5 Fantastic Christmas Gift Ideas for the Hard to Shop for Dad

Choosing a great holiday gift for your father can be a challenging task especially if they are picky or already own just about everything. My own Father tells me not to get him a gift every season. Although it would keep some money in my wallet, I can never bring myself to not offer up a gift to my Dad during Christmas. Something would not feel right. After all, he has been there for me during good times and rough times. Giving him a gift during the holidays is just another way to let him know that I care. Plus, he always gives me one. For some reason, my Mother is much easier to shop for. Maybe the reason is because I am a woman, too, or that she lets me know what she would like to receive. My Father never wants anything. Does that sound like your Dad?

Because, on a repeated basis, I have been put in the awkward position for shopping for a man who wants nothing or has everything, I have learned a few tricks. Mostly these tricks have come from a silent observation of my Dad and other men in my life. Usually, men have certain clubs they belong to, events that they attend, hobbies that they pursue, foods they particularly like to eat or items that they collect. All of these things can help you find an appropriate gift for your Dad and I will explain how to use these insights to your advantage in a moment. By breaking down the interests of your Dad into categories, great gift ideas will appear. Let us begin.

Most dads, like mine, belong to social, church or activity groups. For example, my Father was a member of the Kiwanis Club for many years. Groups like the Kiwanis Club, Lion's Club, Shriners, Rotary Club, The Masons and Men's Church Groups often work hard throughout the year to raise money to support local charities. The Lion's Club collects old eye glasses to donate to charity. The glasses are separated by prescription strength and then distributed to people who cannot afford glasses. The glasses may be distributed across the globe to help those individuals with sight impairments.

The Shriners do a fantastic job raising money to support their children's hospitals. The hospitals help children who suffer from severe burn trauma. The Shriner's Fez is an iconic symbol of their fraternity and children of all ages have enjoyed the Shriner's Circus.

The gift that your Dad would appreciate if he is an active club member would be a donation to his club to support the charity of choice. Along with the donation you could include a personalized or vintage item that adds the charities' logo to the gift. Insert a note card with the gift to let your dad know that you have donated to his cause in his name. Accessories like logo branded pins, hats, hat boxes, beer trays, coasters, brief cases, jackets and umbrellas can be found. Dad is sure to appreciate a gift that supports his interests as well as his charity of choice.

Use an event to inspire a gift. Dads usually enjoy sporting events from baseball, basketball, hockey and football. Sporting events are not the only events attended. Concerts are a favorite and so are movies. Some dad's prefer the theater. Use your Dad's favorite event to make up a fantastic gift package. For example, if your father is an avid hockey fan create a fantastic gift by purchasing hockey tickets and including a personalized jersey or hat that he can wear to the event.

Tickets to a concert and a CD go hand in hand. A concert and music to listen to while driving to the show would make any dad happy this holiday season. If he isn't a music fanatic, make a gift with cinema tickets or theater tickets and include a gift certificate for his favorite restaurant or pizza place. Your dad works hard. A night out is the perfect Christmas gift.

Many supermarket chains allow you to use your market club savings card to purchase tickets for movies and events at a discounted price. Check with your food retailer at the customer service desk to see if they offer discounted event tickets. It always helps if you can save a little money during the holidays and these supermarket incentives are a great way to do so.

Okay, what Dad does not like to eat or have a favorite drink? One can be more creative than just wrapping up a box of chocolates to give to dad. Is your dad a meat and potatoes guy? Is he a master at the grill? Try a great package that includes sending dad his favorite steak to throw on the barb-b-que. Many online steak purveyors offer free shipping and include packages that will send out a steak a month. Many packages include the addition of seafood, pork chops, turkey or ham. Try Omaha Steaks or Kansas City Steaks.

Beverages that dad enjoys may include beer or wine. Beer that is produced locally can be a great gift. Many micro breweries offer free brewery tours and some even have restaurants. A gift certificate to dad's local brew pub is a great choice. Craft beer is a particularly fine beer that limits the use of adjuncts like wheat and follows crafting standards. A craft beer goes above and beyond to produce a beer like no other. Once again, monthly gift giving is an option. Beer of the month packages can be found at the Craft Beer Club. If dad is a wine drinker try Wine of the Month Club.

Back to that box of chocolates. Dads that have a sweet tooth may actually enjoy that box of chocolate. There are hand crafted chocolatiers that produce amazing truffles and bon bons. A formally trained chocolatier produces confections from chocolate while a chocolate maker actually produces chocolate from cacao beans. A chocolatier is like a chef. His recipes are distinctive and original. A far more thoughtful gift of chocolates would be a box of confections from a chocolatier. Try Swiss fudge from Van Otis. Van Otis is a chocolatier that has been perfecting its craft for over 75 years. Evangaline Hasiotis began making chocolate in her third floor apartment. She was trained at the Fannie Farmer confectionery school in 1935. Van Otis is under new ownership but the craftsmanship and quality of their sweets has not changed.

Godiva Chocolatiers are one of the most well known retailers of fine chocolate gifts. Started in Belgium in 1926, Godiva holiday gifts make a lasting impression. Godiva offers limited addition chocolates, truffles, hot chocolate, and a chocolate of the month club.

Hobbies for dad range from fly fishing, wood crafting, writing, painting, model making, boating, skiing, jogging and bicycling to many, many more. A hobbyist is can be a beginner or highly accomplished in their skill. Having a hobby helps dad to relax and unwind. He can release stress after a long hard day.

Having the necessary tools and equipment to perfect a hobby is a prerequisite. Finding the perfect gifts for dad may lie in researching the necessary equipment needed for that trade. When learning a hobby or trying to improve on a hobby, hobbyists have to research a lot of information. That means that your dad reads a lot. A hobbyist likes to read about master of a craft or if your father's hobby is running, he may read about winners of an athetic event like a local marathon. If he makes home made beer, he will read a ton of material on the art of brewing beer.

If you go out to buy your dad a piece of equipment necessary for his hobby of interest, he may already have it or the piece may not be of the brand or quality he is looking for. I prefer to stay away from buying equipment necessary for my dad's hobbies and focus instead on the reading material he may use.

If your dad does not already own a Kindle or a tablet, then this may be the perfect gift for your father the hobbyist. Hand held reading devices, like the Kindle, are reasonably affordable and easy to use. Gift certificates are available for hobbyists who already own a hand held reading device. The certificate is an appropriate gift so that dad can download crucial information obtaining to his hobby.

Most people enjoy collecting things and dads are not excluded. Like hobbies, collecting is not limited to only a few items. Fathers like to collect antiques, cameras, movies, music, toy trains, comic books, tools, coins, stamps, baseball cards, autographs, cars, motorcycles, books, and even action figures. A couple of the hardest things about having a large collection of a certain item is storing the items and displaying collections.

Your dad collects things because they are valuable to him in some way or have a high monetary value. He may be collecting an item in order to pass it down to his children. Storing and displaying a collection properly will keep it from losing its value or being ruined.

A proper gift for a dad who collects is another item to add to his collection. An even better gift would to be to help him learn how to display his collection in the most orderly, protective and appealing way possible. This is not an easy task. Building and organizing display cabinets or itemizing and cataloging collection items is painstaking and time consuming.

Give dad a great holiday gift by offering your own time to help him organize his collections or to build a display case for his items. The time you spend together doing this can be a gift in itself since you will share a memorable event together. Hand write your father a note telling him that you will give him a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to work on a project together. Tuck it inside a book that shows ways of displaying and organizing collections or tuck the note in a book of plans for building a display cabinet.

Here are some useful books for collectors.