This time of year can be challenging. Not only do you have to prepare your home to welcome countless guests along with planning and cooking numerous meals along with festooning your whole house with Christmas decorations, but you also have to buy Christmas gifts for your nearest and dearest. For some people this is pretty easy. For instance, you might get your father a new pair of his favourite slippers every year, or maybe your wife has strongly hinted that she wants a certain perfume. But other people are considerably more difficult to buy for – particularly teenage boys, who are notoriously impressed by very little. If you’ve asked them for ideas and got very little back, here are some tips on gifts to buy your resident recalcitrant teen…
Books
If you want to buy them something that you consider a good way to spend their time, then books are one of your best options. There are a lot of series out that could apply to teenage boys at the moment. If they’re younger, then RJ Palacio’s Wonder is a fantastic story with a great moral, or maybe The Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. If they’re a little older then maybe they might enjoy the action packed books The Hunger Games, The Golden Compass or The Maze Runner. If they’re older and more advanced and enthusiastic readers, then you could go for a more literary read like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History or John Irving’s The World According To Garp.
Technology
Technology is a great gift for almost all teenage boys. Whether you’re buying them a new console or games to play on their old console, your gift will be invariably loved and treasured. If you’re trying to think of some new ideas, try some Bluetooth speakers that can be used with a phone to stream music with great quality audio, or some new earphones. You could also consider buying him a new laptop. You might balk at the cost of a brand new Mac but you can get refurbished machines from sites like http://m-suite.co.uk/ for considerably less.
Trips
If your son doesn’t think he’s too cool to hang out with you, then you could take him on an outing. If he loves art, look into exhibitions at local galleries that you could take him along to, and buy him a guide to the artist for him to unwrap on Christmas Day. If he loves sports, get him tickets to a game, and if he loves music then check out the bands that are touring in your area. If you don’t think he’ll appreciate you going along, you can always tell him that the second half of his gift is that he can take a friend instead of going with you!
Gift Cards
If you’re at a complete loss about what to buy, then remember gift cards actually aren’t a bad gift. Allowing your teenager to spread his wings and decide what he wants is a valuable gift in itself. Get an Amazon gift card or maybe one to your local movie theatre so he can use his Christmas gift exactly how he wants to.