinds of sentiment attached to it. Add to that our annual Old Year’s Eve tradition of rewatching as many episodes as we can before midnight… And that one year, we paused an episode just before midnight to head into the garden and look for fireworks, and as midnight struck and fireworks happened and we could hear people from the neighborhood around us explode with joy and excitement and singing and clapping, Brett went down on one knee and proposed… So yes, anything Firefly related is a huge winner in our house.

*Kalahari (now Takealot); Takealot; Wantitall

For the techie
Most technical people like to figure out how things work by taking things apart or building them from scratch or having the latest gadget on the market. I totally snoop all over hubby’s Twitter feed every now and then to see what he and his followers are going on about and use that info to surprise him 🙂

Rasberry Pi (a tiny, affordable computer you can use to learn programming through fun, practical projects)

Robot arm (do I really need to say more…) Well, ok, I will. This came in a hundred little pieces, which he built and it works. To do what with? Um… pick that little box up? I don’t ask questions 🙂

Fitbit He loves this thing and hardly ever takes it off. He uses it to track his sleep, his heartrate and his steps in a day. He also connected it to his phone so it lets him know when he has a call coming in or his alarm is going off. It’s a pretty cool gadget I must say, I briefly considered keeping it myself 🙂

*Netram technologies, Yuppie Gadgets, Takealot

For the gamer
My love has moved from PC gaming to Xbox gaming and back to PC gaming, which has given me some great gift ideas.

From a simple beautiful CD stand to hold his games, to all the gaming paraphernalia a boy could dream of. Having worked with MWEB Gaming for a while, I learned that the Razer brand makes amazing gaming accessories and over the years I’ve bought him gaming keyboards, a gaming mouse and an ultra sensitive gaming mouse pad (yes, that’s a thing). I also got him some fancy Sirus Headphones that work on his PC and the Xbox.

*Takealot

For the reader
Brett loves to read series’ of books, or books on or by people he respects or specialised topics. I have bought so many books for him over the years; books by chefs, world leaders, business leaders, comedians; books on photography, cooking, fishing, gaming… Other winners included the Game of Thrones series and The Assassin’s series by Robin Hobb.

*Kalahari (Now Takealot)

For the man who likes a challenge
I love bringing out the kid in my husband; watching him run or dance around with Charly is the best part of my day; but before Charly I would get him challenging little puzzles or toys as part of his gifts. I got him a Puzzle ball & Wooden puzzle blocks from CNA a few years back that were a definite hit.

Something sentimental
Sentimental personalised gifts are something I adore; and you can choose to have something custom made or make something yourself or with your kids.

Personalised keyrings
This is something I became a bit obsessed with. I got Brett one for his first Xmas as a daddy from Charly, it had her actual handprint lasered into a gorgeous silver keyring.

I followed that up by getting my mother in law one for her 60th and my mom one for Mother’s Day and all three of them loved it and gave it “best gift” status, so definitely a winner gift!!

T-shirt / Hoodie
There are SO many gorgeous tops with great sayings or imagery to be found online. You could also get a favourite photo and expression printed on a plain one.

Mugs
SO many ways to go with coffee mugs. You can get photos transferred onto them for very reasonable prices at most photo shops; or you can buy one online with great sentiments on them, or add personalised messages to them. And parents ALWAYS need coffee!

 

*worth noting that this is a terrible photograph of the mug & the image is chrystal clear on the mug itself 😉

Artwork
For the more creative mommies who want to get their kids involved, you can use finger paint and have the kiddies decorate any of the above, or you can help them put their handprint or footprint onto something.

Buy a small canvas, give your kids some paint and let them go wild showing daddy how amazing he is. It’s a gift for daddy and a few hours of fun for the kids.

*Miinii Mee, PhotoFirst, Cardies

Vouchers
And then there’s something most dads, especially of younger kids, will appreciate – a time-out with his friends; guilt-free 😉 Or a spoil that he doesn’t feel he “should” spend money on. I have given Brett vouchers for a fishing weekend with a friend; a beer festival ticket for him and 3 friends; and I got him a year membership with the League of beers.

The Classics
Also, the classics are classics for a reason – I hope every day that one day I will get a coffee mug that says “World’s best mom” (without having to buy it myself), why would a dad be any different? Fluffy slippers (in hubby’s case, many and varied animal slippers which he adores); gorgeous bathrobes and a favourite box of chocolates (that you and the kids don’t steal…), will always be appreciated.

A gift is always going to be special if you have put time and thought into it; choosing something that will remind that person that you were thinking of them and love them is always going to be a winner.

Sending all the love xx