40 sentimental Christmas gifts for your wife, husband or partner
Forty Christmas gifts for the person you love most, about your story rather than the price tag.
40 ideas ·
After a few Christmases together, buying for your partner gets harder, not easier. You've done the perfume, the watch and the gadget, and anything they really want they've probably bought already. What's left is the one thing no store sells: proof of how well you know them.
That's what makes a Christmas gift sentimental. It points at your story, not the price tag. These 40 ideas are sorted by the kind of gift they are: gifts made of words, memories to unwrap, ideas for your wife, for your husband, for a girlfriend or boyfriend, for your first Christmas together, and small things for the stocking. Most cost very little. All of them take thought.
If you choose a gift made of words, you'll need the words. Borrow from 75 reasons why I love you, for my wife or 60 reasons why I love you, for him, or let the free reasons generator draft ten from your own memories.
Gifts made of words
At Christmas everyone gets things. Very few people get told, in detail, why they're loved.
- A book of reasons you love them: fifty of them, one per page, written from your Christmases together, with the two of you illustrated in the snow on the cover.
- A letter for every Christmas you've spent together, each about what you remember from that year, read in order on Christmas Eve.
- An advent calendar of reasons, with a note behind each door saying one thing you love about them, starting December 1.
- A jar of 365 folded notes, one for every day of the new year: memories, reasons and jokes only they'll get.
- A set of open-when letters for the year ahead: open on your birthday, when you miss me, when you've had a bad day.
- Your wedding vows, or the first message you ever sent each other, printed and framed.
- A handwritten list of the moments from this year you never want to forget, rolled up in the toe of their stocking.
Memories to unwrap
- A Christmas ornament for every year you've been together, each marked with the year and a small symbol of what happened in it.
- A photo album of this year, with a handwritten caption under every picture.
- A print of the night sky over the place you met, on the night you met.
- A framed map of the place you got engaged, married or first kissed, with the exact spot marked.
- A record or a playlist of your songs, with a line about why each one made it.
- Your first Christmas together, recreated: the same meal, the same movie, the same terrible jokes.
Christmas gifts for your wife
She has probably spent December making Christmas happen for everyone else. These are for her.
- A book of reasons you love her, about the things she does that nobody thanks her for, from the presents she wrapped to the dinner she pulled off.
- A necklace or bracelet engraved with your wedding date, or the coordinates of the place you met.
- The whole day after Christmas, handed to her: you take the kids, the dishes and the leftovers, and she does whatever she likes.
- Her mother's or grandmother's Christmas recipes, collected from the family and printed as a little cookbook.
- A weekend away in January, booked and wrapped, with the childcare already arranged.
- A letter about the moment you knew she was the one, tucked into the last present she opens.
Christmas gifts for your husband
Most husbands say they don't want anything for Christmas. That doesn't mean they wouldn't like to hear why they're loved.
- A book of fifty reasons you love him, from the lights he untangles every year to the way he still makes you laugh.
- Something he's had for years, restored: his first guitar, his grandfather's watch, the old jacket he won't throw out.
- Tickets to see his team, or the band he loved at twenty, with you along for the ride.
- A framed photo of the two of you from the year you met, with a note about what you thought of him then.
- A whiskey, coffee or beer tasting for two, booked for the gray weeks of January.
- A note in his wallet saying why you'd marry him all over again, for him to find in the new year.
For a girlfriend or boyfriend
Early in a relationship, a sentimental gift doesn't need to be big. It needs to show you've been listening.
- A book of reasons you love them, about the things you've noticed since the day you met.
- A scrapbook of your first dates, with the ticket stubs, receipts and photos, and a caption for each.
- An instant camera with the first picture already in the box: one of the two of you.
- The thing they mentioned once, months ago, and assumed you'd forgotten.
- A coupon book of dates for the new year, one for every month.
For your first Christmas together
Your first Christmas together only happens once. These gifts make it something to look back on. Our First Christmas is a book of reasons made for exactly this year.
- A book of fifty reasons from your first months together, from the first date to the first tree.
- A first Christmas ornament with both your names and the year, to hang every December from now on.
- A box of firsts: the first movie ticket, the first note, the first photo, kept and wrapped together.
- A new tradition, written on a card and promised for every Christmas to come: a walk, a film, a breakfast.
- A letter to open on your tenth Christmas together, sealed and dated.
Stocking fillers that still mean something
- The candy they loved as a kid, tracked down online and tucked into the toe.
- A tiny framed photo for their desk, from a day only the two of you remember.
- A mug with your inside joke on it, which makes no sense to anyone else.
- A deck of 52 cards with a reason written on each in your handwriting, one for every week of the year.
- A card with three things you loved about them this year, which is the gift underneath all the others.
How to make any Christmas gift sentimental
Sentimental doesn't mean expensive, and it doesn't have to mean homemade. It means specific. A scarf is a scarf; a scarf in the color of the one they lost on your first trip together is a story. Before you wrap anything, ask what it says about them that nobody else would know.
Then write it down. Even a practical present becomes sentimental with three lines about why you chose it. If you're stuck, here's what to write in a Christmas card, with 100 messages to borrow.
The gift they'll keep is the one that could only have come from you. If you want the words to be the gift itself, Reasons I Love You This Christmas asks about your Christmases together and turns your answers into fifty reasons, illustrated to look like the two of you in the snow. For a new couple, there's Our First Christmas.
For a printed book, order by Wednesday, December 2 in the US or Monday, December 7 in the UK, and our Christmas order dates have every other country. After that, the digital book is ready minutes after you approve it, and there are more ideas in last-minute Christmas gifts.
Questions people ask
What is a sentimental Christmas gift?+
A gift that's about your story rather than the object: a letter, a book of reasons, an ornament for every year you've been together, a photo album of this year. It doesn't need to cost much. It needs to show that you remember.
What should I get my wife for Christmas?+
Something that shows how well you know her. A book of reasons you love her, her family's recipes made into a cookbook, or the day after Christmas with everything handled all work, especially with a note saying why you chose it.
What is a sentimental Christmas gift for my husband?+
Most husbands say they don't want anything, so give him something he'd never buy himself: fifty reasons you love him, something he's had for years restored, or a framed photo from the year you met with a note about what you thought of him then.
What should we get each other for our first Christmas together?+
Something that marks the start: an ornament with both your names and the year, a box of your firsts, or Our First Christmas, a book of fifty reasons from your first months together.
