Selecting gifts for a new relationship is not an easy task. While you want to make your sweetheart happy, choosing an inappropriate gift could send the wrong message.
Gift Ideas
This list is a small sample of possible gift ideas. The best gift is one that is sensitive to the interests and personality of your sweetheart.
The Gift of Music
Buying your date a CD may be one of the best new relationship gifts, especially if it’s a gift for a teenage boyfriend. The cost is low yet it allows you to select something very personal. Choosing music that your date enjoys shows that you are paying attention to his or her interests. You may be tempted to introduce your date to music that you prefer. Save that for another time, a gift is all about what the receiver will enjoy.
If your date doesn’t buy CDs anymore, consider giving an iTunes gift card instead.
Movies and TV Shows
Buying your sweetheart a DVD is another great gift idea. Before you buy, browse through your date’s movie collection; you don’t want to buy something he or she already owns. The best movie is one that your doesn’t own but has mentioned in conversation as being a favorite. If your sweetheart already owns all his or her favorite movies, then buying a new release is your next best option. Movies are less personal than music, so you can also consider introducing your date to an older movie you think he or she may enjoy.
If your date doesn’t own any DVDs, consider buying movie passes or a video store gift card instead.
A Video Game
If your boyfriend is a gamer, he would really enjoy receiving a video game. The only problem is that games are fairly expensive. New games are usually $60.00. The other problem is that you risk losing time with your boyfriend because he’ll want to play the game. To solve this problem, ask to play the game with him. Most guys would love to have a girlfriend who likes to game with him.
Beautiful Flowers
Flowers are such an obvious choice that sometimes they are overlooked. Women are used to receiving flowers as Valentine’s gifts for new relationships, but they rarely receive flowers at other times. Reverse this trend and surprise her with flowers when she least expects them. Choosing flowers can be intimidating if you aren’t used to buying them. A bouquet of several different flower types is a good choice for a new relationship. If you decide to get roses, be aware that rose colors have different meanings. Red means, “I love you” which may not be appropriate for your new relationship. Some better choices are medium (not light or dark) pink, which means “happiness,” yellow, which signifies, “friendship and caring,” and orange, which means, “I desire to get to know you better.”
If your relationship is very new, your sweetheart may not have told her colleagues at work about it yet. To avoid this potential embarrassment, you should avoid sending flowers to the office. Instead, deliver the flowers yourself the next time you see your sweetheart.
A Hobby Membership
Many places from fitness centers to science museums offer individual memberships that come with special deals and perks. Look for a place you know your partner frequents or talks about and see if they offer gift memberships. For places like gyms where they’re likely to attend multiple times a week, opt for a 30-day membership to keep the cost and commitment down. This gift shows you’ve been listening and paying attention to them and want to encourage their hobbies.
Tabletop Games
Card games, board games, and tabletop game tables such as a miniature foosball or air hockey table tell your partner you’d like to have some fun. Look for two-player games to encourage activities you can do together. Consider your partner’s personality and preferences when choosing a game. If she’s more reserved, a simple card game will do. If he’s animated and outgoing pick a party game that requires lots of active play.
A Unique Experience
While you don’t want to get carried away with spending, giving your new boyfriend or girlfriend a unique experience makes for a memorable gift. Gift certificates or flexible date tickets for cool, one-of-a-kind experiences like an escape room, sunset paddleboarding excursion, or cooking lesson from a five-star chef can be affordable. Consider your partner and brainstorm anything she’s mentioned she’d love to do one day. Look for a closely related opportunity that won’t take up too much of her time or your budget. You’ll want to get her two or more tickets so she can enjoy the experience with someone, just be careful not to pressure her to take you. Suggest someone else in her life you were thinking she should take along then leave the decision up to her.
Fun Office Supplies
Everyone has either a professional office or a home office of some kind. Make their boring work time more exciting and give them a reason to think about you when you give the gift of fun office supplies. Look for sticky notes, staplers, pens, paper clips, file folders, or tape dispensers in their favorite colors or the shape of an animal they love. Since these gifts are pretty cheap, consider buying a set. Since the gift is meant for your partner’s office, if they hate it they won’t feel obligated to use it because you aren’t likely to ever see it in their professional space.
How to Choose Gifts for New Relationship
Early on in a relationship, the gift you buy should be personal but not too extravagant.
Keep Costs Low
Buying diamond earrings or other expensive jewelry, for example, could send all sorts of wrong messages. Your date may think you are very serious about marriage, which could make him or her nervous. It may also cause your sweetheart to think you are made of money. Even if you do have the funds to continue buying expensive gifts, these are best saved for later in your relationship.
Be Thoughtful
Gifts for new relationships should be fun, thoughtful and relatively inexpensive. It should show that you care about your date and are observant regarding his or her likes and dislikes. Using jewelry as an example, while diamonds are a poor choice, a simple bracelet or a necklace charm is more reasonable.
Keep it PG-13
Depending on your preferences and how new your relationship is, you might not have started a sexual relationship yet. Choose gifts that aren’t sexual in nature to avoid putting any undue pressure on your partner.
Give General Gifts
Since you may not know a lot about your partner’s preferences, stick to gifts that are pretty generic. For example, steer clear of specific team apparel unless you are certain what their favorite teams are. Skip the food and drink gifts unless you know if they have any allergies. Think about gifts you could give to a friend who isn’t your Bestie and shop for those items.
When to Give a Gift
The timing of your new relationship gift is nearly as important as the gift itself.
Give Major Holiday Gifts
Giving gifts on major holidays is expected, even for acquaintances and distant relatives. Give your partner small gifts on big holidays so they’ll feel included without any pressure to take things to a more serious level. Holidays on which people in new relationships should give gifts include:
- Birthdays
- Christmas
- Sweetest Day
- Valentine’s Day
Give Thinking of You Gifts
The best time to give a gift is when it’s totally unexpected. Pick a random day to give your gift. When your date asks why you gave the gift, you’ll be able to say “I was just thinking about you.”
Avoid Minor Anniversaries
While it may seem cute or sentimental to give a gift on an anniversary date, this is a bad idea. If you give a gift for your one-month anniversary, your sweetheart may then expect a gift after two months and so forth. Even if you enjoy giving gifts, you don’t want to create this expectation in your relationship.
Show Them You Care
Giving gifts shows your partner that you care about them and enjoy doing nice things for them. The wrong gift at the wrong time can cause tension or awkwardness in your relationship, so shop with care. Next, start collecting some romantic birthday ideas so you’ll be prepared to wow your new partner on their special day.
