What do men want?

GQ Australia editorial

This is the question many of us girls ask ourselves when there our boyfriends, husbands birthday, anniversary or another special occasion is coming up. If we step away from the obvious: food, water, sex, car and a shelter, we will choose the gift based on how long and how well we know this man and how much we care about him. Naturally, gift will also depend upon our disposable budget.

Since one of my girlfriends recently asked me to help her find a gift for her boyfriend, I investigated a bit among my male friends and my boyfriend (since I don't consider myself to be the one who chooses the best gifts ever for men) and put together this post based on my findings.

PRACTICAL GIFTS

GQ Australia editorial

Many guys said they would love to get a practical gift for their birthday for example if they travel a lot then new earphones or a nice cosmetic bag or laptop case. 

You can find great earphones on Urban Outfiters or Top Men websites.

SURPRISE GIFTS

GQ Australia editorial

Many said they would like their girlfriends to make them a surprise dinner and welcome them dressed in sexy lingerie. One of my girlfriends Nina has recently made a surprise party for her boyfriend who is an athlete. She organized a surprise dinner in their favorite restaurant, invited all of his friends from in and out of the city and order-made him a cake in the shape of the basketball.

SPECIAL INTEREST GIFTS

My boyfriend likes to read, so for special occasions I get him a bigger gift box and inside I put together many small gifts, some personal like couple of books of his favorite authors, boxers - I found a glow in the dark boxers in Diesel. Some men collect watches, like jewelry or sunglasses so you might decide to get him a nice wooden box to store his collectibles. Special interest gifts can also be a tickets to that one very important match of your boyfriends favorite soccer or other sports team or even a yearly ticket to watch his favorite team.

Leather and metal bracelets

Wrist watch storage box with the key

Brown wrist watch storage box with the key

Sunglasses case - fits 3 pairs

PERSONAL GIFTS

Often not so expensive but always the dearest are those personal gifts we make ourselves. Again, depending on how long yo guys know each other it is always great to frame your best photo together as a gift or if you know each other longer and you can create a scrap book with your memories and photos with tickets to the movies you watched together or small stickers or postcards from your vacations this is even better. 

   For my boyfriends last birthday since he lives on his own I made a cookbook with his favorite dishes, very simply put together, each recipe in 5 steps with various meals from breakfast to dinner. I added the photos of us cooking together, at the beginning of the cookbook I put a list of basic groceries he can tear our when going grocery store and added some lyrics I wrote about our relationship at the end.

„You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.“