August is my husband’s birthday month, and since I didn’t get a Father’s Day Gift Guide out, I decided to put together a little gift guide for this month. It’s never too early to start shopping for Christmas, right?! Hope it’s not just me…

Shopping for the man in my life can be difficult sometimes because he doesn’t like me to buy him clothes (he has maybe actually worn four tops I’ve bought him over the past ten years), and he would rather just have me spend no money on him at all… Can anyone else relate?!

Anyway, regardless of his desire for me not to spend money on him, I will not stop because I think he deserves to get nice gifts.  After all he does such a good job taking care of our family.  And he’s my best friend and a great dad. Need I say more? 

Keep reading for my current favorite gift Ideas for that special man in your life…

For Will’s birthday this year I got him a 90 minute massage.  Everyone can use a good, deep tissue massage on occasion, right?! Okay, I think everyone should get deep tissue massages regularly, but the reality of life as a working parent with two young kids (and one on the way!) is maybe two or three massages a year… And that is goals.

If you haven’t had a massage in a while, they’re great for reducing tension and stress, improving circulation, improving sleep, and more! Ah, all this talk is making me want to book one for myself. I digress…

Disclaimer: If you purchase something from a link provided in this post, I may earn a small commission from your purchase. Ship’s HQ appreciates your support, and thanks you!

Anyway, to try to veer away from buying him clothes that he’ll never wear (although I love those personalized socks that you can get with pictures of your kid/fur baby’s face on it), I try to stay within four categories of gifts:

1. Favorite Sports,
2. Other Hobbies,
3. Something family/kid friendly, &
4. Special treats.

SPORTS

Will loves to play golf, so any kind of golf gadget, gear, or gift card is usually appreciated and enjoyed. IMO, you can never fail with a sports related gift for that man in your life. Favorite team, favorite sport… there are endless possibilities of gifts when it comes to this category.

HOBBIES

If I don’t find a gift that is sports related, my next go to is usually something hobby related. Will loves to grill, so something that can help him make us all delicious food is always a great gift option. He has loved using different kinds of the thermapens, that can help you read the temperature of your meat in a variety of ways. For example, there’s a digital pen that you can just stick into your meat for a very quick and accurate reading, and there’s another one that you can leave in your meat while cooking (if you’re grilling something larger), and can check on a little monitor the temperature so you can walk away from the grill and do other things while you’re cooking all day.

If your special someone is a bit of a foodie, there are some kits that are great ideas for gifts as well. Has he ever expressed interest in brewing his own beer, or done it in the past? Does he love kombucha, or cooking with delicious mushrooms? There’s a kit for all of that.

I was recently gifted a mushroom growing kit from North Spore, and I had so much fun growing yummy mushrooms to incorporate into meals for our family. Not only was it super easy to use, but it also lasted for several mushroom harvests (unlike some other grow kits that I have used in the past). You literally just open it up, spray with the cute little spray bottle, and watch the magic happen!

It is so fun to watch how quickly the mushrooms grow too. One day you see little buds coming up, and then boom! You have huge mushrooms practically overnight. Now mushrooms are a fungus, so before the mushrooms start growing things may look a little funky. But just trust the process and keep spritzing your spores and you’ll have beautiful, delicious mushrooms to munch on before you know it. I loved using them in soups, in pastas, stir fries, and on burgers. And they’re so good for you too!

Here are a couple more photos because I just can’t get enough.

What other hobbies does your significant other have? Is he into music, does he like to build things with his hands? Keep your ears open for hints of things he might need for different projects he wants to do.

KID AND FAMILY FRIENDLY GIFTS

As a mom, I love finding gifts that have dual purpose. Gifts that dad will enjoy AND that will provide bonding opportunities to bring us all together. While sports and hobbies can definitely do both of those, I have a few other ideas that can do that as well.

For example, for Will’s first father’s day I bought him an outdoor, wooden bench to put by the pond in our backyard so he can have a place to sit and have “father daughter” talks with our kiddos as they grow. This year for father’s day, I bought Will a fire pit so he and our kids can have “lots SMORE fun” together come fall and the colder months.

For a fire pit, I went with a solo stove because they are smokeless so you don’t have to worry about smoke in your eyes if you’re sitting in the wrong spot, and you also don’t have to worry about your hair and clothes smelling either!

I know this is kind of a big gift, and in case you’re wondering, I don’t always give Will big gifts (especially for father’s day). There are plenty of times he has just gotten very small gifts, or even just something home made (which are sometimes my favorite). Anyway, I decided to get the solo stove for Father’s day because they had a pretty good Labor Day sale (and they might have one for Memorial Day coming up too if you’re interested in getting one as well).

Some other fun family related ideas might be lawn games that you all can play like corn hole, or bacci ball.

SPECIAL TREATS

This year’s massage definitely falls under the special treat category. I’d also put special gifts like maybe a new watch, or cufflinks in this category too.

Hope you enjoyed this post! Have you had any slam dunk gifts for him in the past? Leave me a comment below, I would love to hear what you did (and appreciate extra ideas as well! :). Cheers and happy gifting!