Anniversary Gift Ideas for Your Boyfriend

You want an anniversary gift for your boyfriend that feels personal without feeling like too much. The best anniversary gifts for a boyfriend show that you pay attention: to what he wears out, what he does on a Sunday morning, and what the two of you keep laughing about. Below are 12 ideas across every budget. Our top pick is a song about the two of you, because it is the one gift nobody else could give him.

Hear what a Songbond song sounds like

This one was made for someone else. Yours would carry his name and your stories.

12 anniversary gift ideas for your boyfriend

1. A song about the two of you ($39.90). Tell us how you met, what he calls you and the joke only the two of you get, and Songbond turns it into an original song. It is the kind of gift he will play in the car when you are not there.
2. A deck of 52 reasons. Write one reason or memory on each card of a blank deck, one for every week of the coming year. It costs a few dollars and one evening of your time.
3. A class you take together. Pottery, knife skills, climbing or a home brewing night. Learning something side by side beats another dinner out, and it usually runs $60 to $150 for two.
4. Good seats at his team's game. Not the upper deck this time. Usually $80 to $250 for two, and you can add a jersey if the budget stretches.
5. A weekender bag with his initials. Leather or waxed canvas, big enough for two nights. It quietly says you want more trips together. Expect $60 to $180.
6. A shadow box of your ticket stubs. Concerts, movies, the parking receipt from your first date. Arrange them in a deep frame. Usually $30 to $70.
7. A drawing of him and his dog. An illustrator can work from a photo you send. Usually $40 to $120, and it will hang in his place for years.
8. A subscription for his Sunday mornings. Coffee beans from a small roaster, a print magazine about his hobby, a monthly box of hot sauce. Usually $15 to $30 a month.
9. A day planned entirely around him. His favorite breakfast, his favorite walk, the movie he keeps quoting. You do all the planning, and he does not lift a finger.
10. A good pocketknife with your date on the blade. Useful every day and small enough to carry. Usually $40 to $120 with engraving.
11. A scratch-off map of places you want to go. Scratch off the places you have already been together, then circle the next one. Usually $25 to $50.
12. A new version of the thing he wore out. The hoodie with the torn cuff, the sneakers he refuses to throw away. Same model, fresh. Usually $50 to $150.

How to choose for him

Look at what he already spends his free time on, then give him a better version of it or someone to do it with. Most boyfriends care less about the price and more about whether you noticed.

• If he is sentimental: the 52 reasons, the shadow box or the song.
• If he is a doer: the class, the game or the weekender bag.
• If he is hard to buy for: the replacement for the thing he wore out, or the day planned around him.

What to write in his card

Plenty of men say very little when they open a card, then keep it in a drawer for ten years. Skip the lines you could write to anyone. Write one moment from the past year when you felt lucky to be with him, and be specific: the night he drove an hour to bring you soup, the way he talked to your grandmother at the barbecue. Add one thing you noticed about him that he probably thinks nobody sees. End with one plan for the year ahead, something small and real, like the hike you keep postponing. Three short paragraphs is plenty.

Make a song for your boyfriend

Create an anniversary song for your boyfriend. It is ready within 24 hours of your order. If your anniversary is today, express delivery gets it to you in about an hour.

Also in the Journal: just-because love song ideas and songs about the day you met.