Not everyone is fortunate enough to have someone they can truly call their best friend. So, when it comes to buying gifts for best friends – whether it’s a special occasion or just because – only the finest will do.
Of course, since you know your person better than anyone, best friend gifts should be effortless to find, right? Not necessarily. When you’re trying to get it just right, nothing seems good enough. Then there’s the challenge of having to top their most recent gift to you (or whatever you gave them last year).
If you’re stumped, fear not. Our list of gifts for best friends is guaranteed to get those creative gift-buying juices going. So you can celebrate your best mate in the style they deserve, whatever the occasion.
Best Friend Birthday Gifts
The Greatest Story Ever Told
As best friend gifts go, this is surely one for the books. Celebrate the life and times of your best bud with a professionally written personal biography. Enlist the services of an experienced Story Terrace biographer to interview your friend about their life. The writer will capture their story on paper, with a 55-60-page hard-cover book and PDF, complete with 20-photo illustrations.
An Historic Year
In which year was your best friend born? It must have been a good one, considering it produced that magnificent human. You can honour your best friend’s very existence with a poster all about their birth year.
In a nostalgic newsprint, announce a round-up of the year’s events. This includes fun trivia – like the top-grossing films, sporting events, popular baby names, world population, and news headlines – from that year.
A Taste Adventure
Turn birthday dinner into a flavoursome adventure with fine dining at Edinburgh’s Purslane Restaurant. Enjoy a seven-course tasting menu for two at this rustic venue in historic Stockbridge. The bonus is that you get to spend time with your favourite and delight your own taste buds in the process.
Just some of the stops along this tour of first-class cuisine include scallops a la plancha with Jerusalem artichoke and crispy pancetta, roast Scottish venison with fondant potatoes, Earl Grey poached pear, chocolate mousse, and pear sorbet.
Best Friend Christmas Gifts
Custom-Made Christmas
Because Christmas is traditionally a family holiday, we don’t always get the chance to celebrate it with friends. Get your friend into the spirit of the season with a few personalised Christmas baubles. This way, if you are separated on Christmas day, they will still feel your presence as they decorate the tree with their best friend gifts. If you are in each other’s company, you can hang them together as you sip eggnog and tuck into your mince pies.
There are so many options to choose from in either glass or bone china that you are certain to find the perfect fit for your friend.
Winter Wish Come True
If you are fortunate enough to be spending time with your best mate over Christmas, there are some amazing places in the world for you to do it. You could both do with a getaway and Christmas in some winter wonderland would be just perfect. After all, ‘tis the season for snow.
Imagine opening your best friend gifts in a cosy tavern in Black Forest, Germany, or under the Northern Lights of Reykjavik, Iceland. You could also take your friend on a snow safari in New England, United States, to cruise the markets of Salzburg, Austria, or dog sledding in Greenland.
Unique Gifts For Your Best Friend
Bespoke Buddy Box
A small token of profound appreciation… For something truly thoughtful, assemble a personalised gift box of all your friend’s favourite things. This heart-warming compilation of handpicked items will remind your bestie of just how well you know them.
You can go the DIY route on this one or make it super simple for yourself by using Bookblock’s ingenious gift box offering. You can fill your own box – Bookblock has over 400 products on offer and lets you choose from a bunch of different box styles – or you can select one of their curated gift boxes.
Master Class In Session
Learning is the gift that keeps on giving; an experience that never dates. Present your friend with a private lesson from a seasoned pro in just about any field you can think of. Has your friend always wanted to fly a plane? See them breeze into the great blue yonder with a lesson in a Cabri G2 40 helicopter or a four-seater plane.
Maybe your best is a budding musician. You can book private lessons for the piano or other instruments or even a jam session with Eric Slowhand Clapton or the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen.
For sports lovers, you can’t go wrong with private cricket, fishing or golf tutorials.
Gifts For Girl Best Friends
A Girl’s Best Friend
It doesn’t necessarily have to be encrusted in diamonds, but a choice piece of jewellery can really add sparkle to a girl’s life. Personalised matching sets are even better gifts for best friends who are girls.
Something like an engraved birthstone necklace with matching ring will really make her feel cherished. You can also give her a special place, like an antique jewellery box, to keep her treasures safe.
Good Hair Day
There is nothing like a good hair day to make a girl feel like she really has it together. Help your girl to get salon-sleek with a Brazilian Keratin treatment and hair cut or get ready to step out in style with a haircut and blow-dry plus professional make-up.
Gifts For Guy Best Friends
Tailor-Made
When you look good, you feel good and nothing looks better on a man than a well-tailored shirt. Your best bud can dress like the gentleman he is with a wardrobe full of bespoke shirts by Royal Tailors, Turnbull & Asser.
Your friend will feel every bit the distinguished man about town clad in shirts crafted by the same tailors who dress 007 and H.R.H. The Prince of Wales. With over 2 000 fabrics, three collar linings, and 25 cuff and collar styles, your mate’s new made-to-measure wardrobe will express his unique individual style.
The Pilot’s Life
What little boy doesn’t dream of one day sitting at the helm of some powerful aircraft? If that little boy grew up to be your closest friend, then you can give him the gift of 90 minutes in control of a virtual Boeing 737.
His ride for the day will be one of the very same fixed-base Boeing 737 simulators used by professional pilots for practice drills and emergencies. Your friend can even set the conditions of his flight – including weather, time of day, and global location.
Gifts For The Best Friend Who Has Everything
Mission Impossible
Ah, the unsolvable riddle; finding gifts for best friends who have everything. Perhaps it only seems like they have everything because you haven’t thought far enough outside of the box. You’d be surprised at the possibilities out there, once you take the time to look for them.
Few best friend gifts are as great as a life-changing experience; something they never imagined they’d be able to do. If money is no object, you and your pal can join the space race with a 12-hour near-space odyssey to the edge of the upper atmosphere. Now, there’s a tale that few could tell.
Then again, if they are keener on unexplored ocean depths than celestial outer limits, they can take a dive to explore the actual wreck of the Titanic. On this deep sea adventure, your friend will become a mission specialist for 11 days, working with an expert team gathering data on the famous wreckage.
This will include underwater Egress helicopter training and three hours exploring the sunken cruise liner with unparalleled views and cutting-edge sonar, laser, and 4K photography tech.
Gifted Gadgets
Who doesn’t love a nifty gadget to solve a pesky everyday problem? These days, there’s a game-changing gadget for every situation.
For example, your friend may have everything, but do they have a beanie fitted with an LED light for night-time reading or camping? What about a keychain that finds your keys for you when you whistle? Golf ball finder glasses? Bedside or sofa pocket for reading material, tech, stationery, or glasses?
Like we said, there’s a gadget for every person and every situation.
Gifts For A Best Friend Who Is Moving
Luxury Luggage
Parting is such sweet sorrow, but you can ease your friend’s burden by helping them pack for the journey. While you’re at it, you can gift them with some brand new luggage to travel in style, whether their destination is near or far.
If your mate is the quirky type and you are feeling really sentimental, then personalised suitcases make great best friend gifts. Alternatively, for the sophisticated type, we highly recommend designer luggage from one of Steamline’s customisable designer collections.
You can also throw in a monogrammed leather luggage tag and passport set. All the better to see them travel back again to visit you soon.
A Moment In Time
A watch with multiple time zones is not only practical; it helps your friend feel grounded and connected to loved ones far away. German watchmakers, A. Lange & Söhne have been in the business of crafting quality timepieces since 1845. Their creations for both ladies and men are simply exquisite.
Preset the watch to your zone and the zone of their new home and they will carry a part of you with them, wherever they go.
Spoiling your BFF is easy with these ideas, no matter what the occasion. If you’re in need of a gift, now’s the time to start shopping!