Thoughtful Gift Ideas for Your Best Friend

Your best friend already knows you love them, so the gift has a different job: to show that you remember the details. Thoughtful gift ideas for a best friend start with something only the two of you would understand, not something from the front of the store. Here are 12 ideas, many of them cheap or free, built around the history you share. Our top pick is a song about your friendship, because it holds the stories you both still laugh about.

Hear a real Songbond song first

This one was made for another family. Yours would carry your friend's name and your stories.

12 thoughtful gift ideas for your best friend

1. A song about your friendship ($39.90). Share how you met, the nickname nobody else is allowed to use and the night you still bring up, and Songbond turns it into an original song. Nothing ships, so it works just as well if they live across the country.
2. A yearly trip, with the first one booked. Pick a weekend, a town halfway between you and a name for the tradition. Put the first booking in the card. Usually $150 to $400 each.
3. A replacement for the thing you ruined. The sweater you borrowed in college and shrank, the mug you broke, the book you never gave back. Find the closest match you can. Usually $30 to $100, and the note writes itself.
4. A care package for the season they are in. A new job, a new baby, a move, a divorce. Fill a box with what that season needs: easy meals, good coffee, thick socks and a note. Around $40 to $80.
5. Their takeout, on a random Tuesday. Send dinner from the place they love on a night that means nothing. Usually $25 to $60. The randomness is the point.
6. A book with your notes in the margins. Pick a book you loved and write in it as you reread: where you thought of them, which line is so them. Around $15 to $30.
7. A sweatshirt from the place you met. The college, the summer camp, the first office. Most schools and camps sell them. Usually $30 to $60.
8. A spare key and a standing invitation. If you live nearby, give them a key to your place on a nice keyring with a note: come over any time, no need to call. Under $20.
9. A photo of them they have never seen. Scroll back through your phone and find the candid one you took years ago. Print it well and frame it. Around $10 to $40.
10. A free Saturday. Take their kids, walk their dog or cover their shift so they get one whole day to themselves. It costs you a day and gives them a rest.
11. Your company for the job they dread. Moving day, clearing out a parent's house, the tax paperwork. Tell them you are coming, and bring lunch.
12. A list of the times they showed up. Write down every time they were there when it counted, in order, with dates if you can. Most friends never hear this said plainly.

How to choose for your best friend

Start with where they are right now, not where they were when you met. A friend in a hard season needs help more than an object. A friend in a good season wants to be celebrated and remembered.

• If you live far apart: the song, the yearly trip or the takeout on a random Tuesday.
• If they are going through something hard: the care package, the free Saturday or your company for the job they dread.
• If your friendship runs on old jokes: the replacement for the thing you ruined, the sweatshirt or the photo they have never seen.

Give it on a day that is not a birthday

A best friend expects something on their birthday. What they do not expect is a gift on the anniversary of the day you met, the week after they start a new job, or the first Monday after a hard month. That surprise is what makes a gift feel thoughtful. If you do not know the day you met, pick one and make it official in the card: from now on, this is our day. Then keep it every year, even if some years the gift is only a long text and a takeout order.

Make a song for your best friend

Create a song about your friendship from the stories you two share. It is ready within 24 hours, and express delivery gets it to you in about an hour if the day has snuck up on you.

Also in the Journal: a thank-you song for a friend and songs for friends who live far apart.