In Praise of Theme Gifts

A friend of mine put together a wonderful theme gift for her adult daughter this Christmas: a soup-making kit with a nice soup pot, a soup recipe book and some soup ingredients, all bundled in a sturdy, reusable shopping bag with -- best of all -- a gift certificate for one-on-one soup-making lessons with Mom.

Without spending a lot of money, she has created a gift that is practical, personal, clever, experiential, memorable and fun...the kind of gift her daughter will talk about when people ask her, "so what did you get...?"

Building a fun theme gift isn't that hard, really -- you just have to find a good theme and build on it. For example:

• For the new motorcycle owner: nice leather gloves... along with a do-rag, fake pierced earring and rub-on tattoos.
  
  
• For someone about to take an adventurous vacation: a travel book, a little flag from their destination and a CD of indigenous music. Use a map of their trip route as gift wrap. If they are going to a place where they don't speak the language, make a few funny flashcards ("I don't speak ______," "Where is the bathroom?" "Beer, please." etc.).
  
  
• For the poker player: a shirt from a casino, cards, poker chips and ridiculous dark glasses, packaged together in an emptied Lucky Charms cereal box.
  
  
• For your relative's new baby: a custom tee for the next family reunion, plus baby sunscreen, toddler-size sunglasses and a tiny swimsuit -- all tucked in a colorful beach pail.
  
  
• For the gardening enthusiast: a green thumb (cut the thumb off a glove, color it with a green marker, and label it somehow), a gardening tool, a gardening book or packets of seeds, and maybe a bottle of Advil. Plop the goodies in a terra cotta pot or watering can and wrap it in plain paper stamped with green thumbprints.
  
  
• For the (adult) birthday girl, try a princess theme: a tiara, a feather boa, chocolates and a bottle of bubble bath or Champagne.
  

See where I am going with this? With a theme that fits your giftee (plus a little creativity), you can build upon a mild-mannered gift to create something quite memorable.

Three words of advice on theme gifts:

1. Let at least one piece of the gift be something of value (e.g., nice leather gloves in the first example above).
   
   
2. Avoid themed "add-ons" that are too expensive (bad for you) or too big or junky (bad for the recipient). Our goal is to avoid giving gifts that end up in the landfill, right?
   
   
3. Don't automatically package your theme gift in a basket (unless your giftee really loves baskets). Let the gift container serve a purpose or fit the theme too!

Have you given or received a great theme gift lately? Add your stories to the SB Gift Girl gift list for future posts! Please share your info via comment below or send an e-mail to sbgiftgirl@gmail.com.

Happy gifting!
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