How to Select a Gift for Your Brother

Instead of the usual polo shirt or new tie, use your imagination to choose a gift your brother will really appreciate.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Bookstore/music Gift Certificates
• Golf Lessons
• Greeting Cards
• Magazine Subscriptions
• Concert Tickets
• Health Club Memberships
• Sporting-event Tickets
• Theater Tickets
• Power Tools

1. Ask what he would like. If he has ideas, it will save you a lot of guesswork, not to mention shopping.
2. Buy your brother a new tool or a gift certificate to a home-improvement store if he's a handyman.
3. Give him a round of golf at his favorite course. Pay for a twosome.
4. Pay for a series of golf lessons.
5. Buy tickets to sporting events, Broadway plays, amusement parks or concerts, depending on his taste.
6. Give a year's membership to a museum or other nearby attraction.
7. Wrap up a year's subscription to his favorite magazine or a new one he would be interested in receiving.
8. Give a gift certificate to a bookstore, software store, golf or fishing outlet, or upscale clothing store, online or otherwise.
9. Buy a gift certificate to his favorite restaurant.
10. Hire a landscaping service to do his yard work for several months.
11. Pay for an initial gym membership - if you know that he's already thinking about joining one.
12. Choose a gift-of-the-month club. Each month for a year he can receive microbrew beer, software, fruit, cigars, wine or other goodies.
13. Give something personal. Collect information about your family history and have it put into a book, or copy and organize old family photographs to put into an album.
14. Make something. Use whatever skills you have to bake, knit, paint, sculpt, draw or craft a gift.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to avoid gag gifts that will never be used. These items usually end up being sold at garage sales or tossed in the trash.