18th birthday gifts / celebration / rite de passage

[Alwayssupportingdifference]

Hi all my son turns 18th in a few weeks and I am putting together a box of advice and gifts for the future. I have a couple of books in mind including ‘every fricking trick in the book’ and the ‘defining decade’ and just wondered if anybody has any tips for gifts, decorating the house and experience in how you’ve celebrated? He’s been through a really tough time of late and I would like this to be special and memorable.

im also making a giant poster with a phot and memories of his life.

Thanks in advance.

You can also write him a bunch of letters of the "Open when you're..." type if you aren't already doing this.

im also making a giant poster with a phot and memories of his life.
Along with this one you can also make a digital scrapbook and email it to him so that he could open it re-watch it whenever. Here is a guide for making one, and yes, it probably wouldn't be rewatched A LOT, but every once in a while it could be and it's always heartwarming. My friends did it for me for my 30th birthday and I might rewatch it occasionally just because it was so nice of them.

As for the gifts, it really depends on what he likes. Cash would be the standard answer here, I suppose, but you can also get him tickets to gigs or something like that. If he's into tech, you can get him something he'd use for a while: good headphones, good gaming mouse or keyboard if he's into gaming, high quality portable charger, maybe subscriptions to useful software like photo editors or video editors, etc. If he's into music, maybe a guitar or guitar picks and a case, etc. Really depends on his interests, but I'd look for something that would really last or at least give him good experiences.