Reflecting on Meaningful Gifts and Family Traditions

This year's girls trip to Tell Your Ride was the best. We went up ourselves. withith my Spphire preferred card. And with five times points on chase travel plus three times points on vacation homes with top brands, we got this incredible cabin. It was imagine. And with three times the points on dining, we ordered a wagu steak dinner. And that pistachio gelato was too good. So where should we go next year I've got ideas. Chase Sppire prereferred. the card that's preferred for a reason. Cards issued by JK Morgan Chase Bank and a member of DIC, subject to credit approval. terms apply I'm Christine Seer Classette and you're listening to the Wirecutter Sh. Hey there, it's Christine And Father's Day is right around the corner on june twenty first We've done a few episodes about Mother's Day on the show And this year, we wanted to even things out and talk about dad's too We actually have quite a few dads on the wirecutter staff. So we wanted to let them take the spotlight for this episode We asked a bunch of our colleagues with kids what the best gift they'd received for Father's Day was I hope the reflections give you some ideas of great ways to celebrate the father or father figure in your life this year We also have tons of great Father's Day ideas on our site. Our gifts team spends a ton of time curating great gifts, and you can find those at wirecutter dot com slash gifts Okay, let's let the dads take it away Hi, I'm Grant Kluser, and I'm on the audio video and smmart homeome team. And I think the best Father's Day gift I ever received from my kids, although technically I know it was from my wife. was a backyard fire pit landman Backyard fire pit to be exact I actually wrote about it in twenty twenty And even then it was at least seven years old We spent a lot of wonderful evenings sitting around the fire mayaybe roasting some marshmallows or just telling stories Unfortunately Last year After sitting out in the backyard through all weather, I even left it out in the winter because I'm irresponsible bottom finally rusted out My kids are a lot older now So maybe they can afford to get me one of those nice smokeless ones this year Hey there. This is Ben Frreuman Wire cuts edit are in sheath And I am here to tell you about one of the all time greatest Father's Day gifts that I have received. They' socks Now they're not just any socks. I know socks sounds boring, generic. It's kind of gift you could give any dad. But these socks are special These socks have my children's faces on them These are personalized socks. They are a wirecutter recommended gift pick in our guide to the Best Personalized Gifts by Samantha Shay and Mari Uihara They are divy up Custom socks And these socks are great. I have two pairs with both of my kids' faces on them. I have another pair with our beloved Cat Rocky's face on them These socks give me that sense of punk rock, geeky, cool personality, even when I have to wear like work clothes. They're kind of goofy, they're fun And I know this is going to sound very, very sappy But I think what I love most about them is I sort of feel like I got my kids with me throughout the day. I'll be sitting in a meeting, obviously not a boring meeting. We never have any of those. I'll be sitting in a super interesting meeting And I'll look down at my feet And I'll see My boy's smiling face looking up at me or my beautiful daughter smiling up at me And it makes me happy Hi, this is Dave from the YouTube team here at Wirecutter Best Father's Day gift I ever got is a little bit limited because my son is only five years old. But when he was in preschool H in his class Hide dyed a bunch of shirts for all the dads and happened to be the summer that H I really came back into vogue So now I get to wear it and good and he gets really amped whenever I do Hi, this is Harry Sawyers. I'm a senior editor at Wirecutter. My team covers home improving, emergency prep, pets and Once upon a time, I helped launch our kids coverage when my own kids were much younger. So for Father's Day I am not a great gift giver myself, which probably explains why I don't get many gifts for Father's Day, although I do complain about it Instead, I have a tradition. I write them all a letter, one page every Father's Day Ging back to twenty thirteen I tell them what it's like to be their dad, how they are as kids what being their parent has meant to me or what it means at this point at least. And it's meant to show appreciation and gratitude for the gift of fatherhood they've given me, although it probably veers into complaints itself I started because it occurred to me when I was a new parent that I really would have appreciated something like that from my own dad. and he didn't write that stuff down. and he didn't really remember what it was like to be a parent of a young child either So I didn't have that. And so I started just writing my own in case they ever felt the same way. We're gonna to take a quick break and when we come back, we'll hear about a great gift for a music loving dad and one for a sporty dad We'll be right back Funny thing about your mortgage, it kind of runs on autopilot. 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I'm a staff writer on the Gifts team at Wirecutter And The best gift I ever gave my dad was a really simple Indian cookbook When I was growing up, he did not cook at all. The only thing I ever remember him cooking were cheesy hot dogs. So he was probably in his fifties When I gave him this cookbook and it totally changed his cooking life and he learned to cook And he learned to follow recipes and he would cook entire Indian meals And it gave him a lot of confidence. and he's still a terrible cook if he just goes at it alone. But if he has a recipe to follow, he can actually make a lot of delicious food. So that was probably the best Father's Day gift I ever gave him This is Lee McCabe. I'm a home improvement writer at Wirecutter. This will be my ninth father's dayay as a dad I really do appreciate the handmade cards and frame photos and those kinds of sentimental gifts Ke them on my desk. I look at them all the time. Those are great The ones that surprise and delight me the most, the kinds of don't really expect to get but end up really enjoying are usually nicer or just slightly different versions of things that I use all the time anyway So one year my wife and daughter got me a variety pack of hot sauces, which was great. I have my one hot sauce that I put on most things and I know where to get it for a good price and I sort of stick with that They got me this variety pack with T ten or twelve different bottles, and it was fun to experiment and try different things out and found a few that I've sort of worked into my regular rotation, which has been great. wouldn't have happen without that gift. The other one comes to the top of my mind is a pair of baseball pants. I play Re league softball, not a very high level of competition, but still fun and you know, you want to be comfortable. usually wear shorts or trackpants and that kind of thing, but They surprised me with a pair of actual fitted baseball pants. They were a lot more comfortable than I was expecting them to be. They protect my legs a little better on the rare occasion when I end up on the ground And a couple of my teammates looked at me when I first wore them and said, did you lose weight? And I'm like, noope, definitely not. A couple of people thought I was running faster too, which was definitely not true either But I guess they made a good impression and I'm really glad that they gave them to me Hi, this is John Chase and I am the smart home editor at Wirecutter I have two kids and they always give me wonderful Father's Day gifts, of course And they're almost always handmade. And a couple that stand out that I really love, my daughter, made a leeather belt that is colored like a rainbow trout. I fly fish. And so it's just this gorgeous, lovely, completely unique item. And my son gave me one of my most treasured gifts It's a handmade mug And on the side, it says number four, best Dad. Thanks budd My name is Tom Dunn, and I'm a senior staff writer on the Hmrovement teeam Best Father's Day gift I ever received when I'm not testing the air conditioners, I'm also a musician So my wife and kids like to get me some fun guitar swag sometimes and I think my favorite of all was one year they got me a graphic t shirt with the Fingering charts for a D, A, and D chord I get a lot of A lot of mileage job that graphic TV in a lot of situations. so that's always fun Hello, I'm Hannah Morrel and I'm an editor on the Gifts team My dad died this past year But Father's Day was one of his favorite holidays. He always would send my brother and sister and I L ahead of Father's Day lists of what he was expecting from each of us this year. and At the time, we always sort of like rolled our eyes about it. We werere like, o okay, dad And now it sort of has become like something I really value about him. and of course I see it differently now This was a man who asked for what he wanted and there was a tongue in cheek aspect to it, but it was