Creative Gift Baskets

How to pick
a Creative Gift

Picking a perfect and creative gift is never easy. A gift is a reflection of who you are and what you want to say to the person, but it also has to be perfect for the person receiving it. Creative gifts are especially valued and remembered. Nothing is as boring and uninspiring as a gift card to some department store or worse - a Starbucks card. That’s not to say these are bad gifts but they are certainly not creative. Here are a few tips for picking a creative gift:

 

Think of the person you are giving this too. What do they like? What kind of person are they? Artsy? Athletic? A book nerd? This is your frame of reference, a perfect gift has to play off something they like.

Think of yourself. What are you like? What do you think is cool? It’s a gift from you to them, so it can reflect your personality. I once got a cigar as a gift from a friend who smokes. I don’t, but the cigar was given for my first child’s birthdays I keep it along with memories of the day when I became a dad.

What’s the occasion? Is this a 40th birthday for a guy (perhaps give a gift basket with WD-40, 40ft long extension cord, and any other stuff that has 40 on it would be a good gift, provided he has a sense of humor)? Or is it a gift of sympathy to someone diagnosed with breast cancer and you are just trying to pick the best cancer survivor gift?

Start ahead of time. Creative and cool gifts are rarely found at the last minute on your way to the birthday party (those usually end up being gift cards). My wife is great at this, she knows what occasions are coming in the next 6-12 months and picks gifts and creative funny cards well in advance.

Pool money with other guests. If this is an occasion and there’ll be other people giving gifts to the same person, you can, especially in these hard economic times pitch in and buy one really nice and memorable gift, as opposed to giving a bunch of useless stuff given individually. Who needs another photo frame?

Give experiences. OK, I am not supposed to tell you this because we want you to buy stuff on this site J but, sometimes giving a dinner for 2, or a couple of tickets to a short dinner cruise in the harbor is far more memorable, than adding another item to someone’s “Made in China” collection.

 

Hope this inspired you to search for a great, creative gift. Remember, it its 100 more times better to give than to receive.