Father’s Day Gift Guide: How and What to Choose

I don’t know what it is about Father’s Day, but I used to find myself stumped on things to help our boys get for my husband. He’s not an easy man to buy for because he really doesn’t want much more than he has. Well, aside from that little miniature backhoe that he drools over every time we drive past the equipment dealer, but that isn’t happening any time soon… It goes against every fiber of my being to buy a gift just because ‘you’re supposed to,’ because those gifts seem like afterthoughts that would get socked into a closet or used once for form’s sake then discarded. I make it my mission to get creative and find something he’ll love and use often. I’ve developed a method over the years that may help take some of the angst out of buying a gift for your husband or dad on Father’s Day so you can avoid breaking the bank or the dreaded Tacky Tie Syndrome.

How to Choose a Great Gift for Dads:

• Assess your budget. I’m a firm believer in using creativity -not mega bucks- to find the perfect gift. Not every gift needs a blockbuster price tag to be fabulous. When you have a dollar range in mind, write it down to keep yourself in line.
• Think about how he spends his free time. Does he watch television? Run? Golf? Go boating? Walk? Read books? Grill? Travel a lot? Whatever he likes to do best with the time he has to himself, that’s a great place to start.
• Fill a need. Keeping his favourite thing in mind, look at something that would help him with it. Is his favourite show Breaking Bad? Buy him a DVD or the whole series. Does he run marathons? Get him some new shoes or an armband to hold his iPod. Does he like to do yard work? Get him some padded work gloves or a pair of pants with reinforced knees. Is he on the road a lot for work? Get him a piece of carry-on luggage, a travel pillow, or a travel charger for his phone.
• Make it about him and not about the glory of the gift. If you’re absolutely perplexed, give him a gift card to his favourite store. JCPenney has a little something for every dad in your life. In fact, JCPenney offers their own gift cards AND iTunes gift cards (among others). It’s the one-stop-dad-shop. Check out their Father’s Day Gift Hub to find the perfect match for your husband or dad!

Break it down: My husband refuses to buy nice things for himself. He drives a lot and travels a lot and walks a lot. I know he doesn’t wear the sunglasses he buys for himself every so often because he buys the cheapest ones he can and the lenses in the cheapo ones are distorted making them disorienting to wear. Keeping this in mind, I picked a great pair of aviator style sunglasses with polarized lenses for him from JCPenney. I paired it with an iTunes gift card that I ALSO found at JCPenney so he can download audiobooks onto his iPod to listen to while he walks. The sunglasses are on sale right now, making them a great economic choice. I’m certain he’ll love them!

If you want to have a little fun with the process or feel stressed, go to the JCPenney Tacky Tie Creator to coax dad into telling you what he wants. You can build the world’s ugliest tie and share it with him with a message: “Hey Dad. If you don’t want THIS for Father’s Day, you’d better tell me what you DO want!” Not only do you get a straight answer from Dad, but you can also get a coupon from JCPenney to help you buy that perfect gift.

Giveaway!

JCPenney is offering a generous $100 JCPenney gift card to help one lucky Foodie with Family reader buy a dream Father’s Day gift for their Dad or husband. To enter, all you have to do is tell us your favourite gift to give dad in the comments section for a chance to win that $100 JCPenney gift card.

Sweepstakes Rules:

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You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

• Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
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• For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/30-6/27/2014.

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