Just over a month to go and I think we can all acknowledge that Christmas shopping is now in full swing so today I’m moving on with Thoughtful Christmas Gifts For Men 2020. The Black Friday offers have started a week early for two reasons. The first, of course, reflects the difficulties that retailers are facing without bricks and mortar footfall to rely on. They know that people are usually more controlled when they shop online than in a store environment where cleverly placed merchandise tables and jolly Christmas music can trigger impulse spends of at least 100% more than originally intended. Most of those ‘oh go on then’ moments are lost when somebody is sitting on their own sofa with a list.
The other perhaps more worrying factor is fulfilment. Distribution centres are being hugely impacted by social distancing regulations meaning that fewer workers can be drafted in to pick and pack at any one time and back to back shifts can’t be implemented because of the requirement for everything to be fully sanitised when every shift ends. Retailers are really worried about disappointing customers who leave their shopping until December because they just may not be able to fulfil their orders.
On top of this there’s the knock on factor of delayed deliveries with log jams at the ports meaning that a lot of stock is still buried in containers that can’t be accessed. I’m not telling you all of this to make you panic, I just feel some responsibility for keeping you informed – I know some of you prefer to shop nearer the big day but that may not be a good idea this year. I’ve earmarked this weekend for my own Christmas shopping because with the information I have to hand, when I balance offers with product availability and timely delivery I’ve decided that now is the optimum time.
I do think more retailers will join in with the offers next week though so you need to decide what’s best for you. If a brand makes no mention of Black Friday or any other kind of discount, they may well have something waiting in the wings. Just so you know, I’ll be doing my Chic Treats for Women post on Tuesday – that’s the one that’s aimed at you and suggestions you might like to add to your own wishlist. I’ll then be running my usual Black Friday compendium at the end of the week where I update the offers all day as they come in so that you can keep an eye open for anything that might interest you.
So, thoughtful Christmas gifts for men 2020, always a tricky one because if your other halves are anything like Mr MC they’ll insist that they don’t want anything and then look slightly wounded when there’s nothing under the tree on Christmas Day. For the last few years our gift to each other has been a special break for our wedding anniversary in February. It gives us something to look forward to when the sparkle of Christmas is over and next year’s a big one for us but currently of course we can’t make any plans at all. I had a tentative look at flights yesterday and discovered that you can’t actually buy from a lot of airlines at the moment so I fell flat at my imagination’s first hurdle.
It leaves me drumming my fingers a little, especially as the apartment purchase is still dragging on so I can’t even definitively spin that one out as being the gift of a lifetime to each other. So there will have to be a present or a series of little bits and pieces to unwrap and these are some of the things that I’ve seen as I’ve been looking – in no particular order.
Thoughtful Christmas Gifts For Men 2020
A Christmas project
I thought this would go down well, especially if you accompanied it with some (or all) of the beers featured (this is a good place to look). A nice little project to think about over Christmas – perhaps he could aim to complete it by the time the festivities are over.
Scratch off beer connoisseur chart
Sports massage at home
I bought one of these Therabodies when I damaged my achilles during the first lockdown and it’s now used almost daily by everyone in the house. It’s great for tech necks when you’ve been sitting at your desk for too long and for any other kind of ache. An investment I know but one of those things you’ll have and use for years to come. I’m growling slightly that it’s in the Black Friday sale.
Therabody Percussive Massager BLACK FRIDAY OFFER NOW APPLIED
Cool classic trainers
If the Air Force 1 is the ‘can’t go wrong’ cool classic for teens, this is the midlife equivalent. The special thing about this trainer is that you can completely customise it, designing it yourself perhaps to his preferred colours and even include his initials on the heel. I’ve spent a few evenings recently playing around with the online design tool, it’s a truly individual gift.
Charity subscriptions with a difference
Subscriptions have given me a lot of pleasure personally this year because they’ve felt like a little gift from the outside world coming through the letterbox. I’ll talk about my favourites when I do the women’s post but here’s a little monthly pleasure for your chap which has the added bonus of meaning that he won’t grumble when you get yours. Monthly socks and boxers – there are different subscriptions that you can choose depending on whether he prefers classic or jazzy options. 100% of the profits go to charity – our youngest had a school assembly delivered by them last week on the subject of testicular cancer – such a good company to support. I don’t make any money from them but I’ve said I’m happy to raise awareness of what they do so if you use MIDLIFECHICSBALLS (!) at checkout you’ll get 10% off their socks and boxers but that excludes subscriptions. By the way they also have female undies and subscriptions and they now do children’s ‘Goolies’ underwear and subs too.
12 Days of Christmas
As I’ve mentioned before, chez Midlifechic we define the 12 Days of Christmas as lasting from 21st (the eldest’s birthday) to 1st January. For those days all limits are off and if we fancy champagne and chocolate for breakfast, we go for it. I like to have a 12 Days Advent calendar to open during that dime just to define it and so here’s one for men, 12 days of socks…
12 Days of Christmas – Socks Advent Calendar
… or if pampering is more his thing you could opt for this – and there’s a matching women’s version too.
12 Days of Christmas Clarins Calendar
The Pyjama Fairy
In my view new pyjamas are always a real pleasure on Christmas Eve, preferably left on beds by the pyjama fairy while you’re out at the panto. This year my favourite finds for men are these brushed cotton checked pyjamas – simple but also chic at the same time.
Brushed Cotton Checked Pyjamas
Let the good times roll in 2021!
It may not be possible to book a break but you can always pledge fun time together as something to look forward to. The voucher in this box comes with a list of ideas that you can redeem when you’ve been liberated next year so you could spend a fun evening over a few glasses of wine deciding what you’d like to do.
Fun Together Pledge BLACK FRIDAY OFFER NOW APPLIED
A Beer Growler
And if it’s something outdoorsy you could have one of these to go with it – a grown up version of the water bottles I showed you earlier in the week, this Growler holds almost 2 litres of beer or cider, keeping it ice cold and carbonated until you’re ready to drink it. Great for picnics or festivals – or outdoor winter get togethers in parks this year if we go back to the Tier system.
Boy Smells
This is a concept I enjoyed looking into when I spent my year in home fragrance because research shows that men pick up completely different notes to women and are stimulated by them in different ways. The range I had in mind never came to life but I like this concept of ‘boy smells’ that appeal specifically to the male palate.
Masculine Fragrances Votive Set BLACK FRIDAY OFFER NOW APPLIED
Man beauty bag
A really nice take on the classic beauty box concept but with men in mind. A selection of lotions and potions for them to explore, all good quality and highly rated with a lovely washbag to keep.
Thoughtful Christmas Gifts For Men 2020 – little extras
And I’m going to finish with some little extra gifts, stocking fillers if you do that kind of thing – or perhaps you could decide to give each other a little something to unwrap each day over the 12 days of Christmas to give this year a bit of a boost.
Luxury crackers
Work of art crackers with proper little gifts inside…
Skincare Cracker BLACK FRIDAY OFFER NOW APPLIED
County Durham…?
And this just really made me laugh – I think there has to be something under the tree that acknowledges 2020 in all it’s glory.
Toblerone with his name on it
My dad would have loved this – a personalised Toblerone would have left him wanting for nothing more.
Portable hand sanitisers
A Star Wars hand sanitiser with a carabiner to clip on to his jeans…
Star Wars Hand Sanitisers with Carabiner
Beard Bib
This one is a small personal mission because Mr MC currently sits at my dressing table (on my velvet chair) to trim his beard, leaving a prickly shadow of stubble behind him.
Beard bib BLACK FRIDAY OFFER NOW APPLIED
Whisky on toast?
And spreadable whisky sounds like it would be the perfect topping for toast in bed at Christmas. There are other options by the way – including gin, mulled wine, espresso martini… you can find them all here.
And if there’s nothing there that ticks the box, you can always ask him to look through the John Lewis & Partners site and create a wishlist then share it with you. They tell me that lots of families are sharing them remotely them this year to make sure that if they can’t be together, everybody at least gets something they actually want. There are eight of us in my sibling group when you include partners and I’m hoping one day to introduce the ‘just buy one’ approach with them. That way each of will buy a gift for just one of the others and we can then each spend a good amount on something worthwhile. My brothers keep resisting but the JL wishlist would be quite helpful for that – you can see how it works here.
Black Friday week offers on now
These are the best of the offers that are live now. I’m not including messy ‘up to x% off’ just the blanket discounts. NB a few of our Midlifechic favourites start on Monday and others have discounts that change every day next week.
John Lewis & Partners – complete Black Friday price match hub here (I see some of the outfits from my last post now have discounts applied)
LK Bennett – 30% off here with code GRAZIA30 (NB the Kirans are back in stock!)
Elemis – 30% off plus free 5 piece gift with spend over £100 here (code SPECTACULAR)
AllSaints – 30% off here
French Connection – 30% off here
Urban Decay – 30% off here
Whistles – 25% off here
Hobbs – 25% off here
Jigsaw – 25% off here with code LD25
Great Plains – 25% off here
Kate Spade – 25% off here
MAC – 20% off here
Lancome – 20% off here
River Island – 20% off and free delivery here (minimum spend (£70) code WONDER
Reiss – 20% off here
Department Stores – ‘UP TO’ offers
Liberty – up to 30% off here
Selfridges – up to 20% here with code SELFCCE
Brands not doing Black Friday
Hush – donating 20% of all takings next Friday (27th) to Crisis here
Baukjen – donating 100% of all profits over Black Friday weekend as follows:
Friday 27th: Centrepoint (Youth Homelessness)
Saturday 28th: Trussell Trust (Working to stop UK hunger & Poverty)
Sunday 29th: PAPYRUS (Suicide prevention in under 35s)
Monday 30th: Princes Trust (Helping the young build skills and find employment)
One more weekend of lockdown ticked off everyone – have a great weekend and I’ll be back on Tuesday.
Disclosure: Thoughtful Christmas Gifts For Men 2020 is not a sponsored post
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