Sentimental Christmas Gifts for Your Wife

Sentimental gifts are the ones she tears up at, then keeps for thirty years. A sentimental Christmas gift for your wife takes something only the two of you share and hands it back to her in a form she can hold or hear. Most of the ideas below cost less than a sweater, but they take thought and a little time. Our top pick is a song made from your story, because it puts into words the things most husbands feel and rarely say.

Listen to a song Songbond made

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

11 sentimental Christmas gifts for your wife

1. A song made from your story ($39.90). Tell us where you met, what you called each other in the early days and the moment you knew. Songbond turns it into an original song she can play whenever she wants to hear it. You can ask for changes until it feels right.
2. An ornament for every Christmas you have shared. One small ornament for each year together, each with the year and one word on the back about what happened. The first December takes effort. After that, you add one a year. Usually $15 to $30 per ornament.
3. Your vows or your first letter, framed. If you still have the note you wrote her early on, or your wedding vows in your own handwriting, have it framed properly. Usually $40 to $100.
4. A jar of 365 notes. One folded note for every day of next year: memories, reasons, small promises. It takes a few evenings to write and costs almost nothing.
5. Your first date, done again. Same restaurant if it is still open, same order, same walk afterward. If the place is gone, cook the meal at home and set the table the way it was.
6. A locket with two photos. One from your wedding day, one from this year. Usually $50 to $200.
7. A memory box. Gather the ticket stubs, the hospital bracelets, the old cards and the wedding invitation from the drawers where they are hiding, and arrange them in one wooden box. Around $30 to $60 for the box.
8. A video from the people who love her. Ask her friends, her siblings and your kids to record a short message, then stitch them together on your phone. It costs nothing but a few weeks of chasing people.
9. A calendar with one photo from each year together. January is your first year, February your second, and so on. Usually $25 to $40.
10. Letters for Christmases to come. Write five sealed letters, one to open on each of the next five Christmas Eves. Tell her what you hope for that year.
11. A lesson to relearn your first dance. Book a private dance lesson and dance to your wedding song again, properly this time. Usually $60 to $120.

How to choose a sentimental gift she will keep

The right sentimental gift matches the way she holds on to memories. Some women save every card. Others would rather relive a day than look at a box of things.

• If she keeps every card and ticket: the memory box, the framed vows or the ornaments.
• If she cries at the right moment in films: the video from her people or the song.
• If she would rather do than keep: the first date again or the dance lesson.

What to put in a song about your wife

From the stories husbands send us, the details that carry a song are small ones. Loving, kind and beautiful are all true, but they are true of a lot of wives. What makes a song hers is the thing only you know: that she sings in the car but only when she thinks nobody is listening, the nickname from your first apartment, the line she said at the altar that made the whole room laugh. Write down three of those before you start. They will do more work than any adjective.

Give her a song for Christmas

Make a Christmas song for your wife from the stories you share. It is ready within 24 hours, and express delivery gets it to you in about an hour, so it still works on Christmas Eve.

Also in the Journal: anniversary song ideas for your wife and romantic Christmas songs.