The Best Gifts For Your Best Friends

Shopping for the people closest to you should be easier than shopping for strangers since you know so much about them, right?  The downside is that when you do know someone well, they expect you to know what they like and what they don’t so you can’t slide by with a scented candle or a soap and lotion set.

True, your real friends won’t dump you because you make a bad gift choice.  But because we’re wondermom wannabes, we don’t like to settle for an okay gift.  We like to knock it out of the park.

Obviously, I don’t know your best friends.  So, you might be wondering how I’m going to be able to help you pick gifts for them.  Here’s the thing, as with all areas of my life, I’ve found a couple of shortcuts and surefire hits for everyone.

Finally, an advantage to getting older (don’t tell my mom that I’m admitting that just because someone has lived longer means that she might have some useful experience to share—-and mom, if you’ve finally discovered how to use the internet and are reading this, I’m pretty sure someone hacked into my blog and wrote this entire post).

Rules Of Best Friend Gift Giving

Before we move on to the gifts, you have to understand the rules of best friend gift giving.  The gift MUST satisfy one of the following criteria if you want your gift to say “I like you and hope we are friends forever (or at least until one of us gets senile).”  Your gift must: 1) cost a lot of money to demonstrate your friendship is priceless, 2) take a considerable amount of time to create to demonstrate your friendship is valued over other activities in your life, or 3) depict an exceptional knowledge of the recipient so she knows you actually listen to her.

Gifts that satisfy criteria one include:

• a bottle of her favorite expensive perfume
• tickets to a Broadway-style show, symphony, or dance performance
• gift certificate for a day at the spa
• jewelry

Gifts that satisfy criteria two include:

• a scrapbook or photo album (completed, not empty, in case that wasn’t obvious)
• a scarf, hat, or fingerless gloves if you can knit or crochet
• customized anything (even if you order it and don’t make it yourself, you had to plan ahead to get it done so it satisfies the time requirement)

Gifts that satisfy criteria three include:

• a t-shirt, magnet, coffee mug, etc. that has a quote that reminds you of her (my bff and I are always getting sarcastic sayings for one another)
• something she admires in a store or catalog but doesn’t purchase for herself
• if she’s moved away from where she grew up, something from her hometown may bring her warm memories

Keep Notes of Gift Ideas

I find it helpful to jot down notes when I notice items my close friends or family express an interest in or that I think they might like since I realized I never remember the things I’m certain I will.

It used to be in a notebook I kept in my purse, but now I keep them in Evernote on my phone.  The benefit of this system is it’s easy to use and I can easily access it when I’m shopping in case I happen upon a sale for one of the items.