What to buy for the impossible to buy for!

What to buy for the impossible to buy for!

We ALL know someone who is seemingly impossible to buy for, so much so you end up at risk of either buying them the same generic gifts you buy each year; getting them a gift card (which you’ll more than likely spend more on in fear of looking like a cheapskate) or- worse still- not bothering at all! 

The thing is, you enjoy buying and giving gifts which people will love, and don’t really want to take any of the options above. Only you value your sanity too! We get it, or more I (Kate) get it, John is so annoyingly good at buying )or creating gifts) -after all it was his gift of a jar of date cards which started this entire business journey!

I used to get frustrated trying to match his thoughtfulness, but his gift gave me an idea… if I couldn’t beat him, I’d join him! And so, A Year of Dates was born and – with it – a mission to rid the world of those difficult to buy for people once and for all… Well, not quite, but we DO want to make it a heck of a lot easier to buy for them instead!

But where to start? Here are a few tips to find or create gifts for the seemingly impossible to buy for: 

Keep it simple

You’d love to get them a gift they will treasure forever, but in reality the simple things in life really can be the best. Magazines or chocolate don’t stand out as thoughtful, but going with something you know they’ll enjoy is always a good option. Think about what they enjoy most. They love tea? Buy them tea. Check out subscription services and it could be a gift that arrives every month.

Get inspired!

We don’t mean browsing on-line or in store hoping that the perfect present will jump out at you (although you never know), we mean by putting thought and effort in instead (sorry!).

Our top is to go old school… ditching the tech, grabbing a pen and notebook or paper and listing all the things you associate with this person, jotting down ideas for gifts as you go yet in a non predictable way! Yes they might love cats, but another cat mug is only going to end up stashed away never to be seen again. Book a trip to a Cat Café? Think outside the box… or find inspiration INSIDE one of our boxes!

NOW start to browse

If these last 18 months have shown us anything- other than how resilient we all are- it’s how needed online shopping is. Whether heading to an online version of a store you’d normally buy from, or a fully online store like ours, it’s time to check whether the ideas you thought of in step two exist or can be brought into existence (without breaking the bank). It’s where search engines become your very own gift buying assistants… asking what you’d like them to find, then seeing if they can find it! You could of course head straight to our website (obviously!) or to a marketplace like Not on The High Street or Etsy for an array of thoughtful gifts – you might not find a cat café experience but you will find unique gifts in abundance. 

Can’t find it? Make it instead.

You’ve written down ideas, browsed online, you may have found something they’ll love or you might be no better off. We could be talking next level hard to buy for here, in which case it’s time for a different approach altogether… to get creative and make/ bake/ create it yourself – or contact us and we can put a fabulous box together for you… We do that you know! Something especially for them based on what you know they love, it doesn’t get much more personal than that! 

Give the gift of time.

Our top tip of all – whether finding a gift, booking them an experience or making something from scratch – is to give the gift of time. Life can be so busy, buying a quick and easy gift might feel like the only way to go in between all the juggling, yet slowing down and gifting time might well be the best present of all – for you AND for the recipient.

This could be a weekend away, a spa trip or the promise of doing something you both love together. It could even be something you’ve never done before – a shared hobby will help with all future gift buying too!

What to buy for the impossible to buy for!