T MINUS *7* to Get Your Father’s Day Gifting Game On.

Not much puzzles me more than shopping for the men in my life (1 year old son aside). Gifted at the art of gifting, I am not.  It’s always a stressful struggle for me. Even for my mom or girlfriends—when I finally find something I think is perfect, I pull that “one for you, one for me” game. Then the buyer’s remorse kicks in and it’s no fun all over again. Viscous cycle, indeed.

Let the Father’s Day gifting struggle commence! Every male I know has what they want, when they want it— which usually isn’t that often or that many things—though I would say are usually of pretty nice quality. I remember one Christmas we gave my dad a Brita dispenser (we wanted for the house) and a pair of tube socks and he was like really excited. So sweet. Men are the perfect target market for “the thought that counts”. My husband just wants to unwrap something. Has to be wrapped. Tissue shoved in a bag will not do. Of course he never seems that impressed by what is inside, and is maybe just more concerned with where it will find a place in our already “storage-space-challenged” garage.

So, you can throw “gift ideas for dad” in a google search field and find a lot of crazy, cool for-a-hot-minute cr*p ideas. I’ve been down all of those roads many times; spice kit for the man that loves to grill, a fancy schmancy shaving kit, giant dominoes! My dad is a simple guy with nice taste, so lately he’s just been on the receiving end of a lot of nice shirts or outer-wear. Alas, I feel I have exhausted those efforts. It’s just that my brain hurts to think of anything else right now given the tiny human head-count in my home these days.

In offering you any (unsolicited) gifting advice, I will say one gift that was such a surprising hit with my dad was when I was ordering my kiddos those large zipper top LL Bean canvas bags for their travels and got one for his birthday with his name on it. I thought it was one of those, “give to dad, but mom will end up using it” kinds of things. He uses it all the time!

As I am not an over-the-top gifter, other suggestions I have as of “right this split second” (at least for my peeps) would be:

Filson dopp kits and bags

Historical, hip or vintage coffee table book

JL The Brand socks (shout out to buddies Jeffrey and Louis!)

Birdwell bathing suit

“On” athletic shoes

Magnetic collar stays

….and my personal favorite I gave my hubs last year was this Crosley record player. So dope.

Annnnd don’t forget the ever generic, never wasted, always appreciated hooch gift! Scotch/bourbon/whiskey/tequila distilleries have so upped their game on package design. I just have them sitting out now. Who doesn’t like a big bada$$ boozy buffalo staring at you from the bar? Yes, please.