Gifts for Someone Who Has Everything

They already own the good knives, the nice headphones and more candles than they can burn. A gift for someone who has everything should add what cannot be bought off a shelf: a person, a memory, or a way to give some of that stuff away. Here are 12 ideas that take up little or no room. Our top pick is a song about their life, because it is the one thing they cannot already own.

Hear an example of a Songbond song

This one was made for another family. Yours would carry their name and your stories.

12 gifts for someone who has everything

1. A song about their life ($39.90). You share the stories, the nicknames and the habits everyone teases them about, and Songbond turns it into an original song. It takes up no shelf space, and nobody else in the world has it.
2. Notes from the people they helped. Quietly reach out to former students, employees, neighbors or teammates and ask each for three sentences on what this person did for them. Bind the notes in a simple folder. It costs nothing but takes about two weeks.
3. A painted portrait of their dog or their house. Send a favorite photo to a local painter. Usually $80 to $300, and it hangs where an old print used to be.
4. Something meant to be handed down. A good pocket watch or a cast-iron pan, given with a written note on who should get it next. Usually $100 to $400.
5. Help giving things away. Spend a Saturday with them sorting the garage or the closet, and take the donation and resale runs off their hands. For many people who have everything, less is the gift.
6. A tourist day in their own town. The walking tour, the river cruise or the museum they have driven past for twenty years. Usually $30 to $100 for two.
7. Twenty photos off their phone. Most of us have thousands of pictures and none on the wall. Pick twenty, print them well and frame three. Usually $40 to $120.
8. A volunteer morning together. At the food bank, the animal shelter or the trail cleanup they care about. It costs nothing and puts the two of you side by side.
9. A bonsai tree. A small living thing that needs a few minutes of care a week and can outlive both of you. Usually $40 to $150.
10. A small award in their name. Ask their old school or club about a modest yearly prize or scholarship named for them. Even a small amount each year tells them their life counted for something.
11. The same table on their birthday, every year. Book their favorite restaurant for next year's birthday now, and tell them it is a standing date. The only cost is the dinner.
12. A street sign from where they grew up. A replica sign with the name of their childhood street, for the garage or the den. Usually $30 to $80.

How to choose for someone who has everything

Ask yourself what they would miss if it were gone tomorrow. It is rarely an object. It is usually a person, a place or a sense that their life mattered to others. Pick the gift that gives them more of that.

• If they are generous with others: the notes from people they helped, the award in their name or the volunteer morning.
• If their house is already full: the song, the tourist day or help giving things away.
• If they are nostalgic: the street sign, the twenty photos or the portrait of the house.

A test before you buy anything

People who have everything have usually been given the same gifts many times: the gadget, the gift basket, the monogrammed thing. Before you buy, run three quick checks. Could they buy this themselves in five minutes? If yes, skip it. Will it be in a drawer by spring? If yes, skip it. Does it carry a name, a date or a story that belongs only to them? If yes, you are close. The gifts that pass all three are almost never expensive. They are specific, and they usually took you some time to put together.

Make a song for the person who has everything

Create a song for someone who has everything, built from their own stories. It is ready within 24 hours, and express delivery gets it to you in about an hour if the occasion is tomorrow.

Also in the Journal: milestone birthday song ideas and a personalized song as a Christmas gift.