What to get someone that buys themself everything?

So Christmas is upon us and I have no clue what to get my dad. He and my stepmom buy the world.

Problem is the wife and I put a price cap on getting everyone gifts this year and everything I do find, is way out of that price cap. I'm looking for something around $25-$30.

Any ideas? I don't really want to go the gift card Route.

I'd say ask him but I imagine that would end up with him buying all the things he mentions.

I never know what to do for my parents either. We usually just go out to eat now.

Penicillium- for the man who has everything.

Every Dad I've ever met, including me, says, "You don't need to get me anything. I have what I want."

If he has ever said that to you, believe him. Pour him a drink, look him in the eye, toast him, and say, "Thanks."

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

I was going to suggest a stripper, but odds are a $25-$30 one would be more of a punishment than gift.

I'd also like to get people to stop buying me crap. My parents and in laws are on tight budgets. I'd much rather they used it to spoil their grandkids than give the wife and I more cheap household or man cave widgets that will never get opened.

You travel. What can you get on the road that he can't get from his home?

Sample might be craft beers that can't be bought outside the state they are produced in.

This describes my dad perfectly. The only hope is to find out what he wants that is really hard to find. He won't have time to look for it, and thus he won't buy it.

One time he needed a jack that would lift his 5+ ton work van. Couldn't find one. My mom found one and got it for him for xmas. Before the 25th rolls around, they are at some store and he rolls around the corner with a huge jack on a flat cart- the same one she already got him. Had to spill the beans about his present, but he was plenty happy all the same.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

That could work. I could bring my dad snack food we don't get here and he'd be in heaven.

For older folk I recommend buying them consumables. Like Wally mentioned, they don't need another "thing" or ornament.

Beer or Steaks from "Cattle Country" will be consumed and go away.

I'm getting a bit anti-stuff myself as I get older and my dad has a 25 year lead on me. He really doesn't want any "thing". I'm taking him to lunch on Christmas eve and spending a couple hours bullE36 M3ting with him without my mother hovering and telling him to be quiet every time he says something that might be offensive to anyone born after the 1940s.

In reply to Huckleberry:

This year my brother and I are taking him trap shooting.

Does he drink or smoke? A bottle of his favorite or some cigars could do the trick.

I don't like getting gifts, but have some friends that are rather insistent about it. Now that I've scaled down the drinking, it's fun watching them trying to figure out what to get me. So I'll wind up with clothes I don't like and crap trendy booze I won't drink. I guess it's the thought that counts.

Well crisis averted. I talked to my brother and he agreed that it is in fact hard to find him something cheap. We both decided to go in together on the Jay Leno's Garage Advanced Vehicle Care kit. It's something he can use for his 3 Corvairs when it's time to wash them.

Socks. Everyone needs socks.

I get my Dad coffee.

Wall-e wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: This year my brother and I are taking him trap shooting.

That is a great idea. I'll have to see if the old man is up for swinging a bird gun around in the cold.

Poke around the Duluth Trading website. In that price range I'd recommend the "Smallet" or stretching the budget for the leather card holder, but you can't go wrong with much of anything they sell.

I'll bet he doesn't have one of these.

And, yes, I do have an interest.

I think in this situation a food or drink item is the way to go - get him the same thing every year and then whenever he pours a drink out of that nice bottle of bourbon he'll think of you.

We just do a framed picture of the kids for my parents. They dont need things but they enjoy being up too date pictures.

My mother and I have reached this stage. The last thing either of us needs is more "stuff" to find a place for in our small houses. So for each birthday and Christmas we just take the other out to a nice restaurant. Works out well.

We would regularly send Jay's potato chips , a Chicgo only brand, out to family in California. I'd look for something like that. Something he can't buy for himself.

In reply to Huckleberry:

They opened a place by my brother. There's a path with a dozen stations and you can take a cart between them. It's like golf but fun.