Birthday gifts

How to choose the right birthday gifts?

Giving gifts is a way of showing the people who mean a lot to us that we care about them. Take some time to think about the message you want to send with your choice of gift. When you're looking for the perfect birthday gifts, make sure you avoid the common gift-giving pitfalls for the best results.

What message do you want to send?

Take the time to think about the message you want to give the recipient. Before you spend hours racking your brains over what to give someone, think about your relationship with them, how you feel about them and what you want to tell them with your gift. This will make choosing a birthday gift much easier, and you'll avoid panicked browsing of department store shelves or hunting for a gift across countless online shops.

For example, if this person is your best friend, you might want to let them know you think the world of them and see them as a really fun person. If they're a colleague, you might want them to know you appreciate their work and their companionship at work. If it's a loved one, you might want to tell them how much you love them and appreciate everything they do.

Make a list of things you think could convey your message to the recipient

Once you've decided what you want to tell the recipient, start putting together a list of gifts that could help you bring your idea to life. Of course, birthday gifts still need to match the person's tastes and interests.  For example, you can give your best friend who loves coffee and has a great sense of humour a funny mug coffee mug with a witty message, along with a bag of coffee or a gadget for experimenting with coffee.

A colleague who loves food could get a dinner voucher for his favourite restaurant, along with a card with a funny message. If he loves gardening, you can support his hobby with a new houseplant or a flowering tree.

You can surprise your loved one, who works hard, with a spa package  to show her that you see how hard she works, and give her a little rest and time for herself.

Birthday gifts can also be an experience

Sometimes it's really hard to come up with a great gift idea that won't empty your wallet. There's nothing wrong with clubbing together with a group of friends or colleagues to buy birthday gifts. That gives you more room to manoeuvre to buy something the birthday person will truly love, and you can afford a more valuable gift. For example, if you have a friend who seems to have everything already, you and your friends can buy a gift worth a bit more and really make an impression!