What to get your boyfriend for Christmas? Ask Pinterest and you won’t get a store’s gift guide. You get his girlfriend’s handwriting: notebook pages titled “gifts for boyfriend”, shoeboxes of colored envelopes, baskets packed on a bed and photographed from above. These are boyfriend Christmas gifts that real people made and bought, and the most popular of them have been saved hundreds of thousands of times.
We went through dozens of boards of boyfriend Christmas gift ideas and kept 25 pins: baskets, stocking stuffers, homemade things and a few bf Christmas gifts you can simply buy. Under each one is what the picture doesn’t tell you: how to make it, what to put in it and who it suits.
Christmas basket for boyfriend: burr basket ideas for him
A burr basket takes its name from the “brrr” of a cold day. It is the winter cousin of the autumn boo basket, a container of warm and comforting things, and it fills most of the Christmas basket for boyfriend boards we went through.
1. A Christmas burr basket for boyfriend
Build it in layers. Soft things go on the bottom, because they are the biggest: here a plaid blanket and red plaid pajama pants. Then something that shows you know him, which in this basket is an Xbox gift card and a gaming headset. Snacks fill the gaps at the end. The reindeer plush is optional, but it is the first thing anyone notices in the photo.
2. The checklist version
Some squares on this checklist are cheap and some are not. Socks, a snack, a drink and a candle cost little. A hoodie, slippers and a tumbler cost more. Two from the first group and one from the second make a full basket without spending like it is a birthday.
3. Something out of the blue
Walk through a supermarket looking only at wrappers of one color and you will fill a basket in twenty minutes. That is the whole method here: blue candy, blue chips, a blue can, scratch-off tickets, and a poster that reads “Something out of the blue because I love you.” If blue doesn’t suit him, use his team’s color. Green is easy too, since half the candy aisle turns red and green in December.
4. Blue, but for the bathroom
Before buying anything for this one, look at his shower shelf. The point of a self-care basket is to replace what he already uses with a slightly better version, not to introduce a face mask he will never open. This basket goes the practical way: CeraVe lotion, Dr Teal’s salts, a loofah, a candle, a mug and a notebook with pens.
5. One big box and some fillers
Lego is a safe bet for anyone who used to build as a kid. Choose by his interest, not by the size of the box. This basket is for a car fan, with a Lego Speed Champions set of two Mercedes-AMG cars, 564 pieces in all. Hand it over on Christmas Eve, and he has something to do on the 25th.
6. The five senses gift
Wrap five small things separately and label each one with a sense. The pin only shows the parcels, so here is one way to fill them:
- sight: a framed photo or a movie you want to watch together
- sound: a record, earbuds or a concert ticket
- smell: his cologne or a candle
- taste: the snack he hides from everyone
- touch: a hoodie, socks or a blanket
Stocking stuffers for boyfriend
7. A labeled stocking
The best stocking stuffers are things that get used up. Shower gel, deodorant, protein bars, vitamins, face scrub and socks all run out sooner or later, so none of them ends up in a drawer. This pin labels each item, which makes it easy to copy. Yahtzee and a box of Sugarfina candy are the two fun extras.
8. Stocking stuffers, with commentary
Whoever made this list sorted it by type of guy. Hot Wheels “if he’s a child at heart”. Car fresheners “if he drives”. Earrings “if he is pierced”. And ski masks, with the most honest gift advice on Pinterest: “idk they just like them.” Read it out loud to a friend and you will both know which line is about your boyfriend.
DIY and handmade Christmas gifts for boyfriend
The most saved homemade Christmas gifts for boyfriend need no sewing machine and no woodworking. Paper, photos, a glue stick and an evening or two will do.
9. A cassette tape book
Find a picture of an old cassette, print it the size of a small notebook and glue it on the cover. Write a line on the label, like this one: “I knew it was love when I met you.” Inside, give each page to one song. The title, the artist and a sentence about when you first heard it together are enough. Ten songs make a good-sized book.
10. The same idea, drawn by hand
If you can draw, skip the printer. Copy each album cover in pencil, color it in, and write about the song on the facing page. You can see the hours in this sketchbook.
11. A deck of reasons
You need a deck of cards, a hole punch and two binder rings. Punch the top corners, thread the rings through and decorate every card with a note, a drawing or a sticker. A deck has 52 cards, so it fits 52 reasons, or one note for every week of the year that starts a few days after Christmas.
12. Lucky us
Print four photos at the size of a playing card, 2.5 by 3.5 inches, and glue them over four aces. Put a two of spades in the middle and write “Lucky us” on it. A deep frame from any home store holds the cards without flattening them. The cards cost almost nothing; the frame is most of the budget.
13. A mini museum of the two of you
This is the one people look at twice. Tiny gold frames hold the couple’s photos, two little lamps shine on them, and miniature people stand in front of the pictures as if they had paid for a ticket. To make your own, look for dollhouse picture frames and the small human figures sold for model railways and dioramas. A shadow box from a craft store holds the whole exhibition.
14. Open when letters
Write one letter for each moment he might need you and you aren’t there: when he can’t sleep, when he’s had a bad day, when he misses you, when he needs a laugh, on the night before something big. The instruction card in this box adds a rule worth stealing: “Text/ring me and send me a picture when you open a letter.” So every letter he opens ends with a message to you.
15. A memory jar
Color-code the slips so he can pick a mood. In this jar pink means “reasons why I love you”, blue is “remember when”, yellow is “quotes/lyrics” and teal is “have to do this!”. Write a few slips a day for two or three weeks. Two hundred in one night all start to sound the same.
16. Candy jars with puns
Any candy with a name can be a pun. This set uses M&M’s for “I am nuts about you”, Starburst for “Baby, you make my heart burst” and Hershey’s Kisses for “Kisses for when I can’t be with you.” Want more? Smarties: “Smart enough to pick you.” Reese’s: “Reese-ons I love you.” Mason jars and a marker are all the packaging it needs.
17. Our first year together
If this is your first Christmas as a couple, give each month since you met its own page: a photo, a ticket, a screenshot of a message, a line about what happened. Leave the last pages empty. He will understand what they are for.
Christmas card for boyfriend ideas
18. An infinity card
An infinity card is four panels joined so that it folds open again and again in a loop, each turn showing a new picture. That makes it a good card for a sentence that continues: this one starts with a drawn eye and “through your eyes I see…” and finishes in the next fold. The pin is a tutorial, so the folds are shown step by step.
19. The best slice of my life
The pun carries this card: a heart-shaped pizza with pepperoni hearts under “you are the best slice of my life.” Give it on a pizza night.
20. I cerealsly love you
Tape this card to a box of the cereal he actually eats. Together they make one of the cheapest cute Christmas gifts for boyfriend on this list, and the box gets finished long before the card gets thrown away.
Small Christmas ideas for boyfriend
21. A photo on his car visor
You need one instant photo and a clear clip sleeve, the kind made for badges. Write “Drive safe, I love you” under the picture and clip it to the sun visor while he isn’t looking. He finds it the first time the sun is low.
22. A photo key holder
Take a small wooden frame, screw two cup hooks into the bottom edge and put your favorite photo behind the glass. It is twenty minutes of work and he will use it every day. The pin calls itself “the inspo”, so treat it as a starting point and pick your own frame.
23. A Spider-Man bouquet
Red paper roses packed tight in black wrapping, plus two white paper eyes on top, turn a bouquet into Spider-Man’s mask. The same trick works for other heroes: black roses with a yellow bat for Batman, green for the Hulk. A good Christmas gift for boyfriend who insists he doesn’t need flowers.
Christmas presents for boyfriend you can buy
24. Guy gift ideas, all in black
Everything in this collage is black, from the JBL speaker and Stanley tumbler to the Nike duffel and the satin pillowcase. That one shared color makes a dozen unrelated things look like a set. It works at any budget: black socks, a black mug and a black beanie are a gift too.
25. The handwritten list
The most complete list of Christmas gift ideas for boyfriend we found was written by hand on lined notebook paper, under the title “Gifts for Boyfriend”:
- Clothes: grey sweats, funny socks and underwear, a hoodie with your initial on the sleeve, a hat with a photo of you two inside the band.
- DIY: “open when” letters, a date idea jar, a relationship scrapbook, a picture frame with the reasons you love him, candy pun jars.
- Car or truck: interior LED lights, air fresheners, a light bar, subwoofers, seat covers, a keychain.
- Other: a movie date basket, a color coded basket, a candy pun poster, a pamper kit, matching jewelry.
Count how many of the 24 pins above are already on that page: the open when letters, the candy puns, the color basket, the scrapbook.
