Repeatable Gifts - Give the Same Thing Again and Again
Some would say that you cannot give the same gift twice to the same person. However, there are repeatable gift ideas that you can safely use more than once and have the recipient be delighted each time.
For collectors you simply need to find out what they need for their collection and get it for them. Now for some collections this might be expensive, but there is usually a low cost alternative. Starting off a collection for someone can be a great idea. For a child you could start with stamps. A large number of foreign stamps along with an album may start a life-long hobby. You may want to check with the parents before starting a collection that may prove expensive. For teenagers you could try a charm bracelet that can be added to each year. You could buy a jacket with patches that you can add to. For sports fans try sporting memorabilia. For those that like ornaments and small decorative objects you could purchase tea-spoons, thimbles, paperweights and the like.
Would you like to give a gift that will bring pleasure throughout the year? Then consider giving a subscription to a magazine or other regular publication. These can be surprisingly cost effective and will be delivered each month automatically. These sort of publications range from film and music magazines to those covering more specialist topics such particular types of fishing.
You can give annuals or yearly publications. There are gifts such as yearbooks and sports books with summaries or highlights of the year. The most obvious yearly publication is a diary or calendar. You can get these based on many themes and you will want to choose a suitable subject. Perhaps one from a particular organization such as a charity or connected with a sports team or television show. For people living in another country then a calendar showing local sights is ideal.
Consumables are often given repeatedly. Especially her favorite perfume, or his favorite aftershave. You will need to be careful if buying this sort of gift as the choices of a scent is often very personal and you would not want your gift to languish in the bathroom cupboard. Many companies produce gift baskets and presentation sets with bath products and the like. You could consider giving basic skin care products to a man or woman. You may need to enclose an appropriate note to make sure that they do not get the wrong message!
How about giving the recipient something they have never had before? How about an unusual or luxury type of food or drink? There are presentation sets available for all sorts of different food items such as preserves, fruits, meats and cheese. The same is true for alcohol where you could decide to buy a selection of fruit liqueurs for example. Obviously you could also buy one large item. If the recipient is in a foreign country then consider sending there favorite food from home. You may need to use a specialist company to do this. There is always the choice of chocolates and candies. There are now specialist suppliers that provide many varied and interesting different types of chocolate including chilli-chocolate and 100% cocoa chocolate.
If you want to give the recipient the choice of gift then consider gift vouchers or certificates. You will need to check that they can be used in appropriate shops that will be of interest. Sometimes you can get vouchers for a particular mall or shopping center and this may be easier to manage. You could also give gift certificates for an Internet vendor such as Amazon or iTunes. In this age of cheap flights you could give a voucher to be used against a flight or holiday.
All of the gifts above can be given safely many times. Most of the types of gift can be chosen with particular persons in mind to make the gift special. For some gifts it will be important to tell the receiver that this gift will be given again next year. Ask them if this is OK. You do not want to waste your money on an unwanted item. You can use these gift types as a safety net for when you have run out of ideas. This will also free up your time to look for those really special unique gifts.
Gary Roll is co-founder of http://www.unique-gift-inspirations.com, a website that provides help in finding unusual and unique gift ideas for anniversaries, birthdays and other occasions. The site also provides advice and tips about gift choosing, organizing and wrapping.
