Father’s Day Gift Basket

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Men think women are complicated, but not when it comes to gifts. I mean, come on, pick a beauty or bath product, pair it with some jewelry, and you’re done! But men are so tough to buy for! I mean, how many ties does a guy really need? Especially now that so many of them are working from home. But with Father’s Day fast approaching, we have to think of something. So, here are my sure bets for a Father’s Day gift basket.

Father’s Day Gift Basket

First of all, he’s a man. Don’t put it in a gift basket. Just wrap it in an old leather jacket and pour some beer on it. Just kidding. He’s a man! He’s not going to notice what the gift is carried in! Just kidding! All men are different. The actual science says that the average difference between men and women, on any characteristic, is much less than the differences within each population (comparing women to other women or men to other men). But, since we like to highlight the MAN STUFF on Father’s Day, here are some ideas that have worked for my Father’s Day gifts.

• Barbecue sauce or Hot Sauce – I cannot walk through a farmer’s market without bumping into a table selling barbecue or hot sauce. We all love to barbecue in the summer. And barbecuing often falls to the dad. So why not spice that up! You could get one, or better yet, give him a few options to sample.
• Steak spice – The thing you get for the man that already has enough barbecue scrapers and already opened all the barbecue sauces. My husband really does get great joy from our steak spices.
• Beer – If you can find some craft beer he hasn’t tried, this is a fun one. And if you can sample it together, all the better! If beer isn’t his favourite, pick another alcohol, or dare I say, non-alcoholic drink? Whatever usually catches his fancy.
• A Delicious Snack – We like getting something very unusual, that takes manliness to eat! Like lobster-flavoured chips. This time I did two spicy snacks and two barbecue-flavoured snacks. Also some beer nuts.
• Symbol of Dad and Family – I can’t scroll through Facebook without getting inundated with suggestions for mugs, pillows, t-shirts and measuring tapes I can order with cartoon images of Dad and kids. And yes, one of those worked on me, but I can’t post it here in case my dad reads it. For my husband, I chose those stickers that go on car windows. Now, if someone decides to break into our crappy old van, at least they’ll know the number and genders of the people they’re stealing from.

All I Want is a Homemade Card

This is what my dad used to say to us every year, when we asked him what he wanted for Father’s Day. And the weird part was, it was true! And it inspired a lot of creativity. Some cards were the size of Bristol board. Some cards had poetry. Some involved long lists of lessons we had learned from him. One time I even made him a song using Physics and Math Equations as metaphors for our love… It’s the only sure-fire way to make a Physics Engineer cry. (You can view that song here).

But for those of us with younger children who require our assistance to make homemade Fathers Day gifts, here are some ideas:

• Hand Print Art with Pun – Turn painted hand prints into flowers, or a guitar, or a “family tree.” Then add something like, “Gotta hand it to you!” or “You deserve a big hand!” or “You can handle anything!” I have even seen a hand outline cut out and glued into the “rock on” symbol, with the words, “You Rock!”
• The Interview Questions – These are my favourite gifts from little kids. You ask them questions like, “How old is Daddy? How tall is Daddy? What is Daddy’s favourite food? What is Daddy’s Job? What does Daddy like doing best? What is your favourite thing to do with Daddy? Why do you love Daddy?” The answers are always hilarious and it’s fun to look back on once the kids are older.
• Kid Drawings – This is by far the easiest one because all you have to do is hand them paper and markers. You can ask each kid to draw themselves with their dad. It doesn’t matter how old the kids are. From toddler scribbles to artistic portraits, they’re totally framable!
• Homemade Gift Certificates – Nothing like gift certificates for some free hugs. And if you can get the kids to commit to actual chores, then everybody wins!… except the kids. Maybe you can even throw in a few certificates of your own for after the kids are in bed…