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Present to represent every year alive

88 replies

Bluesprinkles12 · 06/11/2024 19:33

Hi all!

Hoping for your help. It’s my best friends 30th this year and hoping to do 30 presents each representing every year of her life. So either something personal, something that represents that age or an event that year.

So far this is what I’ve got (very early planing days) and looking for some more ideas!

1994- the year you were born card
1-95 milk bottle with a drink in it
2-96
3-97
4-98
5-99 Younger sibiling was born- picture of her brother

6-00
7-01
8-02
9-03
10-04
11-05
12-06
13-07
14- 08 First Marvel movie come out- get the DVD
15-09
16-10 paracetamol that you’re going to need tomorrow
17-11 Year you’ve learned to drive
18-12 drinking age/lottery
19-13 First time
20-14 Ice bucket challenge
21-15
22-16
23-17 The year you’ve met me- art of the both of us
24-18
25-19 year we went Italy- Italian desert, pizza making kit?
26-20 COVID- something covid themed
27-21
28-22 Year she met her other half
29-23
30-24

OP posts:
elspethmcgillicudddy · 06/11/2024 20:54

This is a super creepy idea. Yuck.

DappledThings · 06/11/2024 20:52

DappledThings · 06/11/2024 20:50

And you want to get her a present signifying the first time she had sex?
And she was apparently 13 when she lost her virginity. Which she can't have been ready for so can't be a happy memory.

Oops, ignore me. Mixed up the calendar year and age. She was 19. As you were.

Still weird, but at least less overall disturbing.

DappledThings · 06/11/2024 20:50

And you want to get her a present signifying the first time she had sex?
And she was apparently 13 when she lost her virginity. Which she can't have been ready for so can't be a happy memory.

fatphalange · 06/11/2024 20:49

This would be very intense. Even for a romantic partner it would be Joe Goldberg territory.
And you want to get her a present signifying the first time she had sex?

Ihaveneedofwaternear · 06/11/2024 20:45

Massively curious what you planned to get for the "first time" gift.

MargaretThursday · 06/11/2024 20:44

I think this sounds quite fun.
What about Sparklers for 2000, and a nice face mask for covid? Or there's some really nice hand sanitiser here. It smells gloriously lemony.
Botanical Hand Sanitiser 50ml – Made For Life Organics

What about a Union Jack flag for the coronation in 2023, and you've got her start school date or maybe go to secondary.
Ask her younger sibling for ideas - maybe even a photo from each year (if mum wasn't like my mil and did several years before realising there was no film).

HildaHosmede · 06/11/2024 20:37

It's just a pile of tat for no reason.

You're seriously going to 'gift her' a photo of her own brother and some Paracetamol? I mean come on 🙈

TheDefiant · 06/11/2024 20:34

You could buy something edible/drinkable (probably drinkable!) that's been aged for 10/20/30 years perhaps?

Stealinghollywood · 06/11/2024 20:34

Sounds like a load of absolute tat. She won’t thank you for it and if she does, she’s just being polite.

TheDefiant · 06/11/2024 20:33

Why don't you do 3 presents to represent the end of each decade?

So ten, twenty and then the biggie thirty?

SapphireEyes88 · 06/11/2024 20:32

Definitely go with a photo book or scrap book, maybe something she can add to in the future? I hate being centre of attention and 31 presents would be really overwhelming and also make me feel really pressured to do similar in return

StoatofDisarray · 06/11/2024 20:32

It's too much! It'll take ages to unwrap each one and how excited will she be to unwrap a milk bottle? "Oh, a milk bottle. What does it mean?" "It's to represent you being a baby!" "Oh yeah, er, thanks."

It's a thoughtless "thoughtful" gift.

SausageRoll2020 · 06/11/2024 20:27

Just buy one really nice present.
Nobody needs or wants 30 bits of "sentimental" tat

AmICrazyToEvenBother · 06/11/2024 20:25

I also thought photobook with some messages or short annecodotes from friends and family.

ThatOpenSwan · 06/11/2024 20:21

This is a really fun idea, OP, and I'd be so touched. Just want to throw some positivity in as you've somehow hit a seam of miserable people.

As always, mumsnet is weird.

MereDintofPandiculation · 06/11/2024 20:16

For DH’s big birthday, I decorated his cake with symbols of things that had been important to him. So little “gifts”, but not one for every year, and they were all edible.

Cosycover · 06/11/2024 20:14

I wouldn't get the dvd. It will never ever ever be used. It's a total waste of money.

I'd just get 30 nice presents.

YourWinter · 06/11/2024 20:06

This is just cringey, please don’t.

DappledThings · 06/11/2024 20:04

Nobody would want 30 bits of tat would they? Or actually 31 as you're including her birth year. It sounds like a nice idea in theory but there's no way you can make it anything other than 31 pieces of clutter.

Wellingtonspie · 06/11/2024 20:01

Yeah erm no.

What about 30 fun facts one for each year if you really want 30 things.

Cookiejar753 · 06/11/2024 20:00

It's a nice idea in theory, but a load of tat and stuff that will either be thrown away or stuffed in a drawer.
I'd get something personal or an experience day.

Itisjustmyopinion · 06/11/2024 19:54

Do people still have DVD players?

I like pp suggestion of a photo book. Maybe work with her family and friends to get a photo for every year and get people to write a story or memory about something they remember from when she was that age

Doidontimmm · 06/11/2024 19:51

Could you not do a photo book instead. Just sounds like rubbish she will be obliged to keep.

twigy100 · 06/11/2024 19:50

How about 30 memories or reasons you love them? You could get other friends or family involved x

Attelina · 06/11/2024 19:47

My idea of hell. Who wants to wade through all of that? Massive cringe fest.

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