<p>Ideas for 21st birthday present?</p>
<p>Trip to Vegas??? :-)</p>
<p>For a boy or girl? How much do you want to spend? Is this for a friend or your child? We have a family tradition that the girls all get a string of pearls (18") at 21. For a boy, how about a nice dress watch?</p>
<p>Girl: A weekend at the beach for her and a friend. For a boy, I have no idea.</p>
<p>I got my D a ukelele.</p>
<p>Got my D a pair of diamond stud earrings. Classic and timeless (well, hopefully) but not too frumpy…</p>
<p>I got my D a large gift certificate to her favorite pub - one of the campus hangouts - once she could drink there legally!</p>
<p>Same as scout here, just 1/4 diamond studs, grown up jewelry.</p>
<p>I wil have the same “problem” soon. We were thinking about taking D to Sonoma, but she will be in Boston this summer.</p>
<p>Stud earrings sound nice (Costco has some nice ones). Unfortunately, this is the D who loses earrings.</p>
<p>kerrbo,
No joke- older s chose his 21st bday gift as a trip for him and his then girlfriend to Vegas. We set the dollar limit. He had a blast. </p>
<p>Younger s just turned 21 a week ago. He chose a similar type event- though really preferred the bulk of the funds into his dwindling savings. We paid for (welll, used hotel points thanks to DH’s travel) a night at a nice hotel in downtown NOLA (he wanted one with a rooftop pool) and he and his friends chilled after exams, partied and went to Harrah’s casino. That said, we went to visit him a few weeks earlier for an early celebration-- took him and his friends out for several very nice dinners and other events. We also got a nice cake for him and his roommates, and for both sons had this delivered [Corsos</a> Cookies Happy Birthday Beer Cookie Bouquet - Free Delivery, Guaranteed Fresh Flowers](<a href=“http://www.floraflora.com/corsos-cookies-happy-birthday-beer-cookie-bouquet/364894]Corsos”>http://www.floraflora.com/corsos-cookies-happy-birthday-beer-cookie-bouquet/364894)</p>
<p>Also had older s’s lawn covered with plastic pink flamingos and a sign that said “happy flockin’ birthday”. He was amused.</p>
<p>Same as Chevda. I gave D1 bar tab at a bar in NYC because her birthday was in the summer. I heard good times was had by all.</p>
<p>This is NOT the birthday for dinner with the parents… A bottle of a nice wine is symbolic of the coming of age- or a 6 pack of an upscale beer if that is more to taste (I’m sure the experience is there). Money is also a nice gift.</p>
<p>BB - my daughter doesn’t even WEAR earrings, most days. However, I figured she needed some “grown-up” jewelry, something that gave her a little polish. Pearls would have worked, too, but her uncle already gave her those.</p>
<p>She seemed to like them - we’ll see. I thought that even if she didn’t wear them much now, they’re not going to go bad, or go out of style.</p>
<p>If you get a bottle of wine, a nice gesture is to get a red wine from the year they were born.</p>
<p>For son it was a very nice Tag Heuer watch and for D it was a nice string of pearls (since she was always borrowing mom’s) with earrings.</p>
<p>Didn’t do the diamonds or marquee name watch since Med school and Law school tuitions were on the horizon.</p>
<p>For D it was a pair of Frye boots. They last, though perhaps not quite as well as diamonds.</p>
<p>My son just wanted some money (to use when he’s in Europe this summer), so that’s what I gave him, along with the Rough Guides to Germany and Berlin (since he loves studying that sort of thing.) As much as I miss the good old days when he was a child and I took great pleasure in looking for gifts for him, he can decide for himself what he wants. And, as many times as I’ve offered to buy him a nice watch, he won’t wear one and insists that nobody his age wears a watch. If you want to know what time it is, apparently, you just check your phone.</p>
<p>For D it was a Tiffany ring (not diamonds!) that she had admired.</p>
<p>For S, it was tougher. We finally went with a really nice corkscrew that we were able to have engraved: “At last” then included the date of his 21st birthday. (He was the youngest in his group to finally have THE birthday.)He’d also been a waiter in a nice-ish restaurant and most of the waiters had perfected the art of opening a great bottle of wine really well.
Anyway, here’s the website: <a href=“http://www.laguiole-knife-corkscrew.com/chateau-laguiole.html[/url]”>http://www.laguiole-knife-corkscrew.com/chateau-laguiole.html</a>
The wood on it is beautiful, the engraving came out great, and he’ll have it forever.
I would have done a watch but he didn’t want one. Said he wouldn’t wear it.</p>
<p>I love the party/trip-with-friends ideas but his was in summer and most of his buddies not around.</p>
<p>You know, I was thinking about the “nice watch” idea for D’s graduation. </p>
<p>Yeah, I know that “no one” wears a watch nowadays, but the Corporette blog had a great post on this a few months back. Essentially, she says that in conservative-leaning industries (including D’s), a watch suggests reliability and attention to detail, as well as a subtle sense of “I’m a member of the club.”</p>
<p>Funny about guys and watches. Older s likes to wear a watch, though in truth I think his Iphone is permanently glued to his hand so he sees the time immediately. Watfhes seem to die on him. They break, fall off, you name it. We have been through many. I finally got him one a few years ago that had a 3 year no questions asked warantee. They probably regret the day they sold that to me. Its been back for repairs of all sorts (band, crystal, inner mechanism, etc) many times. Only one was a defect of the watch (the mechanism was bad). The rest was his being rough on it (bike accidents and the like) though one time it just fell off.</p>