Do you tell your OH what you want for your birthday, or do you prefer the surprise?

I like telling her what I want because she'll spend more on it than I would because it's a gift. If I keep doing this, I should have lots of nice things that I use often and care about. This year, I told her I'd love a nice electric coffee grinder.

So, which is better? Telling them or getting a surprise?

Fr_Dougal

Telling them that you don’t want a present and go out for a meal or something together instead.

ToddyDoody

What OH?

mad muffin

I get my own and then bill her

daheff

give them a list of stuff you might like & they pick from that. you get something you want & its a surprise too.

And you might get lucky and they buy everything on the list for you

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

I tell my OH what I would like, and then she goes and gets me something completely different which never gets used. The thought is nice, but it's still useless to me and a complete waste of money. I never understand why people don't listen.

Kintarō Hattori

I don't ever get anything from her......... but it's expected that I get something for hers

Boom_Bap

I drop loads of hints about what I would really want. I never get it either.

But I suppose I'm no better, I have bought her window wipers, brakes and tyres for different birthdays before....oh, a washing machine once as well because I'm a caveman.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I don't ever get anything from her......... but it's expected that I get something for hers

You need to sort that out mate, that's only going to get worse

BeerWolf

I'm just happy going out for dinner.

Baggly

Surprises are terrible.

Cina

We both usually just get something we can do together, whether it's a night away or a day trip or a meal in a fancy restaurant. We also get a few small, jokey things on the side as presents. It works well.

Sabre0001

A list is the safest approach or discuss something that would be nice. Subtle hints are well and good and some people will pick up on it...but they will go right over some people. And then you end up with the awkward grimace and "thaaaanks"

We do not get each other gifts for Birthdays or Christmas really - so it kinda bypasses the whole issue entirely.

Ragnar Lothbrok

Doc Martens or a soccer jersey are all I ever want as presents. Mrs Ragnar is great at understanding this and never fails. She will also get me smaller surprises which are really good too. I'm blessed

I'm awful at buying her stuff though, so need a full, detailed description of what she wants. I'm no good at buying the little surprises, so I've resorted to asking my son's girlfriend to do this for me in the past, with much better results than I could ever manage.

When we started seeing each other, she tried the whole "dropping hints" thing with me, but it was a complete waste of time, so now we're comfortable enough to state exactly what we want.

Aisling(",)

I love suprises but I wouldn't really trust him to pick well without any hints or gentle suggestions(Links to what I want and size/style/etc).

I've never been asked to get anything specific for him so I go with suprises.

Ragnar Lothbrok

Aisling(",) wrote: »

I love suprises but I wouldn't really trust him to pick well without any hints or gentle suggestions(Links to what I want and size/style/etc).

I've never been asked to get anything specific for him so I go with suprises.

Does he ever pick up on the hints?

Telly

They always ask if there's something i want and will get it. If i have nothing in mind they're pretty good at surprises.

Usually tell each other why we want or at the very least give very strong hints. Would always get each other something else that’s a surprise also along with the main present though.

GreeBo

She surprises me...she brings me shopping for her!

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

"This is a list of perfumes I like, do with it what you will"

I don't remind him of my birthday but he's been good remembering so far, and while his gifts aren't always what I would pick out the fact that they came from him and he put thought into them is good enough for me. I've pretty low expectations though, some people expect gifts to be somehow life changing. I'm always good at thinking of things he'd like for his, he's lousy at spending money on himself so it's nice to spoil him.

I wouldn't ever tell anyone to buy me a gift, or request something specific.

branie2

I don't have an OH