Everybody has one. The person who buys whatever they want the moment they want it, whose birthday list is a shrug, and who genuinely means it when they say do not get me anything.
Trying to find a gap in their possessions is a losing game. There isn't one. So stop looking for a thing they do not own and start looking for a thing that cannot be owned by anyone else.
The only category left
Once somebody can buy their own stuff, the value of a present stops being the object and becomes the evidence. Evidence that you noticed. Evidence that you remembered. Evidence that you put thought where you could easily have put money.
Which is oddly freeing, because it means the winning gift for the person who has everything is usually cheaper than the one you were about to buy.
You cannot out-buy them. You can very easily out-think them.
Why a song works on this exact person
A song about their life fails every test they use to dismiss presents. They cannot buy it, because it did not exist until you had it made. They cannot already own it. It does not need shelf space, dusting or insuring. And there is no version of it available to anybody else on earth, because it is built from details only your family knows.
It also does the thing this person almost never gets. People who have everything are usually the ones who give the most and get thanked the least. A song is three minutes of somebody finally saying it out loud.
What to put in it
Resist listing their achievements. They know their achievements. What they do not hear is the small, affectionate, slightly ridiculous stuff:
- The thing they are weirdly proud of that nobody else would notice
- The habit the whole family teases them about
- What they did for you once that they have probably forgotten
- The way they answer the phone, order in restaurants, park the car
Our guide to the story box has four questions that pull this out of you in about ninety seconds.
How to give it
Do not email it and hope. Play it out loud, with them in the room, ideally with other people there. This is a present that works best as an event, and the person who has everything is usually the hardest to surprise, which makes the surprise land harder.
A nice touch: print the lyrics and put them in a card. It gives them something physical to hold while the song plays, and something to keep afterwards.
The reassurance
Buying for a difficult recipient is nerve-racking, so here is the safety net: you read the finished lyrics before you pay anything. If the tone is off for them, change a line or ask for a fresh version. You will know exactly what you are giving before you commit.
Hear a few in the free song library to get a feel for it, then make theirs. It is £24.99, which will be the least expensive and most talked-about present they get.