{"id":471,"date":"2024-12-11T22:59:02","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T23:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/?p=471"},"modified":"2025-07-13T14:54:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T14:54:35","slug":"worried-about-what-to-buy-the-man-in-your-life-for-christmas-the-perfect-gift-may-be-more-modest-than-you-think-joel-snape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/11\/worried-about-what-to-buy-the-man-in-your-life-for-christmas-the-perfect-gift-may-be-more-modest-than-you-think-joel-snape\/","title":{"rendered":"Worried about what to buy the man in your life for Christmas? The perfect gift may be more modest than you think | Joel Snape"},"content":{"rendered":"
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W<\/span>hen I was a small boy, socks were the inverse of a Platonically ideal present \u2013 the last resort of a tragically unimaginative relative, correctly derided in the Beano as the worst possible gift. Now that I\u2019m a 45-year-old dad, though, I\u2019ve done a 180 \u2013 few things make me happier on Christmas<\/a> morning than the tell-tale crinkle of a floppy, foot-shaped gift. Maybe this is what being a grownup really means.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s because, as you age, you tend to invest in fewer luxuries for yourself. Fine, I\u2019m not above a subscription box of IPAs<\/a> or some nice fineliners, but when it comes to the essentials of life, I buy \u2026 the basics. A set of AirPods? You can get a set of Bluetooth headphones for less than \u00a320. Designer glasses? Not when I look so stylish in my nerd-frames. A six-pack of white athletic socks? Yes, please \u2014 throw in a pack of plain T-shirts while you\u2019re at it.<\/p>\n

For men like me, the best gifts are those we would never buy for ourselves. We\u2019ve got books, Blu-rays and graphic novels covered \u2013 you will never work out what we actually want and it\u2019s a waste of time to try. If you really care, get us a modest upgrade of a bargain-basement product you\u2019ve spotted us using: we will be thoroughly grateful and use it until it wears out. Corkscrews, pepper grinders, pencil sharpeners \u2013 these are the things we need, not drones and whisky decanters. My mum bought me a really nice potato masher two decades ago and I still think of her every time I use it, even though she is no longer with us. Truly, the greatest gift of all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a small boy, socks were the inverse of a Platonically ideal present \u2013 the last resort of a tragically unimaginative relative, correctly [Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-make-money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":474,"href":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions\/474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birthdayvoucher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}