Father’s Day is this weekend! If you’re stuck for original ideas, go handmade and create a gift for Dad together with the kids – something he can cherish as a great reminder of this time in their lives. Whatever age your child is, they will have a blast creating something – far more fun than trudging around the shops!
Here are some of our fave ideas:
Personal Coffee Mug
There are quite a few ways that you can make a personalised coffee mug for Father’s Day – just perfect for the Dad who needs an extra boost of caffeine! There are plenty of online companies that can print your kid’s photo, handprint or one of their drawings onto a mug.
I really love totally DIY-ing it, however – buy a lovely big mug and then decorate with Sharpie markers or porcelain paint and spray with a coat of clear varnish to set the picture.
Include a big bag of fresh coffee beans as well to really spoil him.
Secret Massage T-Shirt
I absolutely love this idea! This is truly the gift that keeps on giving.
Buy an incredibly soft and comfy white t-shirt that your partner can wear around the house or to bed. Then get the kids to decorate the back of the shirt with fabric markers, creating Dad’s Town, filled with roads, houses, parks and more.
The roads are the key to this present – because when Dad lies down on his stomach, the kids can then drive little cars all over Dad’s Town, giving him an impromptu and much-deserved massage!
Colorscape Colouring Book
Colorscape is an app which lets you turn any picture into a black and white image that you can then colour in using the app. But you can also print off the colouring pictures and put them together in a book, either for the kids to colour in for Dad, or to give to Dad with some pencils to get colouring together as a family.
Look for pictures of Dad, Dad and the kids, your pets, your babies when they were first born, and just fun, funny times together, then turn these into colouring pages to give as a gift.
Dad’s Hamper
A hamper is a good idea, but don’t buy a prepackaged hamper, make sure that you and the kids put together something tailored just for him. Get a basket or bucket that he can reuse and then take the kids for a walk through the supermarket, asking them to choose only Dad’s favourite things to go in the hamper.
I love seeing what kids choose when asked what they think will make Dad happiest, but is really just what they want (bubble-gum, fairy floss and Ooshies usually). Instead, for Dad perhaps lead them towards yummy bikkies and chocolates, good tea or coffee, hot sauce, chutney, soft cheese, quince paste and crackers.
You may also want to add a good bottle of port, whisky or some nice boutique beers to make the hamper slightly more grown-up.
An alternative idea is to put together a Dad’s Car Wash Kit with a brightly coloured bucket, some big sponges and a few good cleaning products.
Family Movies
Make short videos of your kids talking to the camera about Dad and the best things about him. You could get creative and even use settings, scripts and dress-ups – how about getting each of your kids to pretend to be Dad?
Put these together in a cute little film just for Dad this Father’s Day. Set up for Movie Night with tickets, drinks and popcorn and show Dad a private screening of the premiere of his very own movie. You could follow up with an actual showing of one of his favourite action or comedy movies or perhaps one that he loved when he was a kid.
Hand-painted Coasters
You can buy plain cork coasters from hardware shops, craft stores and even some bigger department stores like Kmart. Get your kids to help you paint or decorate the coasters in Dad’s favourite colours – for some tips see this blog.
All About Dad Questionnaire
Get your kids to fill out a questionnaire all about their Dad and why they love him. You can come up with your own questions, but if you don’t know where to start, try the printables you can access through this page.
Your kids will give some lovely, funny and genuinely touching responses to these questions. You can decorate them and get them framed in cute frames for Dad’s desk or for him to take into work.
Breakfast in Bed
This is a tradition as old as time, but I don’t know of any parent that doesn’t love the chance to stay in bed and get treated to a yummy breakfast!
Don’t just let the kids make their own half-burnt toast and bitter cup of instant coffee – pull out all the stops for this one. Go for a big stack of pancakes with choc chips and blueberries and lashings of maple syrup. Or buy some good quality sausages and give him a proper fry up of eggs, sausage and even some delicious haloumi.
There are heaps of things that the kids can do to help you cook such as cracking eggs, mixing the batter, chopping fruit or decorating the tray to make it extra personal.
Dad’s Chores
I do love the idea of putting together some Father’s Day vouchers for chores that the kids will do for Dad – but often these get given without any actual follow up. Dad smiles and puts the vouchers on his desk, the kids get back on their screens and nothing gets done.
Instead of just giving vouchers, you and the kids should take all of Dad’s chores off him for the weekend, or even a week if you are super awesome. Delegate a child to do the things that Dad normally does, such as stacking or emptying the dishwasher, mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, taking out the bins etc. And make sure that it gets done.
As an extra treat you could tackle the things he wants to do, but never gets around to, such as tidy his bathroom shelf or organise his sock drawer, or do his basic sewing fixes likes hems, tears and buttons.
He is certain to have a great day with one or more of these homemade gifts made with love just for him.
