Let’s face it; whether you’ve just started dating, or you’ve been married for 10 years, choosing a gift for your significant other will probably be the hardest gift choice of the holiday season. If you’re in a really new relationship, even deciding whether or not to buy a gift can be tricky. Our advice on that one is, if you like the person and see yourself continuing to go out with them; buy a gift. If you don’t like them enough to want to buy them a gift, you probably shouldn’t be seeing them by Christmas anyway. Choosing the gift may be tough. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help choose the right gift:

• What would he or she like to spend more time doing if they had the time?
• What would he or she love to have but would never buy for himself/herself?
• Pay attention to things he or she comments on when you’re out together. It could give you really good ideas.
• Go places that will help you choose gifts. For instance, take him to a wine or beer tasting; make a mental note about which varieties he likes and come back later and buy some.
• Talk to her friends. A woman’s girlfriends are usually full of ideas and quite happy to help.
• Stay away from clothing purchases, especially for women, unless you’re absolutely sure she’ll love it and it will fit. Clothing is the single most returned category of Christmas gift.

  Tips and Ideas Christmas, Gifts, Holidays

Getting a date is one thing, but starting to date during the holidays can be a tricky thing to handle. Do you go over to her/his house? Do you bring a gift for your date? What are your obligations?

The holidays are an emotional time for anyone, but this also doesn’t mean that you should avoid them altogether in order to save yourself from dealing with them entirely. What you’ll want to do is take a breath, think about what the holidays are really about and then you’ll make the right decision.

First of all, the holidays are about giving and sharing. This is a time of celebration, so take advantage of the parties that you’re invited to. These will give you a great opportunity to have low stress dates where you can mingle and talk just a little, no pressure on either of you to maintain a longer conversation.

If you’ve been going out for a few weeks, you may want to pick up a small gift for your date. Something like movie tickets can provide both of you with a reason to get together again or something that you can keep in case your date decides to call things off before the gift exchange day.

What you may want to realize is that the holidays can be a difficult time for everyone, but by going with the flow and just having fun as you would with anyone else, you and your date might just make it into the New Year.

Tips and Ideas Date Ideas, Gifts, Holidays, Vacation

One of the more complicated issues with dating someone new is the idea of birthdays and other special occasions – what do you do?

Some dating advice will tell you to pick up a gift for them, while other experts say that you should ignore the occasion altogether to prevent coming on too strongly. It’s confusing advice at best, so what can you do?

There is a middle ground to this hot debate. People like being celebrated. They like being acknowledged. When you take the time to show that you know about a special day for them, they will appreciate it – even if they don’t show it.

You don’t have to go all out to do this either. A nice card or a small gift is plenty. You may want to choose to take them out to eat (minus the embarrassing singing, of course) at a place of their choosing, or ask them to make the plans for the night so that they are getting a celebration of their own design.

Now, if you don’t realize that it’s their birthday until the day of your already scheduled date, you can also cover for that too. Just pick out a dessert at dinner without their knowledge or take them somewhere special after dinner to celebrate. Be creative.

As for the people who say that celebrating is too much and will ‘scare’ a person away on a first date – the key is not to go out and buy them something expensive or something that’s too personal, especially if you’re just getting to know them. You don’t want to make them feel pressured into staying in the relationship because they received something so expensive. Something small is fine and you’ll certainly be thanked for it.

Dating Essentials Advice, Birthdays, Gifts, Money, Relationships