Gift Ideas for People Who Are Hard to Buy For

Gift Ideas for People Who Are Hard to Buy For

Gift ideas for people who are hard to buy for...oh, boy. Where to begin? Well, there's already one problem: if your gift’s recipient is hard to buy for, you can't always really expect to come up with a knock-out gift idea off the top of your head. Whether the beneficiary of your gift-giving ambitions is already the "man with everything" or the "picky gal," finding a gift that actually knocks their socks off can really feel like quite the tall order.

You don't want to buy the bad (though well-meaning) gift that becomes the legendary "bad gift story" in your family or circle of friends, but you also don't want to avoid taking risks to the point of simply buying a present that’s, well, boring. One Christmas many years ago, my wife bought my mother a nice handbag. The next Christmas it came back to her, finding gift ideas for people who are hard to buy for means paying attention to the details and asking you a few important questions.

So where do you begin? Before you start jotting down a few ideas that might please you more than they would please the object of your admirations, make sure you're thinking is on the right track. Let's take a look at some crucial ways to ensure you buy a gift that actually impresses.

Customization is the key.

Anyone can buy a coffee lover a coffee mug, or a puzzle-lover a standard, run-of-the-mill jigsaw puzzle. Those don’t exactly constitute great gift ideas for people who are hard to buy for. But when you can customize your gift to the person receiving it, you help guarantee that you're buying them a gift they haven't received before.

J.C. Ayer & Co. produces puzzles that can be customized to feature a traditional photo or digital photo that you've had for years, making your gift a one-of-a-kind, knock-your-socks-off type present that the recipient will remember for some time to come. When your gift's recipient already has everything, only customization can make a gift really stand out from their other possessions. That level of customization should go further than printing their initials on a polo shirt.

When you get familiar with how these customized puzzles can work for you, your trouble with gift ideas for people who are hard to buy for suddenly don't seem so worrisome. Remember if you're buying someone close -- like a friend or relative -- a gift, you can add meaning and creativity to the gift that can't be bought at a store.

Thoughtfulness is important; don't simply swipe the credit card.

It's easy to place an order on Amazon.com and be done with your gift buying. For this job you should avoid “easy”. A custom puzzle from J.C. Ayer & Co. shows the thought you put into your gift. When your gift is custom-made, it goes without saying that you had to put a little more effort into the gift idea as a shopper. The old adage "actions speak louder than words" applies here.

The recipient of your gift doesn't have to be the world's most passionate puzzle-lover to appreciate the thought that goes into a custom puzzle.

For last Christmas my client emailed me a collage of his friend’s five children. The pictures in the collage were well made and needed little touching up. The puzzle ended up about 14 x 20. I made puzzle pieces of all the kids’ names and put the pieces near each kid in the picture. One of the names was Marshall. That piece was almost 3 inches long.

Pay attention to the subtle hints they might not even be aware of.

There isn't a person alive who doesn't have interests, and knowing where a person's passions lie is at the heart of becoming a great gift-giver. If you want the key to finding gift ideas for people who are hard to buy for, it's time to keep your ears peeled and listen to – who else? – The recipients themselves.

This doesn't necessarily mean you should listen to the recipient's words -- instead, try to note their actions. For example, a coffee lover won't exactly hide the fact that they love coffee. You'll see them with a mug in the morning, a mug in the afternoon, and a mug after dinnertime. Just because they don't always talk about coffee doesn't mean they're not passionate about it.

Likewise, what complaints is your recipient making that could be solved with a gift? Someone who spends all day on their feet might not have thought about a foot bath, but that doesn't mean you can't. Remember that oftentimes, the best gift ideas for people who are hard to buy for come from...the people who are hard to buy for!

A custom jigsaw puzzle featuring a family portrait can also make a great gift for the recipient who wanted something to hang on the wall or simply a way of commemorating a recent family vacation.

Don't think small; think big!

In the above example of the coffee-lover who seems to have every coffee mug in existence, it goes without saying that you should avoid buying them another coffee mug. That's boring, easy, and shows you didn't put a whole lot of thought into the whole gift-giving process. Besides, a coffee mug might only set you back a couple of Alexander Hamiltons; what can you get them that will inject a little bit of "Wow!" into the gift?

In a J.C. Ayer & Co. custom puzzle, the "Wow!" factor is already there -- especially if your recipient already has a dozen completed, typical landscape puzzles around the house. Use this "think big" principle to find better gift ideas for people who are hard to buy for.

If you took the advice mentioned above and know what kind of gift to get, it's time to think about the specific gift itself. You can assume that the coffee lover already has a coffee machine at home, not to mention a thousand coffee mugs to go with it. So think bigger: a device like the one-cup coffee makers from Keurig is a great novelty that the hard-to-buy-for coffee lover might actually use. If the coffee maker is too expensive, consider going in with a friend or family member on the gift.

To think big, you don't necessarily have to buy one larger, expensive gift; you can couple together smaller gifts around one theme. If you needed more gift ideas for people who are hard to buy for, you’ve found them! For example, your "foot bath" idea mentioned above might work well with a shower seat or simply a more comfortable chair that the recipient uses most frequently around the office or home. The more you use your imagination, the more you realize that gift ideas for people who are hard to buy for don't have to be a chore.

If you're already thinking about a custom puzzle, be sure to remain ahead of the game and order in advance from J.C. Ayer & Co. Remember that a gift that requires a special order already has more thoughtfulness put into it than something you could simply pick up at Wal-Mart. Finding gift ideas for people who are hard to buy for doesn't have to be so hard – it's just another puzzle to be solved!

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