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What Sort of Christmas Gifts Make Your Man Merry?

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Oregon chapter.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, collegiettes! It’s that gingerbread cookie and eggnog time of year again, and I am feeling rather enthused about it. To be honest though, I’m kind of always enthused about the holidays. Usually I go all out with my decorations, but this year I forgot them at my mom’s, so I had to settle for a candle from Target and a box of multi-colored lights for my window. I hope for the sake of holiday spirit that your decorations are coming along more swimmingly than my own! You know what else makes the holidays superb? Presents! It’s a great feeling to give a gift to someone you adore and see the expression on their face when they open it. But… it’s not a great feeling when the expression on their face looks as though they’ve swallowed a goldfish. I’d hate for that to happen to any one of you ladies this season, so I did a little digging to find out what your man seeks to find in his stocking:

Tickets for Two

“The best presents are always tickets to different activities for the two of you, like games, concerts or vacations,” says Nolan Batalha, a business major at UO. Tickets to an event that you know your man will enjoy are a fantastic gift to show him that you know what he likes. It also makes for an extra fun date!

Clothes

Not every young man is the next Calvin Klein, which is why you can never go wrong buying clothes for your boo. I think we’ve all probably had a boyfriend or two who had no clue that Nikes never go with suits or that jorts are dead to the world. Sheldon Minor, our new Real Live College Guy and a sophomore at UO says, “I think it would be nice to get clothes from a girl. That way, you know for sure that she likes what you’re wearing!”

Compliments

Okay. I know it sounds corny but… apparently, men dig compliments. Willy Ross, a freshman at UO, says that “compliments are the best thing to get from girls over the holiday season because they uplift my spirits and make the holidays that much better!” I actually did something along these lines once for a boyfriend of my own. For Christmas, I bought a wooden box (think Ben Franklin Crafts), and painted it in his school colors (Cal Poly; also green and yellow!). I lined the inside with cut-outs from a rugby magazine and then filled the box with folded little pieces of paper that each had compliments or fun memories written on them. He is one hell of a jock, and he loved it.

Accessories

“Hmm… I like watches, or expensive accessories,” states Kevin Howden. According to Kevin, men like accessories. Most college guys prefer to spend their money on booze and burritos, and therefore probably wouldn’t drop money on things like watches or money clips. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want them! If you want to go big, consider saving up and getting your guy a Nixon watch.

Serena Piper will always be a Southern belle at heart, but for now she is a Senior Magazine Journalism student at the University of Oregon. She is an avid news reader and watcher, loves to bake yummy desserts and watch Sex and the City reruns, has big travel plans for after graduation and would eventually like to work for National Geographic. She wouldn't mind one bit if her life echoed Elizabeth Gilbert's in Eat, Pray, Love. To find out what Serena is up to, check out her blog and follow her on Twitter