I've got a birthday coming up, and it's a problem. My family is asking me what I want for my birthday. Given the circumstances, I won't see them and whatever I get will be a gift in the mail. Normally, I'd ask for some experience (trampoline house coupon on Groupon, for example), food, or books. This year, for reasons known but to God, books are off limits. To be fair, I get a B&N and Amazon gift card each Christmas that takes me .3 seconds to go through on books. Focus: What's on your wish list? Why wouldn't you buy it for yourself? Alt-focus: What's a solid gift?
Focus: I don’t have much of a wish list these days. Usually as Christmas rolls around I try to come up with a list of books, cds, or something like hoodies for work to avoid getting a bunch of shit I have no use for. The books I could buy myself but I wait and then put them in a list of ideas should anyone need help. Big, hardcover hobby oriented books for example that tend to be around 25-30 bucks. I’ve flat out asked family to please not buy clothes for me. My in-laws tried for the first few years of our marriage. But they learned I’m very fussy, and especially hate “big boy” clothes. But I do enjoy, and need, hoodies and sweatshirts for work if they really want to buy clothes. The last 10 years they give me an amazon gift card for both Christmas and my birthday, and they know I’ll use it to buy something fun I normally wouldn’t. The wife’s aunt gets me a subscription to “Adirondack Life” every year and I love it. Alt focus: You can’t go wrong with alcohol. And, magazine subscriptions have been a hit when I got them for someone
I've tried a bunch of different knife sharpeners, and there's a balance between how well something works and how quick and easy it is to use. This WorkSharp Ken Onion edition is amazing and has quickly become my favorite. It's $50 right now and worth every penny, get a good strop to go with it though. If I have the time I'll take out my lanksy system or wetstones for my kitchen knives, but for quick and easy, effective sharpening, that's my new go-to. The Work Sharp guided field sharpener ($30) is also great, and I use it to touch up my EDC knives, leatherman, etc if I don't have much time. It's small and sits in the center console of my truck.
Alt. Focus: A follow up on @Revengeofthenerds post, a prequel, actually. So, I teach college kids. In my classes, I always try to incorporate nutrition, exercise, healthful living, cooking, etc. whenever I can as filler between the material. I think it's such an important, and overlooked, skill that young people ought to embrace more. What's a solid gift for your niece/nephew? A Victorinox Pro 8" Chef's Knife. For anybody, actually. I've had the same one for about three years now. Beautiful. I can't comment on any Japanese knife (never had the pleasure), but this steel is SO much better than anything I've ever used.
I always struggle to come up with gift suggestions. I don't really like "stuff" so novelties are mostly an annoyance to me (like, I appreciate this cool Buffalo Bills mug but I have 9 other mugs already and have no use of another one). I've asked for nice coffee and bourbon in the past. That's great, but if that's your only suggestion you tend to end up with 14 lbs. of coffee. Alt-focus: I like to buy luxury versions of small things that people already have or use, especially consumables. A really expensive bottle of olive oil or balsamic vinegar can be amazing, and nobody wants to spend $40 on a small bottle of olive oil. Wine or liquor, obviously. My father-in-law likes to cook so I got him a variety of expensive salts. People balk at spending moderate amounts of money on very small things, but they're often just the right price range for a gift and nobody would think to put them on a list.
Yes! We have a specialty olive oil and balsamic vinegar place here and their stuff makes a great gift idea. Plus, I get an excuse to buy something for myself to experiment with in the kitchen.
Things like truffle oil, etc, are in the same line... I know I appreciated a small sample set of specialty oils (walnut, etc) that I'd never buy normally. Also a really nice bottle of high end balsamic vinegar is life changing for a cook... the first time you try it you're hard pressed to think of it as vinegar.