How to Celebrate Father's Day

How to Buy a Father's Day Gift

Step One

Zero in on an enduring hobby or new interest, then shop for gear and accessories he doesn't have yet. Is he a science or computer buff, a car or airplane fanatic, a fisherman, a cook, a gardener or basketball fan? Shop Discovery.com, an auto supply store, Williams-Sonoma or Sur La Table. Visit a local nursery or buy a couple of tickets to a ballgame.

Step Two

Do something fun together. Plan a fishing or camping trip, or even a helicopter ride. Or buy tickets and popcorn, and let him choose the movie.

Tap into a nostalgic moment or time you shared. If you've traveled together, get a coffee-table book on a place you visited that evokes a great adventure.

Step Four

Go high-tech with gizmos all men find irresistible. A Forever Flashlight (foreverflashlight.com, $40) works without batteries; after a good shake, it provides five minutes of light. Pick up a pair of binoculars that takes pictures (around $100), a two-way radio and wristwatch combo (around $50), or a wristwatch-camera combo. Get inspired at HammacherSchlemmer.com or TheSharperImage.com, or tour RestorationHardware.com.

Step Five

Appeal to his practical side. Buy him jumper cables, a really good road map (such as from Thomas.com) or a Leatherman mini tool kit for his glove compartment.

Step Six

Feed his sweet tooth with a bag of his favorite childhood candy. See's Candy (sees.com) has a variety of tasty gifts that will tempt anyone off the Atkins plan. Alternatively, pick up a savory treat like smoked salmon or a 20-lb. can of pistachios from Costco.

Step Seven

Head for a home improvement store and get him a cordless drill. These are as essential to survival as food, water and the remote.

Step Eight

Birdie, don't bogie. Buy a set of monogrammed golf towels and a pack of golf balls (real or chocolate), and spring for a guest pass for a day on the green. Better yet, go with him.

Step Nine

Add a little dazzle to his wardrobe. If he likes to go out on the town, order a pair of monogrammed silver cuff links. If he's just a regular Joe, update his bedraggled wallet or briefcase.

Step Ten

Give him the world. Find a gorgeous wall map, atlas or globe at NationalGeographic.com. Or appeal to a secret passion: a map of Civil War battlefields, for example, is $9.95.

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Tips from eHow

Step One

Pamper him with whatever culinary ceremonies he enjoys most, whether it's breakfast in bed, a burgers-and-beer lunch at the local sports bar, dinner at his favorite four-star restaurant - or all of the above. (After all, Father's Day comes but once a year.)

Step Two

Eschew the ties, shirts, golf balls and best-selling thrillers. Instead give him something you know he'd love but isn't likely to buy for himself: perhaps Ella Fitzgerald's songbook collection on CD, a drawing he's been admiring in a local gallery, or an autographed photo of his childhood baseball hero.

Step Three

Look for clues. If he keeps saying he wishes he'd practiced the piano when his mother told him to, sign him up for lessons. If he reads every issue of "Gourmet" Magazine cover to cover, give him a gift certificate for a cooking course - in France, Italy or Switzerland, if you're feeling flush.

Step Four

Give him the ultimate gift: your time. Present him with a gift certificate announcing the plan: dinner and a ball game, a day at the beach, a weekend jaunt to the PGA tournament, a camping trip in the Rockies, or simply an afternoon of side-by-side digging in the garden.

Step Five

Make him a scrapbook commemorating "Life With Father" over the past year. Or go all out and make a scrapbook, or a series of them, covering your whole life together.

Step Six

Honor your father's memory if he's no longer living. Send a donation to his favorite charity, or lend a hand to a cause he cared about.

Step Seven

Remember, you needn't limit Father's Day to your biological dad. Do something nice for all the father figures in your life, whether grandfathers, stepfathers, uncles, godfathers, big brothers or that first boss who helped you launch your career.

Tips & Warninings

Father's Day was the brainchild of Sonora Smart Dodd, whose mother had died giving birth to her. At a time when many widowed men sent their offspring to live with relatives, Sonora's father reared her and her five siblings alone, on a farm in eastern Washington. In 1909, grown and married, Sonora was in church listening to a Mother's Day sermon when the thought struck her that fathers deserved credit, too - especially hers. Through her efforts, Spokane, Washington, held the first Father's Day observance the following year.

By 1924, the custom had spread through the country, and Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential proclamation in support of Father's Day. Nearly 60 years later, President Richard Nixon made it permanent in 1972, when he requested that Congress pass a joint resolution making the third Sunday in June a National Day of Observance in honor of fathers everywhere.

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