Responses to "good birthday gifts for a girlfriend"

1. jammy

   the best birthday gift I ever received was my sweetie treating me to a hot air balloon ride

2. StickyCarpet

   Customized is good. She found a really nice wooden folding chair in the trash, and for her birthday I had a custom red velvet seat pad made for it. BTW, the best filling for seat pads is rubberized horse hair.

3. grapefruitmoon

   The best birthday present I ever received was a camera – not because it’s an amazing camera (which it is), but because ‘moonMan was so tuned in to what it was that I would want most and got it for me because he said that he knew it would make me happy.
   Whatever it is that would make your girlfriend happy, whatever it is that you KNOW would make her smile, do it. ‘moonMan is great with gifts and sometimes just surprises me with a game for the DS or a book or just something small because he saw me looking at it in a store. Make notes in your phone if you want a surreptitious way to jot down the things that she browses (it’ll just look like you’re txting someone, whereas carrying a notebook is slightly more obvious). Go someplace where she likes to shop for some “window shopping.” I live in a city, so it’s pretty easy to just walk around some shopping areas and browse without making a big deal out of it – if you guys have a mall around or something, find an excuse to go there – like seeing a movie or you need new underpants or whatever.
   Listen to her while you’re shopping as well. See what she talks about. See if she mentions things that she likes or talks about ideas that she has.
   For clothes/jewelry: go into her closet and find out her sizes. Take good note of her style and what she has. I wouldn’t recommend *specifically* trying to find clothes for her, but if you see something sometime that strikes you as her style and something she would like – those things make great gifts. If you’re in doubt as to whether or not she’d LOVE it – don’t do it. It’s awkward to get a piece of clothing from someone and feel obligated to wear it when it’s not your thing. You really should KNOW that she’ll wear it all the time.
   Books: look at her bookshelves. Note the authors. If you’re buying books as gifts, try to get hardcover copies, even if that means buying/ordering used books. Hardcover books, IMO, are more beautiful to look at and a better *gift* because they’ll hold up much better over time. Write a short inscription in the book. (I also use a little rubber stamp to stamp the inside of books when I give them as gifts – just something kinda whimsical to give it a more personal touch.) Ask her to make an Amazon wishlist and go from there, if you must.
   Whatever you give, give it to her with a beautiful card. Not the kind you get from Hallmark. Go into a stationery store if you can, or Borders & Barnes&Noble have good cards – get something that will appeal to her – and not necessarily a funny “haha it’s your birthday yr old” card. Err on the side of being sappy. Write a simple love note inside the card. Make the card something she’ll cherish as much as the gift. If she’s not a sappy person, you can be silly. I made ‘moonMan a card for his birthday from our cats and he thought it was hilarious – that’s the kind of guy he is.
   If you know your girlfriend well enough, you should be able to get her something she’ll really, really love. Even if she doesn’t love the object, she’ll love the time and thought you put in to making her special day as special as possible.