Although choosing Christmas gifts for your nearest and dearest is, of course, a pleasure, there’s no getting away from the fact that thinking of something different and appealing year after year can become a little difficult. Luckily, the range and quality of Christmas photo gifts means that finding something different has just become much easier.
Searching for gifts which are apt, original and affordable can often be difficult, particularly if you’re working on a limited budget. That’s why there are so many jokes to be told about men receiving pairs of socks or the same aftershave year after year. They may only be humorous asides, but there’s a definite grain of truth in them and, no matter how much it may be true that ‘it’s the thought that counts’, being able to predict exactly the kind of gifts you’re going to be receiving can take some of the fun out of the festive season. Look around any large department store and you’ll find an area labelled ‘Christmas gift ideas for men’ and it will be full of the same tired old clichés, such as whiskey decanters in the shape of a golfer, or novelty slippers.
This kind of thinking tends to treat men as a homogenised mass, all with the same tastes and likes, whereas, actually, every dad, granddad, husband son or brother is an individual with unique preferences, and the best kind of gifts take this into account. One way of making sure that the gift you give is a total one off is to take advantage of the advances offered by digital technology and use some of the images from your own collection to create Christmas photo gifts. It doesn’t matter if you want to lavish a large amount of money on a luxury gift, or spend a few pounds on a cheerful stocking filler, the range of items available is such that you’re bound to find something which fits the bill, from t-shirts and mugs, to key rings and canvas prints.
If you really want to let someone know just how much they mean to you, then why not really push the boat out and put together a personalised photo book. Let’s imagine you know somebody who is a keen amateur footballer – what could be a better and more heartfelt gift than a bespoke volume chronicling their ‘career’ on the pitch. You could ask everyone who knows them to send any snaps they have of footballing action, celebrations or team shots, all the way back to when they started on the school team. Once you’ve gathered the photographs, they can be uploaded to the relevant website and turned into the kind of thick, heavy, glossy volume usually associated with documenting the sporting triumphs of someone like David Beckham.
Actually ‘designing’ the book has been made extremely simple, consisting of a series of incremental choices on matters such as the size and shape of the pages and the layout. You can even design the front and back cover and add text, and at the end of it you’ll be presented with a professionally produced photo book which will delight whoever is on the receiving end.
Choosing Christmas photo gifts for your nearest and dearest.