Anniversary Gifts - The List
By: Michael Russell
You’ve actually made it. You’ve survived another year of marriage and now it’s time to pick out an anniversary gift for your spouse. The traditional list of gift ideas is there for a reason. Some of us just have a hard time thinking of something to buy. Those of us with a limited imagination will fall back on what is comfortable. Ultimately what happens, especially if you’ve been married a long time, is you end up getting your spouse the same thing year after year, especially if you happen to know your spouse has a preference for certain things.
For example, if your husband is an avid sports fan, you’re more likely than not, going to get him something sports related, maybe a jersey of his favorite sports team. Maybe he’s a card collector. In that case, you might get him a 1957 Mickey Mantle card. Maybe he loves auto racing so you get him a poster of the Bobby Unser and each year that goes by, you get him something similar, playing it safe and not really using much of an imagination. This is not to say he won’t like his gifts. He’s just not going to be very surprised.
For the men buying the gifts, it’s the same thing. If the man knows his wife loves jewelry and what woman doesn’t, then he’s going to get her a bracelet one year and a necklace another year, maybe a ring another year and the string of gifts alone those lines will just continue year after year. And again, while she may like the gifts, there’s not going to be much of a surprised look on her face when she gets them.
An anniversary is very special. The day you celebrate it is very special, so the gift that you buy for the anniversary should be special as well. Part of that gift being special is the surprised look on your spouses face when he or she gets it. That’s why we have a list. Because for each item on the list there are a number of options for the gift itself, which we’ll go into in more detail in future articles.
Some people might think that having a list makes the anniversary gift even less of a surprise. For example, if it’s your first anniversary and you know that the first one is paper, you’re going to expect something made out of paper. So where’s the surprise? Well, for starters, how many things are made out of paper? If you sat down and really thought about it, you’d discover that there are quite a few things made out of paper. So ultimately, your possible gift ideas turn out to be greater than if you just thought about what your spouse likes. In addition, there is always the chance that your spouse will disregard the list one year. Now, wouldn’t THAT be a surprise, especially if he or she stuck to it for the first 17 years?
In the next article in this series, we’re going to discuss some normal and not so normal gift ideas for your first anniversary. No, anniversary gifts don’t have to be predictable.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Anniversary Gifts