What do you give someone who already has everything?

You know the feeling. There's another birthday, an anniversary, or just a moment when you want to surprise someone. But this person already has everything. A personalised serving board? Their cupboard is already full of them. A nice shirt? She actually has ten of those hanging up already. How do you surprise someone who really doesn't need anything?

The answer often lies not in what you give, but in how you give it.

The problem with "someone who has everything"

People who have everything often have one thing in common: they have long since satisfied their need for stuff. What they don't have is time, attention and the feeling of being seen. And that is exactly the point. A gift that makes an impression on someone who "already has everything" shouldn't compete with stuff.. it has to be something completely different!

Think in experiences, not objects

Research on happiness and gifts increasingly shows that experiences and personal attention give a positive feeling for longer than physical products. A new object is quickly forgotten or becomes, literally and figuratively, part of the furniture. A moment of attention, a memory, or words that truly matter, those stick. That is exactly why more and more people are looking for gifts that aren't "things" but moments. Think of—a day out together, a tailor-made experience, or something made with personal words in it.

Personal attention as a gift

One of the simplest but most powerful forms of a gift is attention you feel day after day. Imagine: someone opens a new message every day, a small note written especially for them, built into a playful product that can sit on the windowsill or desk. No new thing to put away, but a small moment of attention, every day again.

That is exactly the idea behind a Wishly: you write the wishes and choose the form in which you want to give them, for example in a WishTree, WishBear or WishFlower. One wish per day, for as long as you have wishes left. No extra stuff, but a personal moment of attention that shows up again every day.

In practice: how do you go about it?

Want to come up with a gift yourself for someone who needs nothing? Ask yourself these questions:

• What would this person appreciate, apart from stuff?
• What memory or joke do you share that you could use?
• Can you spread the gift over several days, instead of a single moment?

That last point is often the most underrated. A personal gift that stretches over days or weeks is worth far more than one moment that is over again after a few hours.

So...

Someone who already has everything calls for a different kind of gift: one that isn't about possessions, but about personal attention. Looking for even more original gift ideas? Also read our article "I'm looking for an original gift: 25 ideas" for concrete inspiration.