In this article, we're going to explore the question of what to buy a 50 year old man, and rather than going around the houses in terms of investigating the problem, we’re going to examine and following the methodology of a solution. We're unashamedly saying that the best gift to buy for a 50 year old man or to send to a man or woman in their 50s is without doubt, a birthday hamper or a birthday gift basket. You can also send a birthday hamper gift which is a sort of an introduction to the industry or to the genre concept.  What we aimed to do was not just create 50 year old gifts, because we tended to find that they were stereotypical and cliched.

Instead, we looked at the problem of sending gifts to people in their 50s, whether they be men or women, and came up with a solution which was fun, thoughtful, and interesting, it would make people happy, and it was more than just the usual classic birthday gift. 

Well, if you're looking to buy a product, a birthday gift for a 50 year old man, you'll be presented with a range of dilemmas. The first dilemma is that a 50 year old man tends to know exactly what he likes, and what he wants. This is why so many people search for “the man that has everything”.

So, you're looking for a gift for that 50 year old man, which you don't wish to be too specific, too personal, because you know, he's fussy and particular, but at the same time, you want to send really high quality. Something different, unique, unusual, introductory, interesting, stimulating, all these things.  There's any number of ideas that you could send. So, the only product that is visible in the market in the UK or in Ireland is Basketsgalore and the birthday gifts that they designed for people in their 50s. 

Now, the irony of it is, is that you'll not see very many cliches. You'll not see the standard traditional beers or wines or things like that mixed with a couple of other little packets. What you will see is a definition of a range of options that you can buy for a 50 year old man. So, the questions that you as the sender need to ask yourself is, what's your relationship to the 50 year old man? Is he just a colleague? or is he close family? There's what we call a “Familiarity sliding scale”.

You also need to ask yourself, what message best describes the gift you wish to send? Is it a thinking of you? Is it a commemorative gift? Or is it just a general celebration, or do you want it to be fun? Because this is for a 50 year old man, you may not have spoken to them for many years, but it's still it's a commemorative gift. 

You might be speaking to them every day, in which case you want it to be more fun and not so much commemorative, but a general celebration. So, it's very important to describe the message that you wish to send. 

Finally, the message that you want them to receive. Do you want them to be appreciative of this gift, or do you want them to laugh at it? Do you want them to enjoy it, or do you want them to be provoked by it? And by provoked, I mean stirred in the form of stimulated or wishing to engage them as a conversation starter. We are a social species after all. And the celebration of a 50 year old man’s birthday is a significant milestone and a significant gift sending occasion. 

So, to conclude, what to buy a 50 year old man, you have to consider your relationship, you have to consider the message you want to send, and you have to consider the message that you want to receive. In other words, sending a gift which is able to combine those three things intelligently and cleverly. It's very difficult. It's why so many birthday gifts are available. The issue is in terms of parsing those birthday gifts into something which is reflective of yourself and minimising the trouble or hassle involved in doing so. With that in mind, there's only one product which sort of fits everything, and that is the birthday gift baskets and birthday hampers, particularly by Basketsgalore.

This is a question that pops up frequently in our searches.  A good present for a 50 year old woman is something that you've put a lot of thought into, and that the 50 year old woman sees that thought. Does this differ from that of a man? Not really, but there's a subtle difference, a subtle distinction and nuance. A good present for a 50 year old woman is something whereby it is, I think, met with laughs and smiles.

So, because we've noticed women spending longer and thinking more about what to send that's not replicated across the board. Whilst an awful lot of men will be very thoughtful and considerate of the gifts that they're sending, sometimes even more so. But it's just in terms of women's research into gift sending, we tend to find they spend a little more time researching. So, what we wanted to do was create a range of products whereby a 50 year old woman would appreciate the little, small touches. It's the detail I think that women do spectacularly well.

In terms of appearance and the softer side of things, which tends to go beyond men's recognition, this could be a sweeping generalization, but in defining what is a good present for a 50 year old woman, we're really considering more how that person receives the gifts, what they think of that gift. And so, this is very important, because you want them to either laugh, smile, enjoy, appreciate, or think about the gift that you have sent them and the thought that goes into it. So, a good present for a 50 year old woman is something that shows the original sender's consideration for her personality or philosophy. 

With that in mind, a high quality gift can be difficult to source, because they tend to be thinking about a specific brand. So, you can't just send a woman a perfume, for instance, because she will have her very own distinct style or preference. You can't send her technology. In spite of all of these suggestions that simply not what you do. You want to send something which is sufficiently generic, suitable but still a complexity of thought and elegance into the editing of what's in that gift.  Doesn’t matter if it comes in the shape of a hamper or a gift basket.  You just don't want to put the ordinary sweets and popcorns and biscuits. It has to be something which shows extra thought and attention to detail. 

So, what's a good present for a 50 year old woman? We answered it ourselves. It has to be our Birthday gift baskets, the level of sophistication and detail that goes into the production of them, the presentation of them, and the core component ingredients of the gift baskets themselves is just, well it's a work of art, and it will be appreciated by the woman who's celebrating her 50th birthday.

The best gift for a 50 year old man is something that he will use and enjoy and remark upon. Let's take these three verbs. The usability aspect of it is really ingrained into men in terms of their practicality and wanting to use things. That's why you see always see tools being suggested as good gifts to send. The remarkable aspect of it has to be something whereby they appreciate that they're loved in terms of the sophistication and presentation of the gift that they're giving. And the third aspect is it needs to be Enjoyable. They need to enjoy what it is that they've been sent. And you know what? I think that that enjoyment is not fully factored into by some companies that suggest that the contents of a hamper should be cheese, wine, beer, something like that, because there's no real complexity or depth in terms of the flavours or tastes, and it tends to be about price, and we didn't want price to be a factor in what is the best gift for a man of this age.

So, the best gift for a 50 year old man has to combine practicality and utility. It has to be enjoyable and superior. It has to be remarkable and beautiful. The only products that I can see which combine these qualities in that way is a high quality hamper or premium gift basket. Now, you then look at Fortnum’s. Harrods or whatever, and you say, well, will they enjoy that? Because of the brand association, but I think with the product, you have to enjoy what's in it, not just enjoy the appearance. There has to be an enjoyment of the products themselves. And that's where definitely Basketsgalore is the best source of the best gifts for a 50 year old man, without a doubt. Don’t get me wrong we absolutely love the big London & Dublin retail stores and they are a wonderful showcase for many of the UK and Ireland’s best food suppliers, but Basketsgalore takes it to an extra special level of care and attention to the little details.

Well, I've just turned 50, and when I look at the range of products that I would be partially responsible for in terms of what I'm promoting or trying to sell online, I understand how difficult it is for others to buy for a man such as myself that's just turned 50. It’s kind of ironic, but the products that I oversee and work with every day, I check on their quality. I have an interest in the survival of our birthday gifts, birthday hampers, birthday gift baskets and birthday hamper gifts. And there's four price tiers there. For each of those four price tiers, I would love to receive any one of those, depending upon, obviously, the sender's budget. In other words, you don't need to send me a gift which is 200 pounds plus or 100 pounds plus or 50 pounds plus, it doesn't matter out of Basketsgalore birthday gifts. 

And if you wanted something a little bit more generic or a little bit more product centric. You could simply steer away from the birthday gifts, towards the gift hampers, towards the gift baskets, and then customise them for a 50 year old man such as myself. So, there are literally dozens of options to send to me. And I delight in the fact that any man turning 50 that gets a Basketsgalore product is going to love it more than any other product on the market.

And with that in mind, don't think that I've compromised everything on terms of my flavours, my preferences and my tastes. That's not the way it is, but I have ensured that I'm not going to send something cheap or something nasty. I'm very specific about what I want to eat. I don't like this phrase, less is more, but I would rather have fewer really nice things, high quality things than lots of cheap things.

I would rather have something which has been edited for my tastes and flavours and my style, rather than something which is generically created and is what other people think a 50 year old man wants. So, what to buy for a man turning 50?. It has to be a Birthday Hamper.

This is the million dollar question. I don't think anybody can imagine, or anybody can design a gift for a 50 year old woman, which is going to tick all of the boxes, but you've got to try.  Make an attempt, try, be daring so we have simply raised the standards of contents that goes into those gift hampers, those gift baskets, and also introduced a sort of little element of cheekiness. In the sense that what women say that they want to get as a gift, and what they actually enjoy getting are two different things. And what women will tell you they want to get is something healthy, something unusual, something different, something which makes them feel happy. 

Such gifts are the less healthy aspects of it. In other words, there's a dichotomy at play. There's a contradiction. It's your birthday. Don't give me what you think I want or what I say that I enjoy. Give me something which makes me go, you know what? I can be a little bit naughty. I can be a little bit bad. I can be a little bit cheeky. It's my birthday, after all. And finding the right product for that philosophy, that theory, is very difficult. This is whereby you as the sender have a big advantage, because if you're sending a birthday gift to a 50 year old woman, the chances are she's either a colleague, she's part of your family, she's a close friend, or she's very close to you in terms of family relationship. 

It could be a sister, it could be a mother, it could be a daughter, even at that age, it could be any number of things, which makes it probably the biggest segment. So, when you're thinking about what to gift that 50 year old woman, you have a big advantage. You can cut through an awful lot of the apparent preferences of that person. Don't ignore them, but you can be a little bit cheekier with it. And it's very important, because there's a real need for society to be itself in the digital era, and challenge the era of cliches. 

50 is a great age. It doesn't need to have necessarily be plastered all over the place. You're 50. This is 50, you know, it should actually be more of a celebration of a fantastic waypoint in life, a celebration of reaching 50. And what you're looking here is to have a little bit of fun with it as well. It's why we have fun, thoughtful, interesting and happy characteristics to our birthday gifts. And it's not just the classic stereotypical here's what we think a 50 year old woman would like, because you can't guess what they like. You can't anticipate what they want. 

That's difficult at the best of times when it comes to birthdays, keep it simple. Send high quality, interesting, different but familiar gifts in a package that they're going to be thrilled about. That’s why the only gift that really ticks all the boxes is a high quality birthday gift.

So, to conclude, what do you buy people in their 50s as gifts? There is no right or wrong answer. There is no perfect gift. What you all can do is look at what's in the marketplace and find a selection of concepts or ideas that you think would be suitable for a 50 year old man or woman. And when you break it all down, there's very few companies that can offer truly great gift concepts to you.

One of those companies, unashamedly, I say, is undoubtedly Basketsgalore and its ability to focus or segment the gift industry naturally over a span of time. From the perspective of gift baskets and hampers to create truly great designs and concepts. A birthday gift basket or a birthday hamper for a man or woman turning 50 or in their 50s, is a perfect gift for you to send. 

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 - 'It's a Tough Challenge Finding a Good Birthday Gift in the UK' (Publish Date - 24/05/2022) Available at: https://basketsgalore.co.uk/blog/it-s-a-tough-challenge-finding-a-good-birthday-gift-in-the-uk/ 

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/