Booze, food, experiences.
My parents bought us a year of house cleaning service. Holy shit what a game changer, having young kids and a dog and both my wife and I working full time it’s tough to stay on top of everything. Best gift ever
Gift cards so they can choose what to buy for themselves.
Offer to babysit and let them have a night out.
consumables (food candle etc), or tickets to an event like sports theater or concert.
Ira said:
consumables (food candle etc), or tickets to an event like sports theater or concert.
This reminded me though, some people are allergic to scented candles, or some foods.
A nice tea, coffee, cocktail mixer, etc.
Don’t gift stuff, gift experiences. Concerts, musicals, cinema, a spa treatment, museum, whatever works for their preferences and your budget. Depending on your relationship, effectively gifting some of your time to do something together is much more valuable than anything material.
And if nothing comes to mind, like other people said just something consumable or like a flower bouquet. People that are hard to gift for probably are people that are reasonably well off and can afford to buy most of the stuff they would want to own themselves - and the rest likely is vastly out of budget for a gift. So it’s really more the thought that counts.
Gift card to a grocery store. People have to eat.
Experiences. They can be a little pricy but think like a day at a race track in a fast car if they’re into racing. A bbq course if they’re into cooking meats. A glass blowing class (i’ve done this and it’s pretty fun) or pottery wheel class. A skydiving gift certificate. A tour of their favorite sport teams stadium/facilities (i did one of my college baseball team’s ball park that had their training facilities and we got to go out on field and that was awesome). If you want to go big tickets to a sporting event or amusement park like Disney.
Memberships to places like zoos or museums can also be really good, especially if they have kids.
Offer to help them, vacation voucher, car wash, cleaning session, spa day gift card.
Definitely experiences! How about car washes? Maid service?
Nyle said:
Definitely experiences! How about car washes? Maid service?
Maid service, some are picky who they let in and would want to vet the service themselves, first.
If anyone’s hired cleaning service they’re not all equal, or equally professional.
My in-laws are these people. They don’t have any hobbies (not an exaggeration), never eat out, and are about 65 so if they want anything they buy it themselves.
Usually we will buy them good coffee, chocolate, etc, but to do so every occasion can feel repetitive and not creative.
We’re at the stage of life where we don’t want any more “stuff”. Possible gift ideas are gift cards to events/movies/concerts/restaurants/spa/streaming subscription, or going to do an experience together (a play/sporting event/cultural experience/seasonal experience- like winter tubing) or as others have mentioned, consumables such as yummy treats/drinks/etc. I don’t even like buying ‘stuff’ for my adult kids, so for Christmas each year, I have them choose some experience I pay for them to go to as a family. Another possible fun option that I did last year was a gift subscription to Universal Yums, and they shipped them a box each month full of international snacks to try.
@Elliott
>streaming subscription
On the receiving end, does it then try to bill you once the gift subscription is up?
I sent some people some magazine subscriptions I thought they might like (they are used to paper magazines and such), but did not hear much about it. One asked for another year once theirs ran out but no real feedback.
@Indy
The streaming subscription I looked at specifically was Disney+/Hulu, and it had an option to prepay for a year. After that it would cancel unless they, or you, signed up for continued service. For the food box subscription I sent it just discontinues after the years worth of boxes were delivered, but they do send me sales emails. I imagine there’s probably sales literature in the boxes too. For magazines, or a streaming service, you’d definitely need to let the recipient know specifically that it was gifted to them rather than something that just showed up. Good luck with your gift giving!
@Elliott
Thanks so much. Very informative and helpful of you. 
Food boxes are a great gift. That’s one I would not mind receiving. Especially if it is quality and a bit unusual but something I would like.
Yeah good tip about letting them know ahead of time so they don’t try to cancel it. “I didn’t order this! Will I be billed?!” type of thing. The subscriptions send out a little card first but, it looks like an ad, so, i think a lot of people throw it away unread.
When my grandparents were still alive I got them a year subscription to a Harry & David fruit of the month basket. And they had(ve) a light option, so it wasn’t too much for them to get through. They got really fresh fruit that they couldn’t normally get at the store (Minnesota) because of the season and it wasn’t wasteful and didn’t take up too much space.
A widowed friend who is 17 years older than I am mentioned that she didn’t like cutting her toenails. I’m going to get her gift certificates for pedicures.