You know who I’m talking about… You’re invited to the birthday party of the boyfriend of your third cousin, once removed. Or you just really don’t know that girl who sits next to you in math very well, but you get invited to her birthday celebration anyways. You know about enough information about them to fill the thimble token from a Monopoly game and honestly, you don’t want to be the one that just shows up with a birthday card and a twenty dollar bill. Granted, this list isn’t confined to just birthdays, it can be adapted to other gift-giving occasions as well.

• Gift card (Put some semblence of thought into it. If they seem to always have a book, a gift card to a major bookstore chain would be a good idea.)
• Potted plants (For perennials, lasts for a few years, goldenrod or mint would be a good idea. Biennials, has a lifecycle of two years, foxlgloves or hollyhocks are very pretty. For annuals, lasts one year, snapdragons or petunias are relatively easy to take care of.) generally work well – if you go to a local florist or just any place that they sell plants, the staff should be able to find something for you that’s local or something that’s easy to take care of.
• You can donate on behalf of someone to World Vision (link goes to the Canadian World Vision website – you can most likely find the World Vision website linked to your own country with a quick search). Most donates will include a tax receipt for you to claim on your income taxes. Some of the under $50 gifts that are on the Canadian World Vision website include 2 mosquito nets ($30), 2 rabbits ($35) or antibiotics for 10 children ($30). The different gifts include anything from livestock, equipment, medicine or educational material.
• From World Wildlife Fund, you can also donate money on behalf of someone and ‘adopt’ an animal. The $40 packages towards adopting an animal include information about the animal and a cute plush. You can also adopt regions of the world such as the oceans, forests and the arctic. More for the environmental activist gift-receiver, it’s a nice thought.
• Find a nice mug (many stores carry mugs, so don’t go on with the excuse of not being able to find one because your local dollar store will probably carry some) and fill it up to the brim with candy. Then you can wrap it up with some cellophane and finish it off with a ribbon. If you really want to go fancy, you can curl the ribbons with a pair of scissors. Do try not to cut yourself though.
• A box of chocolates. Classic, impersonal and will be much appreciated. If the person you’re giving it to doesn’t like chocolate or is allergic, they can always regift.
• A USB key. Otherwise known as a flash drive or a memory stick. These babies are completely useful and I’d be lost without mine. They’re also quite inexpensive nowadays so you can get a pretty decent one with plenty of memory (1, 2 or 4gb). Plus, if you catch a sale, you can get one for yourself as well.
• A pair of movie passes to the cinema! If you can, you should see if the movie theatre also includes a gift package where you can buy the pair of passes and a large popcorn and a pair of drinks. Just to be nice. It’s always nice to just receive a date night, all neatly packaged in the form of paper passes.
• For a housewarming party, go for something that isn’t dishes or silverware: get a phone with all the basic features or get a nice vase that they can use (include a bunch of fresh, or fake, flowers if you want).
• Get a seamonkey starter kit. These kits generally include the plastic tank, instructions, food for the seamonkeys and the eggs. Otherwise known as brine shrimp or Artemia spp. They start off at about 0.5mm and can, if they’re old enough, get to the size of about 1 cm.