What do you send 60 year old men and women for their birthdays? 60 year old men and women, or men and women in their sixties, are a remarkably misunderstood gift receiving segment, research suggests that the gifts which are selected for them tend to be alcoholic. When in reality, our internal research shows that fewer than half of them even drink.  Those that do drink so infrequently that the last thing they want is another bottle of something.

Now this might be surprising in the gift industry when it comes to birthday gifts, because there's this traditional concept that you send a bottle of alcohol or  whatever, their favourite tipple may be. Quite simply it's wrong. It's not a good gift to buy a 60 year old man a bottle of booze, even if he does love it. And the reason for that is very simple, understanding that desire to find an easy gift topic means that a 60 year old man will have a cabinet full of alcohol, and he can't drink all of that, nor should he even try.  So let’s design gifts for people in their sixties what they would actually love to receive.

Whenever there are so few gift options, which are tailored and customised for that specific market segment. Well, I would argue that the best thing you can buy a 60 year old man is something that he's going to appreciate and consume. And the reason why I say appreciate and consume is that there's two parts to the gift. There's the gift that he receives, opens and enjoys with his eyes. Then there's the gift that he consumes physically. So, the best gift to buy a 60 year old man is one which combines it, and when you do that, there's very few products that stand out as being desirable or a good birthday gift to buy a 60 year old man. One of those products, of course, is a hamper or a gift basket, which is why there are so many of these companies, because a 60 year old man deserves  a gift which is befitting and suitable for his stature. 

The very fact that he's receiving such a birthday gift means that he is has lived a life whereby he's considered worthy of his 60th birthday to be celebrated or when he's in his 60s by you the sender.  So your desire and necessity is in buying a birthday gift which reflects his seniority, his appreciation for finer things, and with that in mind, the best gift that you can send him is something he can appreciate and consume.  A well-executed hamper or an exquisite gift basket is a perfect gift solution for his 60th birthday, or for any birthday where he is in his sixties.

Well, the best gift for a 60 year old woman is something which is unusual, that little bit different and very, very high quality. It's something that, again, there's a consumable element of it. You're not really looking  to send a 60 year old woman an experience. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's something that she should define or decide for herself. Sending a 60 year old vouchers for an adventure day or whatever will unlikely be appreciated. So, the best gift for a 60 year old woman is something which is pretty unique, different, unusual, distinctive, any number of things. But in our opinion, once again, there is a great symmetry with a birthday gift basket because of the sheer beauty, artistry, design of them, yet the complexity, the elegance, makes a gift basket a really, really good gift to send a 60 year old woman.

Now, the great thing about the birthday gift baskets is, is that they can be customized to a woman. And they can be customized not according to her age, gender or demographic, but they can be customized according to her personality, her interests, her values, and that's where I think the gift basket and hamper is a wonderful gift to send to a 60 year old woman, but the company that does it best of all is Basketsgalore. 

Well, if you're looking to get a 60 year old man a birthday gift, and I've had this problem before, you know personally, looking to get a 60th birthday gift, or for a man in their 60s, again, completely against the idea of something consumable in the form of a drink, because there's just so much out there. And whenever there's a market so cluttered and it's so standard, then what tends to happen is, is that they get lots and lots and lots of that particular product given to them as a gift, even though they don't necessarily even want it. 

So, what is a good gift to get a 60 year old man? Well, again, I like the concept of it being consumable, and I like there being, I wouldn't say a multi faced approach, but it is nice not to put all your eggs in one basket and say, here you go. Here is a box of chocolates, only to discover that person doesn't really eat chocolates or they're trying not to eat chocolates. 

So, you're looking for something which is food, but you don't want to give them too much of anything. You're looking for an edited selection of consumable, high quality food items that would appeal to a sixty year old man. Now here is the kicker and we thought about this, but there isn't really any difference between a 60 year old man and a 60 year old woman.

Therefore, all you get is the fanciest, most luxurious gourmet hamper, or, if it's in the form of a gift basket, a slightly tempered composition whereby it's maybe customised a little bit more in terms of more content of products for that 60 year old man that you know he's going to appreciate more. And by that I mean something like, say, tea and biscuits, cake and cheese. These are all segments which, you know, somebody may have an inkling for whereby the selection of products from Basketsgalore or any hamper company will be unusual and different and distinctive from that which they may be able to buy in their locality. And I think that brings the element of curiosity, distinction and interest. 

This is what makes baskets go to work. If you get a sixty year old man a really nicely put together gift hamper or a beautifully assembled gift basket, then that 60 year old man isn't being sent to according to anybody else's stereotype or cliched interpretation of what that man wants. But you are drawing upon the high quality products, which are staple of the Basketsgalore product line. 

A good gift for a 60 year old woman is something that you have thought about and thought about your relationship to her. You have thought about the message you wish to send, and you have thought about the message that you wish for them to take from your gift. And these are very important distinctions, because you're not leading with a product and saying, here you go, here's all the products that I think might appeal to you, you're leading with straight away your interpretation of the recipient.

So, if I could go into more detail in that, what's your relationship to the 60 year old woman? Is she your wife? Is she your mother? Is she your friend? Is she a work colleague? These are all important questions to ask when it comes to the identification of a good gift for a sixty year old woman, then you need to ask yourself, What's the message you want to send to this 60 year old woman? We're all living our own lives, the idea, the prospect that we should be a company out there that's able to provide everything? Well, I wasn't, maybe, but you're looking for, whenever it comes to birthdays, it never ceases to amaze me that people's not looking for a product. They're looking for an idea. They're looking for an example. They're looking for something that would make a good birthday gift. They're not actually looking for any particular gift and I think that when defining what is a good gift for a 60 year old woman, it is making it widely enough, desirable, but personal enough. 

So that's whereby the importance of the message that you wish to send really comes out here. Do you wish to send no specific message, you're just interested in the generic product itself. Is it a celebratory message, or is it more of a thinking of you message? Is it thinking of you personally, or is it just a fun celebration? So, depending upon your relationship and from the previous part and the message that you wish to send, you're going to be looking at certain gift baskets and certain birthday hampers that you wish to send.

The final part of what makes a good gift for a 60 year old woman, is the message that you wish for them to receive.  Do you want them to know that you appreciate them?  Do you want them to know that you enjoy their company?  Do you want them to know that it made you smile sending this gift and you hope that it makes them smile too.  Do you wish to engage with them?  Maybe you haven't spoken to them for a while.  Maybe you wish to stimulate that conversation, that friendship.  Maybe you want to make them laugh, so the message that you wish for them to pick up on is very important, and I think that's where Basketsgalore definitely makes a difference, that ability to think with thoughtful heart and soul.

What goes into the product, what goes into the birthday gift, whereby you're thinking about it from the perspective of what a 60 year old woman might enjoy, but you're not stereotyping them.  And this is something where you have to control the design of your product for 60 year old women, because unless you do so, it will degenerate into cliche.  It will degenerate into extremes, and you don't want that.  And I think that's what hampers, and gift baskets do very well. It’s that they're standard, they're, I wouldn't say, generic, but there's plenty of versatility and adaptability to the product, and all you're looking for now is the best executor of that.  That’s what I think Basketsgalore brings to the table of choice.

It's not very famous, you know, in comparison to maybe Moonpig or one of these other big birthday companies, but it's synonymous with high quality. It's synonymous with great service, great attention to detail, longevity.  And so Basketsgalore when it comes to sending Birthday gifts baskets, Birthday hampers must be a part of the discussion, and we try to do that through the application of messages, your messages, yours and our voices. 

Well, a woman turning 60, the gift that I would send her would be non alcoholic. It would be something which I know that nobody else would send her.  It would have to be different, and I would want to put my own thoughtfulness into it.  I find myself doing this whenever friends or colleagues ask me to put together something for them, and I find myself just really asking a number of questions in terms of how I understand that person or how the person that's appointed me to create a birthday gift for them, how they see that person. 

It’s funny how people are very kind of uncomfortable talking about people. They just tend to sort of dumb it down and say, look, I need it to perform this function. They don't really wish to go into too much detail about the person's interests or whatever. They just want everything to be high quality, and they want them to enjoy it. I don't let them get away with that. Sounds awful. I mean, whenever I say, don't let them get away with that. I crave more simple details, without wishing to be intrusively nosy. I want to know the person you're sending it to better create a great gift.

You know that person gives me something to work off so that I can better execute your wishes, and I'm not going to quiz you in your emotions or sentimentality. But I will try to coax that out, and you'll let it slip to me, you know, in terms of; “well, I want them to really like it.. They're a very good friend, they're very special.”  They may have emigrated, they may have come from somewhere. I'll ask for little snippets and details about that, about that recipient that you're looking to send to, and by having such an approach to the problem I can ask questions which are designed to create better Birthday gifts. 

Therefore, when it comes to thinking about women turning 60 or women in their sixties, I'm thinking to myself, of woman that I know, woman that I have encountered, women that I have met that would be of that age demographic, and I'm not going to go into what my stereotypical interpretations are, because I really work hard on not following stereotypical interpretations, but that's because of the age maybe. But if you were to ask me 30 years ago, my interpretations are what 60 year old woman would consider to be a good gift, I don't think I would be able to define it so well, and I would probably be guilty of horrendous cliches, which is why I think it's very important for whoever designs these products for women turning 60, or women in their 60s, whoever is designing them is of an age demographic and an awareness that understands that in actual fact, a woman turning 60 in her sixties has absolutely no difference from a woman in her 40s, 30s or maybe even twenties. 

The only thing would be that the tastes will be more ensconced, shall I say, they are more clearly defined. There's a refusal, not an acceptance of poor quality that’s cheaper. It has to be fancy. It has to be expensive. It has to be the best. And that's where I think, when it comes to sending a good gift for a woman turning 60, Basketsgalore trumps it hands down. It understands consumable hampers, but it also understands high quality is the best. There are tiers of quality, and we'll start at a very, very expensive level, and we'll work our way down to merely luxury. 

Whenever you buy your gift baskets or your hampers from Basketsgalore, you can be sure that all of the products that go into making the gift basket and gift hamper are a good idea to send to a woman in her 60s.  The products themselves that were within it are all themselves, individually, what a lady or a woman of that age demographic would be seeking to purchase for herself given sufficient time. Now, if you can combine that with a little bit of originality, little twist of innovation and appearance, then you're on to a winning birthday gift concept, and that's what we present to you.  To hopefully say; “I note the little details, and I'm going to buy my next birthday gift for a 60 year old woman from Basketsgalore.  We set out to be the leaders in the gift basket and hamper industry, when it comes to designing Birthday gifts for 60 year olds and people in their 60s, that's what Basketsgalore considers important.

To summarise, there is no real difference in terms of buying for 60 year olds and people turning 60. The only concept will be in terms of the degree of message and maybe the frivolity of the message. We don't consider it a big deal to be able to turn your happy birthday gift basket or Happy Birthday hamper into one which says 60th on it, that for us is easily done, easily amended. 

Our objective is to get as many birthday gift baskets and hampers for 60 year olds delivered to households as we can, because we feel that our birthday gifts for 60 year olds are so much better than anything else out there. So, the only reason that we're actually talking about it is in order for you to find us in terms of visibility. The design of the products themselves, whilst we have everything that you would wish to customise it down to the message to make it more personable and more sort of cute, interesting and quirky.

The governing contents are birthday gifts and products which not just a 60 year old would enjoy, but somebody in their 70’s, somebody in their 50’s, somebody in their 40’s would equally like.  In other words, taste and quality are ageless and universal. You don't need to be a specific age for it. It's just that for people in their 60s, the purchasing quality threshold for our company baskets, lends itself remarkably well for gift hampers and birthday gift baskets for people in their 60's because the quality threshold is just set so high for us as a gourmet hamper company. 

References:

Blog - 'Birthday Gifts UK - Something to Smile About' (Publish Date - 09/03/2022) Available at: https://basketsgalore.co.uk/blog/birthday-gifts-uk-something-to-smile-about/ 

Blog - 'How do you make Interesting Birthday Gifts (UK Delivery)' (Publish Date - 11/05/2022) Available at: https://basketsgalore.co.uk/blog/how-do-you-make-interesting-birthday-gifts-uk-delivery/ 

Blog - '50th , 60th & 70th Birthday Gifts - Elegant Gifts for Sophisticated Men & Women' (Publish Date - 23/06/2022) Available at: https://basketsgalore.co.uk/blog/elegant-gifts-for-sophisticated-men-and-women/