While shopping for the men in my life admittedly feels like a bigger challenge than shopping for the women I love, I still thoroughly enjoy trying to find a gift I believe will make the dads I adore so much smile. I tend to gravitate toward more practical gifts for guys and always make sure to run my gift guides by the men in my life to get their approval. Many of the gift ideas in my gift guides actually come from them so I hope something below will pop out at you if you’re hoping to make a father, grandfather or father figure in your life smile this Father’s Day!
Father’s Day Gift Guide
Spoiler alert: I got one of these for Ryan for Father’s Day this year! Whenever we’ve had friends over since moving into our new house, we’ve commented on how nice it would be to have a better cooler situation we can move all over our yard and out on our dock to have drinks readily available to adults and kids alike. I saw a rolling cooler for the first time at HomeSense but didn’t love the style so I snapped a picture on my phone to keep it in the back of my mind for Father’s Day. I then found a bunch of options I liked better online and immediately added one to my cart. (This is the model I ordered to best match our exterior aesthetic.) I have a feeling this is going to be a big hit with Ryan this year!
I gave a hand cut map of the University of Central Florida campus to Ryan for Christmas last year (it’s where we met!) and he loved this gift. He’s commented on it numerous times as we now have it prominently displayed in our kitchen. I love that it is a beautiful piece of home décor in our house that doubles as something meaningful to us.
I’ve seen this trend on social media and thought it would be a fun one to apply to Father’s Day! Here’s the gist: Write two options for various activities/surprises on several sets of notecards. Hold both in front of Dad on Father’s Day without him knowing what is on each card and have him choose one card. Whichever notecard he picks dictates the direction of the day/the next surprise! For example, to begin the day you might hold out two notecards in front of him with one saying “breakfast in bed” and the other saying “brunch at your favorite restaurant.” The next pair could say “fishing” or “movie of your choice” for an activity… and on and on all day long!
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Favorite Food or Drink-Themed Gift
Think about his favorite food or drink and build a gift around it! Does he love ice cream? This ice cream maker is our favorite and gets a ton of use in our house. Is he a grill master? Ryan loves this $15 instant-read digital meat thermometer. Is he big on movie nights and popcorn? The boys gave this custom movie night popcorn bowl to Ryan one year and he loved it! (I ordered this popcorn bowl off Etsy but changed “Date Night” to “Movie Night” and put “The Fagan Family” underneath.) Big on bonfires and s’mores? Personalized marshmallow roasting sticks were another hit with Ryan in our house! Maybe he loves creating new cocktails? This mixology set might be a fun gift. Is pizza night a family favorite? We’ve been eyeing one of these pizza ovens for a while now.
How many times can I include this in a gift guide? The limit does not exist! But, hear me out. We’ve loved our cordless electric screwdriver for years but it only became all the more treasured after we moved. We’ve put together SO many pieces of furniture over the past five months and this electric screwdriver has absolutely saved us. An added bonus? The boys love this thing as much as me and Ryan and love “helping” with various household tasks whenever the electric screwdriver is involved.
What better time to gift some warm-weather favorites than the beginning of the summer! Here are a few summertime staples Ryan swears by that I think would make a great gift: Vuori tuvalu tees (I gifted one to Ryan for Christmas and he says it’s officially his favorite t-shirt), Target Goodfellow Knit Shorts (my brother-in-law had these first and I copied him and bought Ryan a pair he quickly fell in love with last year), Hari Mari flip flops (Ryan loves that these work for both the pool and around town — his fav is the gray pair), lululemon linerless shorts (Ryan, my dad and brother-in-law love them), Nike UV bucket hat with drawstring (Ryan’s go-to for sun protection on the boat and at the beach — I think any golfers out there might appreciate this one, too!), BOMBAS ankle socks (a favorite for years) and adidas slides (Ryan’s had his same pair for well over a decade).
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Health/Wellness Treatment
There are SO many new trendy health and wellness treatments out there. Of course you can never go wrong with a classic massage but, depending on their interests, something like a session in an infrared sauna, a liquid IV treatment or cryotherapy might be a unique gift! I gifted Ryan a liquid IV treatment (a recovery one geared toward athletes training for endurance races) but gave it to him early to use before his Half Ironman and he was so psyched to give it a try!
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Clothing That Captures Kid Interests
Ryan always smiles whenever the boys give him something that has to do with something they love and share together. Our boys have given him goofy socks (shark socks, space socks, etc.), t-shirts (the lizard shirt a handful of you have commented on in the past), boxers (sprinkle donut boxers, fishing boxers, etc.) and more. I try to include the boys when I shop for these items even if it just means letting them sit in my lap as we browse Etsy or the internet together because it gets them all the more excited to gift something they were a part of to Dad!
