Sentimental Birthday Gifts for Your Girlfriend

You want her birthday gift to show that you have been paying attention. The most sentimental birthday gifts for a girlfriend are built from things only the two of you know: a place, a date, a joke, a tune she hums without noticing. Here are 11 ideas that do that, most of them for under $100. Our top pick is a love song about her, because it puts all of those small things in one place she can play again.

Press play on a real Songbond song

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

11 sentimental birthday gift ideas for your girlfriend

1. A love song about her ($39.90). Tell us where you met, what she calls you and the thing she does every morning before coffee. Songbond turns it into an original song, ready within 24 hours. It stays on her phone for whenever she misses you.
2. A recreation of your first date. Same restaurant, same table if you can get it, same order. If the place has closed, cook the meal at home and set the table the way it looked that night.
3. A print of the map where you met. The street, the campus or the bar, with the date printed underneath. Usually $30 to $70.
4. A bundle of open-when letters. Sealed envelopes marked open when you miss me, open when work is awful, open on a slow Sunday. It costs paper and one honest evening.
5. A scrapbook of your ticket stubs. Concert wristbands, the receipt from your first dinner, the parking ticket from that trip. If you have not kept any, start the book now and make this birthday the first page.
6. A birth flower necklace. A small pendant with the flower for her birth month. Quiet enough to wear every day. Usually $50 to $180.
7. Birthday videos from her people. Ask her sister, her college roommate and her oldest friend for a 20-second clip each, then stitch them together. Free, but give yourself a week.
8. A book with notes in the margins. Pick a novel you love and write small notes to her along the way: where you were when you read this page, what made you think of her.
9. A day that is entirely hers. Plan it hour by hour around what she loves, from breakfast to the last drink. Write the plan on a card so she can see you thought it through.
10. Her favorite childhood dish. Call her mom, get the recipe, practice once, then cook it on her birthday. Few gifts say you listened quite like this one.
11. An illustration of the two of you. Drawn from a favorite photo, with your first apartment or your dog in the background. Usually $40 to $120.

How to choose a sentimental gift for her

Start with how long you have been together. In the first year, keep it warm and a little light, so it does not feel like too much too soon. After a few years you have the history to go deep, and she will notice if you do not.

• If you are still new: the first-date recreation, the open-when letters or the day that is hers.
• If you have years together: the scrapbook, the book with notes or the song.
• If she is close to her family: the childhood dish or the birthday videos.

What to put in a song about her

When people send us details for a song, the ones that make it land are small and specific. Words like loving, kind and thoughtful describe almost everyone, so they make a weak song. What makes it about her is the nickname only you use, the way she narrates the dog's thoughts out loud, or the fact that she has never once let you win at cards. Write down five of those before you order. If you get stuck, scroll back through your texts from the first month you were together.

Give her a song for her birthday

Create a love song for your girlfriend from the stories only you know. It is ready within 24 hours, and express delivery gets it to you in about an hour if her birthday is today.

Also in the Journal: love songs for no special reason and songs to go with a promise ring.