Two small green handprints on a pair of yellow work gloves. A dumbbell made of Snickers bars. A garden hose coiled into a gift basket. The Christmas gifts for dad that people keep saving on Pinterest are rarely the gadgets from the big gift guides. They are things a kid can paint, a daughter can frame, or anyone can pack into a bucket in one evening.
The 25 pins below come from the most saved boards of dad Christmas gifts. They start with homemade gifts from kids and photo gifts from a daughter, move on to funny builds made of candy and beer and to baskets for his hobbies, and end with three small Christmas presents for dad. Five of them are short videos you can watch without leaving this page. Stuck on what to get dad for Christmas? Pick the basket that matches what he does on weekends.
Homemade Christmas gifts for dad from kids
1. Fingerprint Christmas art
Print the outline of a Christmas tree or a wreath, let the kids dot it with fingertips dipped in paint, and frame it. The video’s cover shows two finished pieces, a tree in an arched frame and a wreath in a beaded one. Its maker writes that she found both outlines in Canva by searching “Christmas tree” and “wreath”, and that any frame you already have will do.
2. Helping-hands work gloves
Yellow Black+Decker leather work gloves, a green handprint on each, “Kinley’s Helping Hands” written along the fingers and the year 2013 on the cuffs. He gets gloves for the garage, and you get a record of how small those hands once were. Buy him a second pair for actual work.
3. “No matter how big these hands grow”
The poem does half the work here: “Daddy, no matter how big these hands grow, I’ll always be your little girl.” Under it, two black handprints on a white canvas, the child’s name in one corner and “Merry Christmas” in the other. For a son, keep the first line and change the last.
4. Best Dad Ever caps
Plain white baseball caps, splattered with every color of paint the kids could reach, with “Best Dad Ever” lettered on the front in black marker and the child’s name under a small red heart. One of them says “Best Papi Ever”. A few plain caps and a table covered in newspaper make this an easy project for cousins on a December weekend.
5. Photo ornament on a log slice
Transfer a black-and-white photo onto a slice of a branch, leave the bark on the edge and hang it from a red ribbon. The pin’s description promises it is easier than it looks and calls it a great custom gift. Pick a picture with strong contrast: the wood grain shows through the print and swallows small details.
Christmas gifts for dad from daughter
6. DADDY, DAUGHTER, LOVE in Scrabble tiles
DADDY runs across the top, DAUGHTER down the side and LOVE along the bottom, with a red heart in place of the O. In the middle, a photo of him holding her as a toddler, clipped to a wood-plank background with a tiny clothespin. An English Scrabble set has exactly four D tiles, and this frame uses all four, so one set makes one frame.
7. A #1DAD pennant collage
Overlap a stack of black-and-white family photos in a frame and lay a navy pennant with “#1DAD” in white letters across the middle. Printing everything in black and white hides the fact that the photos come from ten different phones and cameras. “So $ friendly to make,” its maker writes.
8. Mini CD album keychains
Tiny CDs printed with album covers, each in a clear acrylic case on a bead chain. The description credits the idea to beary_aesthetic. Use the albums he played in the car when you were small. He will recognize every cover before he has the keychain off the ribbon.
9. A deck of lucky photos
Eight photos printed as playing cards, with suits and numbers in the corners and burnt-looking edges, arranged around a red center card that says “How lucky are we”. Choose the card values on purpose: the day of his birthday, the number on his old jersey, the age you were in the picture.
10. A record covered in photos
An old LP covered edge to edge with small photos, with only the red label in the center left bare. On this one the label still reads “music for pleasure”. Look for a scratched record by a band he loves, so the label means something too.
11. A custom CD
The video’s cover shows a reply to a commenter who asked for a tutorial “on the bootlegs”, next to a spread of homemade CDs with printed covers. For a dad, the playlist is the gift. Songs from road trips, from his wedding, from the radio station he never changed. Before you start, check that his car still has a CD slot.
Funny Christmas gifts for dad
12. A Snickers dumbbell
Two rings of Snickers bars around the ends of a black tube, and the dumbbell is done. Cover the tube in black tape so no cardboard shows. It comes from a list of budget-friendly Christmas gifts you can make at home, and of all the DIY Christmas gifts for dad here, this one needs the least: tape, a tube and candy.
13. A Ferrero Rocher steering wheel
Gold Ferrero Rocher cover a black ring and three spokes, with a BMW badge in the center. Use the logo of whatever is parked in his driveway, even if it is a minivan. A wheel this size needs several boxes of chocolates, so buy them in bulk.
14. A beer tank
The gun barrel is a green beer bottle lying on top, beer cans sit inside the tracks, and green felt and white corrugated card hide the rest. A green bow ties the barrel. Build it with his usual brand, and remember that once it is assembled, it will not fit in the fridge.
15. Chill pills
Colorful candy fills a big glass jar with a pharmacy-style label: “Take a Chill Pill immediately after any unfortunate encounter with an angry, annoying, frustrating, ignorant, unattractive or otherwise unpleasant individual.” In an emergency, it adds, “break glass and consume the entire bottle.” It was saved from a list of hilarious Christmas gag gifts, and it belongs on his desk at work.
Christmas gift baskets for dad
16. The grill basket
Everything for a barbecue in a seagrass basket. Bottles go in front, tall tools in back: Jack Daniel’s and Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauces, A1, Weber Chicken ‘N Rib and Steak ‘N Chop seasonings, a KitchenAid salt and pepper set, metal skewers, a basting brush, two spatulas and a grill mitt. Nothing here needs wrapping, because the labels are the decoration.
17. The fishing basket
Goldfish crackers and Gummi Worms are the joke: snacks named after bait. They go into a black bucket wrapped in fishing net, along with Jack Link’s jerky, red-and-white bobbers and a Bass Pro Shops card.
18. The garden hose basket
The hose is the basket. Coil a new garden hose, fill the middle and wrap it all in cellophane. According to its description, this one holds a nozzle, seeds, Miracle-Gro, a kneeling pad and gloves, about $50 worth. In December, seed packets for next year’s garden make the most sense.
19. A bucket of tools
Tools stand in a galvanized bucket on a slice of wood like a bouquet: a claw hammer, an adjustable wrench, red pliers, screwdrivers, a putty knife, a tube of Gorilla Glue and a red tape measure spilling over the edge. A dad who likes tools usually owns a hammer already, so tuck a gift receipt in the bottom.
20. A cooler instead of a basket
Use a soft cooler as the basket, and he keeps the basket. Here a black YETI cooler holds Jack Daniel’s, Captain Morgan, a big bottle of Coca-Cola, a bag of pretzels and two engraved YETI tumblers.
21. A burr basket for dad
Saved to a board of dad burr basket ideas, this one covers four parts of his life. His car: Little Trees air fresheners. His shower: Method Men body wash and a navy pouf. His gym bag: a YETI Yonder bottle and a Nike shirt. His snack drawer: Jack Link’s jerky and pepperoni, Hershey’s bars and Kisses. The Snoopy plush is there for no reason except that someone loves him.
22. Beer and Pringles in a crate
Into a shallow wooden crate go a little straw and five things: a can and a mini bottle of Heineken, a tube of Pringles, a Milky Way and a couple of Ferrero Rocher. Small enough to hand over at a party or leave on his workbench without a word.
Small Christmas presents for dad
23. Ferrero Rocher and a mini bottle
Four Ferrero Rocher and one miniature bottle in each clear plastic box, on a bed of paper shred, one tied with twine. The bottle in the front box is Jack Daniel’s. Make several at once for uncles and grandfathers. One box also fits in a Christmas stocking, which makes it the easiest of the stocking stuffers for dad here.
24. A wooden tic-tac-toe board
Dark wood, a tic-tac-toe grid cut into the surface, and two hollows for the pieces: white pebbles for one player, grey for the other. It stays out on the coffee table, so the game starts whenever someone sits down.
25. A vertical laptop stand
A closed laptop stands on its edge in a grey metal dock, as the video’s cover shows. For a dad who works with an external monitor, it frees the half of the desk his laptop used to take up. Among Christmas gift ideas for dad, it is the one he will use every working day.
