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Valentine’s Day 2021: Gift ideas, top retailers, tips & tricks
Don't panic about Valentine's Day this year. Here's your guide to buying romantic gifts, top stores to buy from and generally winning at Valentine's Day. You've got this.
Come February 14th each year, couples wonder if their other half is planning everything, singles loudly express their distaste for the “Hallmark Holliday” and let’s not even get started on people who just started dating and now have to navigate a relationship land mine with more precision than a bomb disposal squad.
But it doesn’t have to be that stressful! Just do whatever makes you and your partner happy – and if you’re single, celebrate yourself! Whether you want to go nuts with a hot air balloon ride and wine or just want to spend the night in with pizza (and probably still wine), Valentine’s Day can be whatever you damn well please.
Choosing a Valentine’s Day gift is not rocket science. Simply use a few key factors to help you navigate around gift buying pitfalls and you can’t go wrong.
How long have you been dating for?
I’m going to come right out and say this: buying expensive and overly romantic gifts for someone you just started dating is not cute, it’s creepy. It puts unnecessary pressure on the relationship, which you can be fairly sure won’t be around for much longer. A more relationship-age appropriate gift might be buying tickets you can both use to upcoming gig or festival, or even just treating them to dinner.
Personality, personality, personality.
Hopefully if you’ve been dating for a while, you have some idea of their personality and what makes them tick. Get all psychological on them and find the WHY of how they spend their time. Do they exercise a lot? It could be because they love getting physical in the outdoors, are a high achiever in all things (including their body), or they place a high value on image. Or it could be all three. Asking the why will help you unlock personality ticks and find the perfect gift – even if it has nothing to do with where you originally started.
Age matters. But not as much as you think.
What’s more important is the life stage they’re at. Are they at university? Working full time? About to welcome in their first child – or grandchild? Numerical age isn’t as important as life stage. And if you think getting a woman over 30 years old skin repair products is a good idea, you have another thing coming. Actually, any woman. That is a terrible idea and you need to rethink your present buying game.
Hobbies. Or more importantly, what do they want to do but haven’t done so yet?
Hobbies are an easy and obvious place to scrape ideas from. And hey, it works for a reason! A snowboarder will never say no to a new pair of goggles and a budding MasterChef will love the gourmet ingredients you got them. But if you want to go a step further, what’s the one thing they want to do but haven’t yet.
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Clare Cribbin is the global shopping deals publisher at Finder. She started in the Australian team hunting down the best shopping deals on the market, producing health and wellbeing articles and creating helpful gift guides. Clare has since taken her Australian shopping knowledge and is now applying it globally. You may be surprised to know that she has a degree in Zoology and a Master of Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law. When Clare isn’t busy looking for deals, you’ll find her eating avo on toast, drinking a protein shake or trying out the latest fitness craze.
Running out of time to get a Valentine’s Day gift? Check out our guide for gifts that you can get if you’re running a little late with organising that special gift.
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