birthday gifts

Boy, they can be tough at this age to buy for!! My 19 year old son has always enjoyed clothes ALMOST as much as his sister. He likes music too, so CDs are always a popular gift. IPods are great gifts and if he already has one, there's tons of accessories available. Movies are also always popular with my teenagers.

I like to buy books for my kids as well. I typically buy my son some kind of baseball books, just because he's not a motivated reader by nature, so try to encourage it by the subject matter!

If you're looking for a more sentimental gift, a scrapbook is always a fun thing for them, but also lots of work to prepare. I also found my son a beautiful wooden box at a gift shop a couple of years ago. I don't know if it flipped his lid, but it's really nice - handmade - and something he can keep forever. He keeps his watch and a couple pieces of jewelry he has in it.

We sent our son one of those restaurant gift certificates to one of the local restaurants close to campus. We included enough money on the card for him to take 3-4 friends with him so they could have a fun night out, with a good meal, and good company for his birthday.

Also...since his birthday is Halloween....there is always that great pumpkin jack-o-lantern at Walmart. You could stick his team cap on it's head and send it up to him for a Halloween/Birthday joke!

I second the idea of the plastic baseball jack-o-lantern light! Perfect gag/fun gift for a birthday baseball boy born on Halloween!!!

Thanks for all your ideas - I like the restaurant idea - my son and his friends would really appreciate that. Also I went to our local Walmart and they are all out of baseball jack o laterns but there is another one in the next town so will try there. I did buy a football one for a friend of mine. I guess someone else has been reading our posts!