We have added so many new products to the site in the last few months that I thought it might be useful to create a few edits of my favourite gifts for people around me... which might help you. It might not, but it's a great excuse for me to introduce titles of which you may be unaware and it also might help to concentrate my mind 😬
As this week is the anniversary of my dad's birth and, as many of you know, he is no longer here, I thought I'd start with him. He'll not have seen most of these products which is a shame as I think their success would have made him very proud.
Bearing in mind that dad used to say that 'only the inarticulate resort to swearing' he wasn't a huge fan of the use of expletives, but would forgive in the right context and, in fact, by the end, was pretty laissez-faire on the issue. But I don't think he'd be a huge fan of the "Merry Fucking Christmas" Range, although he was partial to a pair of socks at Christmas.
So if I still had him, I'd pile up a load of little Christmas presents to make him smile and they'd include the following:
Firstly, he'd get chocolate. This was a man who could (and often would) eat an entire extended pack of After Eight Mints in one sitting. So, I'd pop in a bar or two of our artisan made delicious milk chocolate bars.
Secondly, I'd have to find a pin or two just for him and it would have to be the "Best Dad" one just because I'm sentimental and he'd probably have said he hated it but secretly loved it. I'd also gift him the Old English "Patience is Half of Happiness" just to fuck with him. He was the most impatient man you'd likely ever meet. Every day was a rush until he'd fall asleep on the sofa in front of the news. He was the man you'd see on the kerb looking to cross the road and think to yourself 'he's not going to go for it... oh wow! he is actually crossing, ooft, that was close'. Still... he'd always make it across even if it involved heart attacks of all around him.
Thirdly, in lieu of the sweary socks, I'd choose a mug and I think this one sums him up pretty well. It would definitely have made him laugh.
Then I'd gift him some notebooks that would tickle him. He wasn't as big a fan of a notebook as my mum, he was more of a back of envelope (literally) kinda guy so this title "Things I Shouldn't Write on a Scrap of Paper and Then Lose" would be perfect, even if the judicious use of the elastic closing was all he used to keep the scraps of paper inside 🙈
I'd also give him this pocket one as he was a sailor, loved nothing more than being on the water and racing against anyone he could find. There are quite a few disasters in the family history that happened at sea... nothing so bad that can't be laughed about in hindsight, but this title always reminds me of him.
I think he'd also have liked this bookmark. "Stercus Accidit" means "Shit Happens" in pig Latin (it was highly unlikely to have been used as an expression). But he was partial to a bookmark my dad.
He was also a man of many keys. Huge clumps of them scattered about the house and as we now have around 80 different keyrings, he'd definitely not be needing to go elsewhere for identifiers for each set!! I'd go classy for his Christmas gift this year and go for his initials.
But my dad isn't here so I don't get to give him this little bundle of gifts that I think would make him smile and laugh. So, as always, I'll be wearing my memorial pin on his birthday and thinking of him and wishing that, of all the Christmas gifts I'd like to give him this year, a bloody big hug would be the best of all.
