Someone went and leveled up the fish bowl. This is the perfect gift for that big-picture thinker who digs sustainability and balance. Also for anyone who wants a pet they don’t have to take care of. The organisms in this eco-sphere take care of each other, maintaining perfect aquatic harmony. Go ahead, write a poem about it.
Sturdier, more convenient, and easier to handle than traditional kabob skewers. No more forgetting to buy skewers and having to eat raw steak and vegetables or cook with their bare hands. Not every brilliant solution has to be high tech. Some just make a lot of damn sense.
Chocolates used to (and perhaps still do) come from factories run by shady recluses and populated by obese midget slaves. Or at least that’s what the video evidence suggests. But it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. Stick it to big business by giving someone this home chocolate making kit and help them join the artisan revolution. A whole new way to make chocolate “guilt free”.
High quality craft beer deserves a vessel made to the same exacting standards. Leave the pitchers for the Bud Light. An insulated, pressurized micro keg is the best way to dispense a fancy brew when taste and freshness really matter. The perfect gift for parties, casual gatherings, or personal consumption.
Sure, some DIYers like to be hands on, but in your heart of hearts, you know that if you offered to make beer easier, nobody’s going to turn you down. Because turning down easy beer is like turning down free beer - it’s the kind of decision your reputation never quite recovers from. With everything we have to do in a given day just to hold our hectic lives together, being able to push a button and create beer almost seems too good to be true. But it’s not. Good lord, how could life get any better?
How many times have they said, “I know this town like the back of my hand”? Present them with this accurate jigsaw representation, sit back, and ask them to prove it. Or stoke their nostalgia with a puzzle version of their long-lost birthplace. A great choice for a more personalized gift.
For many people, donuts are the only reason to get up in the morning. Despite this, we’ve been told over and over how unhealthy they are, being fried balls of dough and all. Well, this donut pan will remove the final psychological barrier to full enjoyment, because it takes out the frying. Take that, food police. Oh, and it’s a lot cheaper too.
It’s never too early to spread the love. And with this heart-shaped waffle maker, all they have to do is spread the batter, and all the love symbolism comes popping out by itself, like magic. Alas, these delicious creations are destined to be just as fleeting.
By the time a person gets to fifty, they’ve probably experienced at least a few health problems and injuries. But now they’re getting older, these will start to multiply. They’ll need to be afraid. Very afraid. Their only chance is to keep this book with them, like a talisman, and consult it constantly.
Whether it’s Charlotte’s Web, Hamlet or Harry Potter, a first edition of their favorite book is sure to top the gifting charts. In the past, you’d scour bookshops, eventually stumbling across a kindly old bookseller, who’d take pity on your plight, and climb a rickety ladder, to dust off a long-lost volume... nowadays, we have the Internet.
The 50th birthday is probably the last time you can get away with “over the hill” jokes. From here on in, these kinds of jokes will sound more like observations. Take advantage of your last chance to pick on the old guy by putting together a basket of embarrassing senior citizen’s products like prune juice, orthopedic shoe inserts, hemorrhoid cream, Metamucil, Depends diapers, Beano, and reading glasses.
By their 50th birthday, a person is probably pretty sure they are not going to ever have a royal title. Like, what are the chances? Now you can blow their mind with the gift of a Scottish Laird or Ladyship decorative title and a real piece of an ancient estate.
The last thing they need is more stuff, and at the end of it all it’s really the experiences that they will cherish the most. Help them create some new memories to look back on by finding a fun activity to do locally. Be adventurous and choose something they’ve near done before. It’s a gift that will enrich their life and yours too.
Start the countdown, because the 50th birthday means they are in range for this gift. Count down every day, hour, minute, and second until retirement begins with this nifty clock. They can even bring it to work to make the whippersnappers jealous. With the average age of retirement always on the rise, you may want to throw in some extra batteries too.
They may be the world record holder for moo goo gai pan take-out orders, but that doesn’t mean they can’t apply that same ambition to a more progressive enterprise on the culinary scene. These boxed meals feature fresh, nutritious ingredients that will inspire healthier eating and put a lid on that MSG consumption. Award their starved taste buds and support responsible land stewardship while you’re at it!
Legal in all 50 states, this herb garden smokes the competition! The aroma of fresh herbs will bring serenity and well-being to their home and some much needed flavor to their cooking. Rosemary, thyme, dill, sage, oregano, the options are limitless! Green thumbs not required for this low-maintenance nursery. Sprigs of yummy goodness direct from Mother Nature.
Everyone used to have that one weird friend who would set up a portable swimming pool in the middle of the living room just so they could take a bath and watch TV at the same time. Now technology allows them to bring the TV to the bathtub, not the other way around, in the form of a small tablet. But electronics and water still don’t really mix that well, so you need something like this. Provides space for food, beverages, soap, aromatherapy candles, entertainment, and whatever else they might want within arm’s reach while soaking away their worries.
You could just get them a gift card to a spa or for a massage, but why not go for a more interesting experience like cryotherapy? It’s basically a box you get into to get blasted by ridiculously cold air for a short period of time. Advocates say that the treatment rejuvenates the body and helps repair tissue damage. If your town doesn't have a cryotherapy place yet you could try a bathtub full of ice and a big fan.
Back in the old days you were really rolling the dice when you chose a hotel. Either you called blindly after skimming the phone book or simply drove all night and hoped you saw a vacancy sign before you ran out of gas and got murdered by a vagrant. A hotels.com gift card is not just a way of picking up the tab for a night’s stay; it’s also the priceless gift of peace of mind.
Birthdays are often seen as a measure of how much time we’ve lost doing things we didn’t really want to, whether it’s being behind a desk or doing the dishes. This countdown watch should inspire your favorite 50 year old to make every second count as they helplessly watch them tick by.
What hard working person has not at one time wished for a warm-blooded giant to place his hands on their shoulders and ease their weary muscles? That was the inspiration behind this cordless neck and shoulder heat wrap. Aches and pains simply melt away under its heavenly influence, and with a maximum temperature of 120 degrees, it reaches the really deep muscles that no giant can soothe without inflicting skeletal injury.
It’s amazing to think that giving someone a kit to take a sample of their own DNA, that will then be sent off and analyzed, resulting in a detailed personalized genetic analysis, would have seemed like total science fiction just a few decades ago. But here we are, and the kit makes a thought provoking gift. They could be related to Genghis Khan, Cleopatra, Chuck Norris, and Batman… Probably not that last one. But you can’t prove it. Now you can either both spend your lives wondering, or you can finally understand where that fixation with roundhouse kicks came from. The choice is yours.
It’s a sad truth that the older you get, the less you can afford to eat things that have been fried in oil. But fried food tastes great! There is an answer to the problem. Electric Air Fryers cook up crispy fried food without all those calories from oil. Give the gift of taste without guilt.
In a couple of generations, nobody’s even going to know what the hell a book is. Have you seen a teenager try to figure out how to use one of their parents’ audio cassettes? But for those of us in the know, books are the real source of pure knowledge and wisdom, untainted by the runoff of digital culture. Like a cold, clear mountain stream, but with words.
This is the old people version of buying them their own pool cue. Like every game of chance, bingo is ruled by the secret and unfathomable rubric of superstition. Using a borrowed dauber is like spitting in the face of the lottery gods. Not a good idea.
Plain white envelopes are so overdone. Giving a stack of money doesn’t have to be boring. Fold every bill into an origami flower, mount them on sticks, and arrange the cash into a stunning bouquet of blossoming currency. Everyone loves flowers, and everyone loves cash money. It’s the perfect gift!
Well, they’ve spent 50 years in this reality, they’ve probably had enough – we didn’t invent a whole new one for no reason. Give them a virtual reality headset and allow them to come face to face with dinosaurs, dance on the moon, meet their idol… you’ll probably never see them in the real world again.
A fun clock where the numbers are printed in reverse and the hands run counter-clockwise, it makes obvious sense that this is a great 50th birthday gift. The one thing about it, though, is how hard is it going to be to use for telling time? Pretty hard, right? Give it to someone with a flexible mind.
If their memory of past events is starting to get a little hazy (hey, some of them happened half a century ago), give them this thoughtful birthday book as a reminder. Best of all, you get to choose the photographs - remember that ‘hilarious’ yearbook picture, questionable fashion choice, or The Year of The Perm? They will now!
Unless you live under a rock, or on Tristan de Cunha (Google it), you don’t get to this age without ticking a few places off your bucket list. This personalized travel map is a fabulous way for your recipient to document their adventures of the last fifty years, and pin point where they’re going to spend the next fifty!
People nearing their 50th birthday can often be heard complaining about their feet. It’s just human nature. Something else that is human nature is loving the feel of wool. What if we could combine sore feet with the feel of wool? That would be amazing!
When you get to fifty, practical gifts that you would have treated with disdain at twenty start to hold a lot more appeal. This handy discount card is something they’ll use every day, reminding them of your thoughtfulness – they might even use it to buy you something in return. A gift that keeps on giving!
Help your favorite 50-year-old get away and recharge in a faraway place where nobody knows them and they can act however they want with virtually no longstanding social repercussions. Because when things get tough, evacuation is usually the only solution.
Normally, if you were to hand over a dirty bedsheet or a scribbled picture of a can of soup as a gift, your recipient would be at best courteous, and at worst instantly retracting your invitation to their 50th birthday celebrations. But somehow, when it’s contemporary ‘art’, you can get away with it. So, do.
By the time they reach 50, they’ve earned the right to lie back and sink into bubbles with a glass of bubbly. It’s one of the few pleasures life still awards them, having stolen their youth, hopes and dreams. Give them this handy glass holder to ensure that, unlike their dreams, their wine will never drain away.
Now they’re nearing fifty, their eyesight might be going a bit, and they might be slowing down – but they’re still a big kid at heart. This giant yard game will be easy for them to see, even without their glasses, and is a fun way to keep fit and active. Plus, it looks great – the height of landscape design.
When you get to 50, you start to prioritize comfort in a way you probably didn’t at 21 – yes, we’re thinking of all those nights spent wobbling home in 4 inch heels and ending up with a sprained ankle. These custom-made, shock-absorbing insoles will allow them to do all their current partying pain-free.
For your old-world 50-year-old who’s been around the globe a bit, and loves a good antique (and a good wine!) why not chose this 16th-century Italian bar cabinet replica? Perhaps the best thing is, it looks far more expensive than it actually is (which is what we all secretly look for when buying a gift, right?)
The ideal gift for the commitment-phobic 50-year-old, who in fifty years, still hasn’t managed to choose a piece of artwork they like enough to display on their wall permanently. Enter technology, to save them, by offering thousands of pieces of art in one frame. And if they don’t like any of these, they’re beyond your help.
Hitting any milestone birthday can be traumatic. We all set ourselves goals in life, and a big birthday is a reminder of all the things we haven’t yet achieved. This is your chance to assuage the fears of your 50-year-old, by giving them a fortune cookie which conveniently tells them exactly what they need to hear. Aww.
Admittedly, this is kind of a niche gift. But somehow, inexplicably, this has become a giant niche. Fans of the animated sitcom - as well as the associated blog, comic book, and soundtrack album - will have a great time geeking out to these real life, chef-tested recipes for the outlandishly-named burgers the show is famous for.
Because knowledge is power, and (as someone very wise once said), with great power comes great responsibility – and most people under 50 are trying to avoid responsibility at all costs! But now, on this milestone birthday, they’re finally ready (either that, or they’re in trouble and need to know how to beat a lie detector test!)
A milestone birthday like 50 can make people somber, thinking about their health and the negative effect all those years of drinking may have had. Well, this watermelon keg kit doesn’t make alcohol any healthier, but they don’t need to know that – just tell them it counts as one of their 5-a-day, and they’ll be much less melon-choly!
What better time to abandon all dignity and attempts at ‘style’ and just start indulging your passions? For your friend or relative who’s always been obsessed with Star Wars, light sabers and droids (and who you often think might just live in a galaxy far, far away), this gift is an astronomic choice.
Just because they’re 50, doesn’t mean you have to give them a stuffy ‘grown-up’ gift – you know what they say, ‘you’re only as young as the sandcastles you bulldoze with a car!’ Infinitely more exciting than socks or a bottle of Cognac, we think the risk of duplication on this blood-pumping gift is minimal.
If they seem bored with preparing their meals the traditional way – you know, by microwaving them – then this futuristic cooking contraption could be the gift for them. Simply vacuum pack food in a bag, submerge it in water and the all-powerful Sous Vide will turn it into mouth-watering, restaurant-worthy steak. Yes, really. Check out our Guide to Sous Vide Cooking to learn more about this underutilized method of cooking.
Well, it was quite a long time ago now – they’d probably appreciate the reminder! Guaranteed to bring a tear to your recipient’s eye, this gift is a great excuse to go and visit their friends and relatives to get them to dish the dirt from their childhood, and be offered a zillion snacks along the way. Yay!
It’s hard to stay active and moving around when you’re chained to a desk with work all day, so consider giving them this Under-Desk Elliptical machine on which they can pedal away all day, working up a sweat and staring at spreadsheets. As a bonus, they’ll look like a duck treading water, with their feet pedaling frantically under the surface.
Well, they’ve made it to their 50th birthday, so they’re obviously doing something right (either that or they’ve been very lucky, and have good friends!) Still, with the zombie apocalypse on the horizon, it can’t hurt to know this stuff, and it’s sure to make your recipient feel like James Bond – a much needed pick-me-up, we’re sure!
Chances are, your 50-year-old will have tried a lot of wine in their time, and experienced many a disappointing Sauvignon. Now, with this crafty kit, they can make their own supply, exactly to their taste (after a few trial-runs, we’re sure). Why not get them a white lab coat too, for the full Breaking Bad experience!
By the time they get to 50, a regular Starbucks just won’t cut it anymore. Their worldly-wise eyes need copious amounts of caffeine, just to remain open for more than a few minutes. Treat them to this super-sized coffee cup, and watch them bound around with the energy of someone half their age. Coffee, we salute you.
Who doesn’t love sitting around a campfire, toasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories? By the time their 50th birthday rolls around, we bet they’ve done this a fair few times (before social media, it was all they had). But now, they’re at the age where all those flames and smoke really doesn’t agree with them. Enter the modern-day, dishwasher-safe alternative.
Every 50-year-old is a secret chess player – somehow, they all just know how to do it. Like ironing. But, not everyone can play vertical chess. That takes skill, courage and a feat of gravity. Give this to your chess-playing 50-year-old (don’t worry, that’s all of them), and watch them rise to the challenge.
If your recipient has recently been complaining that a regular vacuum cleaner just doesn’t cut it anymore (in the face of all these ‘modern’ germs), consider this practical 50th birthday gift. But, only if you’ve heard them say these words, or something very similar. A cleaning product can be a risky gift, if not requested.
Chances are, your recipient might be feeling a bit agitated on their 50th birthday. They’ve been alive for half a century, and what have they achieved? What is the point of life?! Calm them down with these soothing, hypnotic jellyfish. ‘Look into the tentacles, count to 3… that’s better’. Who knew deadly sea creatures could be so relaxing?
Everyone likes a nice stiff after-dinner drink, but sometimes you get tired of swearing at strangers and getting in fights with the sheriff. What’s a country boy to do? A great gift for anyone who’s looking to tone it down a notch but can’t give up the taste of that sweet Kentucky nectar. Or anyone who wants an extra special kick to start the day.
Just in case the aforementioned book didn’t work, or was missing some essential information about what to do if attacked by giant flesh-eating spiders (we’re just kidding – this book doesn’t tell you that either. The world is woefully underprepared for the giant flesh-eating spider invasion). But still, these secrets could prove useful to your 50-year-old in the meantime.
Give the gift of beautiful views, bucket-list achievements, and especially if they’re afraid of heights, hours of entertainment for you. It veers away from cruel since it’s completely safe, but you’ll definitely get your money’s worth watching them rotate between admiring the splendor and clutching the basket while praying in four languages. Especially since they only speak one.
The thought of turning 50 might leave them wanting to be beamed up but logic dictates that after a long soak in the bath, they’ll slip on this plush, warm bathrobe and be ready to live long and prosper. An absolutely enterprising gift for any closet or not-so-closet Star Trek fan.
It’s finally happening. The robot revolution has begun. And they’re starting with our floors. Making them all clean and spotless, so we feel inferior at our own vacuuming ability, perhaps we even slip on their shininess. And oh, how they’ll laugh. Resistance is futile, you might as well embrace it, and start gifting them to all your friends.
For the person who’ll try anything once, why not pop them in a local isolation tank and deprive them of their senses for an hour or so, see what happens? It might make them feel super relaxed and chilled-out. It could even be an enlightening experience. Or, it might just make them feel lucky to be alive when you finally let them out!
Flying can be a traumatic experience, especially for the over fifties – it’s so much faster than the horse and cart they grew up with. Help settle their nerves before take-off with this sophisticated cocktail accessory gift. All they need to do then is stock up at duty free, and they’ll be in the Maldives before they know it!
Depending on how much of a receding hairline your 50-year-old has, you may not want to give them something that could potentially encourage more strands to abandon their follicles. But if they’re still looking quite fluffy up top (or that ship has already sailed), this oddly relaxing, spider-like massager should be well received.
As anyone facing their 50th birthday is all too aware, aches and pains are a daily part of life. This Inflatable Heated Whirlpool Spa can help soothe those ever present annoyances without breaking the bank. It might even make them feel like 40 again!
Yeah, we weren’t too sure about this one either, but it’s certainly unique. And they’re unlikely to already have one. For the 50-year-old homeowner who’s started to find the regular doorbell just a little too abrasive for their increasingly fragile nerves, this soothing musical guest-announcer could be just the gift you’ve been looking for. Saved by the… harp?
Back in their day, all they had was a quill and ink, a scroll of stained parchment, and the flickering glow of candlelight… Ok, we may have gone back a little too far. But the point is, there wasn’t anything like this. And for the artistic 50-year-old, this pen presents limitless possibilities.
Perhaps you feel that undisguised love is just gross. For you, the proper way to show your feelings is through verbal abuse, because it gets the point across without making anyone’s skin crawl. You’d only speak this way to someone you really care about, and everyone knows it.
One for the BBQ kings out there! By the time they reach fifty, they’ve hopefully established themselves as a master of outdoor cooking (if not they need to have a word with themselves). But it’s time to take it to the next level. The Skewer Flipper will allow them to create perfect kebabs, every time.
Finally, after 50 years of indecisiveness, your recipient will now be able to make important life choices in mere seconds with this helpful device. Should they buy their daughter a car? Is it worth paying for Alex’s college fees? Should they have that fifth glass of wine? (The answer to all three is ‘no’, but they’ll do it anyway).
This is the real stuff. You don’t start off drinking 50 year old whisky. No, you buy the cheap stuff, then maybe the fancier stuff, and once in a while the good stuff comes your way. But a liquor that’s aged for 50 years, like a human, is on a whole other level. This has to be earned by living.
People weren’t joking when they said this coffee is the sh#t. The undeniably rich, full-bodied flavor produced by these rare beans has redefined the food chain and flipped the coffee industry on its head. Perhaps one of the most imaginative adaptations of the farm-to-table movement, this coffee product is redefining waste management.
What better gift for a 50th birthday (or any birthday really) than the power of creation? Ideal for the 50-year-old who loves to tinker in the garage, paint, build sculptures or who has ever aspired to build themselves a new house, or own a yacht – now they can just print it! (Ok, it’s maybe not quite that simple…)
