Christmas Gifts for Your Partner That Aren't Another Jumper

Every year someone gets their partner a jumper for Christmas. It's fine. It's warm. It goes in the drawer with last year's jumper. So this is my list of Christmas gifts for your partner that I'd actually suggest, for boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, whoever ends up next to you on the couch on Boxing Day. Some of them cost almost nothing. A couple are things we make, and I'll say so when they are.

Bit of context so you know where I'm coming from. I run Mimies with my sisters, and we've made over 3,900 personalised decks, a big chunk of them for couples. So I spend a slightly weird amount of my year thinking about what people give the person they love.

First, the jumper test

Before you buy anything, ask one question. Could you give this exact thing to your partner's brother, or someone from work, and it would make just as much sense? If yes, it's a jumper. Doesn't matter if it's actually a jumper or a candle or a nice bottle of gin. It's a gift for "a person", not for them.

That's honestly the whole trick. The good partner gifts only make sense for one human on earth. Everything below either passes that test or I've told you how to make it pass.

Something odd we noticed about Christmas

We went through the names and lines people put on the back of 3,088 decks (I wrote it all up here: what people write on personalised playing cards). Across the whole year, "I love you" was on 251 of them. About 1 in 12. Around Valentine's Day it was more like 1 in 8.

In the two weeks before last Christmas? Zero. Not one of the 74 decks ordered then. Christmas decks were mostly family ones, with surnames and family names on the back about three times as often as the rest of the year.

Okay, 74 decks is a small number and I wouldn't bet the house on it. But it fits what you see everywhere in December. Everyone goes into "gifts for the whole family" mode, and the partner gift quietly turns practical. Which is exactly how you end up giving a jumper.

So if you only take one thing from this post: let the partner gift be the soppy one. Christmas is allowed to be romantic too. Nobody's going to mind.

If you've only been together a few months

Keep it small and specific. A big expensive gift this early can make the other person feel a bit awkward, and you don't want them sitting there on Christmas morning doing maths about what they got you.

• The thing they mentioned once. A book, a snack from their home town, the one hot sauce they keep going on about. If you remember something from a conversation back in September, it lands way harder than anything bigger would.
• Tickets to something in January or February. A gig, a comedy show, a footy game. It gives you both a plan for after the holidays, which is a sweet way of saying "I reckon we'll still be doing this" without having to say it.
• One printed photo of the two of you, in a frame. That's it. Loads of newer couples don't have a single printed photo together, just hundreds on their phones.

Start a note on your phone now, by the way. Every time they mention something they like, put it in. You'll thank yourself in December, and on their birthday, and every year after that.

A year or two in

This is the fun stage because you've got material. Inside jokes. A first trip. A restaurant that's "yours". A song that's embarrassing to anyone else. Use all of it.

Recreate your first date. Same place if it's still open, same order if you can remember it (and if you can't, that's a conversation in itself). Write the plan on a card and put it under the tree. It costs about the same as a normal dinner out and it's the gift they'll end up telling their friends about.

A deck of your photos. I'm biased, obviously. But a bit over 4 in 10 of the decks we make are for couples, and I think it's because it does two jobs. It's a gift, and then it's the thing you're both playing with on Boxing Day afternoon. We design 14 of your photos into a real 54-card deck for you (no online editor, you just send the photos), put a name or line on the back, and it comes in a tin. Here's the deck if you want a look.

One tip if you go that way. Make the line on the back an inside joke instead of your two names. About a quarter of the decks we've made have one, and they're always my favourite ones to see come through.

52 reasons. The classic DIY gift, a reason you love them written on each card of a normal deck. It can be really lovely or it can be a bit cringe, and the difference is how specific the reasons are. "You're kind" is cringe. "You always save me the last roast potato" is lovely. I wrote a whole post on how to make a 52 reasons deck that's actually good, including what to do when you run out of ideas at about card 30 (everyone does).

A weekend away, booked for the new year. Doesn't have to be fancy. A cheap cabin two hours away with no plans is honestly better than a city break where you rush around. Print the booking and wrap it, because an email confirmation on Christmas morning is a bit flat.

Been together forever

Long-term couples are the hardest to buy for. You've already bought each other everything. You've done the jewellery, the watch, the nice pyjamas. And a lot of people who've been married for years agree on "no presents this year" and then one of them breaks the deal. Don't be the one who stuck to it.

Here's what I'd do instead.

Fix the thing. The wobbly drawer. The cracked phone screen they've been squinting at since March. The bike with the flat tyre in the garage. Not romantic on paper. Weirdly romantic in real life, because it says you noticed something annoying them and sorted it.

Take a job off them. Whatever they always do and never get thanked for. Writing all the Christmas cards. Doing the big Christmas Day cook. Being the one who rings the in-laws. Write it on a card as a proper handover, for the whole year if you're brave.

Go back through the camera roll. Not the last twelve months, the old stuff. The holiday from ten years ago, the first house, the photos from before you had kids. Most of it has never been printed and never will be unless someone does something with it. Get a few printed properly, or make a small album, and write the year on the back of each one. It's the kind of gift that gets an "oh my gosh, look at us" and then half an hour of the two of you just looking.

Bit of a tangent, but this works for the "we said no presents" couples too. A few printed old photos doesn't really feel like a present, so nobody feels bad.

The Christmas in summer list (Australia and New Zealand, this one's for you)

Nearly every gift guide I read is snow and slippers and cosy socks and hot chocolate. If you're in Australia or New Zealand, Christmas is 28 degrees and a barbecue, and half those lists are useless. So here's a short one for us.

• A good beach chair or a proper chilly bin. Boring, sure, but you'll both use it every weekend until March.
• A day trip or a summer activity booked for the holidays. Kayak hire, a wine tour, a ferry somewhere you've never been. The break between Christmas and New Year is the one time a lot of couples actually have days off together, so plan something for it.
• A camera for summer. Our screen-free digital camera has no screen at all, so you don't see a single photo until you plug it in with USB-C when you get home. It's 12MP with 8 film looks, gets about 800 shots a charge, and the photos come out grainy and flash-lit on purpose. Good for a summer of beach days because nobody's checking how they look after every shot.
• A deck of cards for the holiday house or the bach. Any deck. I wrote up the card games we'd actually play on Christmas Day, and most of them work just as well with two people on a rainy afternoon at the beach.

Christmas gifts for your partner I'd skip

Quick ones. A gym membership, unless they've asked for one, out loud, more than once. Anything that's secretly for you (the big TV, the coffee machine you've been wanting). A perfume or aftershave they've never worn, because picking someone's smell for them is a gamble. And a joke gift as the main present. Fine as a stocking filler. Not fine as the whole thing.

Oh, and the jumper. You knew that one was coming.

The boring bit: timing

Anything personalised needs a bit of lead time, and December post is slow everywhere. Our decks are made in 2 to 5 business days, then shipped free with tracking. Most orders arrive 10 to 17 days after ordering in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and 12 to 20 days in the US. So honestly, order by mid-November and you won't have to think about it again. The FAQ page has the shipping details for each country.

And if the photo deck is the one you're going with, you can start yours here. Pick the photos that make you both laugh. The nice ones can go in a frame.

FAQs

What do you get your partner for Christmas when they say they want nothing?

Something they wouldn't buy themselves and couldn't really return. Fixing something that's been annoying them, taking over a job they always do, or getting old photos of the two of you printed all work well, because none of them feel like "stuff".

How much should I spend on a Christmas gift for my partner?

There's no right number. Specific beats expensive almost every time. If you're worried about a mismatch, agree a rough limit together in November, and then put your effort into making the gift something that only makes sense for them.

What's a good Christmas gift for a new boyfriend or girlfriend?

Keep it small and personal. Something they mentioned once, tickets to an event in the new year, or a single framed photo of the two of you. A big expensive gift a few months in can make the other person feel awkward.

What are good Christmas gifts for a partner in Australia or New Zealand?

Think summer, not winter. Beach gear, a day trip or activity booked for the days between Christmas and New Year, a camera for holiday photos, or a deck of cards for the holiday house all get used straight away.

When should I order a personalised Christmas gift?

Order by mid-November. Personalised gifts need time to be made, and December post is slow in every country. For Mimies decks, most orders arrive 10 to 17 days after ordering in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and 12 to 20 days in the US.