Choosing a gift when you do not know the person well

The hardest gifts are for people you know socially but not personally. You cannot guess a favourite colour, and anything too personal reads as awkward. The way out is to buy for the occasion rather than the person.

Buy for the moment, not the personality

A housewarming, a new job, a recovery, a festival — each of these has an obvious register. A set that gets used and finished leaves nothing to store and nothing to display out of politeness. That is why bath sets, candles and desk items travel further than ornaments when you do not know someone well.

Three questions that narrow it fast

• Will it need to be kept on show? If yes, taste matters and the risk rises. If it gets used up, it does not.
• Is the household small? Large decorative pieces are a burden in a one-bedroom flat.
• Is there a shared occasion? A festival gift can be modest without reading as cheap; a milestone gift cannot.

On price

A gift that is obviously expensive can put the receiver under obligation. For colleagues and acquaintances, something in the middle of a range is usually read as thoughtful rather than transactional. Our listings show the price on the product page, so you can set a ceiling before you browse.

What we can help with

Tell us the occasion and roughly what you want to spend, and we will point at what we actually have — or tell you we do not have anything that fits. We do not carry personalised engraving or same-day delivery, so if the date is tight, order earlier rather than asking us to rush it.