40th Birthday

Forty is THE birthday that people have feelings about. Not necessarily complex feelings, but feelings nonetheless. Forty lands differently to the other milestones and the gift you buy for someone turning forty should acknowledge that. Wine and a card with a joke about how you’re old aren’t gonna fly this time around, and if you’ve come to realise that then you’ve come to the right place. Forty is special. It deserves something special. Which is why we put together this small selection of gifts. The guy turning forty probably has a pretty good idea of the things he likes. He’s been discovering them for twenty years. He’s not about to have his mind changed by some bastardization of Brie. So your best bet isn’t trying to find him something new for novelty’s sake, but something that lands right at who he is and where he’s at right now. Something considered. That eliminates swathes of product. It eliminates anything trendy or beverage related. It eliminates gifts that might sound good in a ‘notes’ memo but lack presence IRL. Forty is the birthday where we held ourselves pretty accountable. There’s no room for almost-right gifts this year. Instead we went hunting for quality. Heavy little feels in giftable form. Pricey isn’t synonymous with heavyweight, but a lot of these fit the bill. By heavy we mean heavy like matters. We mean gifts that someone could receive and know you spent actual time thinking about them. A unique experience they wouldn’t buy for themselves. A beautiful object that has a home to live after the birthday buzz fades. Gadgets that work. Books that mean something. Gifts that celebrate forty being forty. We’ve included items that cater for whoever is turning forty whether they feel positively or negatively about ageing. Because let’s be real, they could be experiencing either or both of those feelings and your gift doesn’t have to take a stance. Gifts for the big 4-0 aren’t numerous. What’s here is awesome. We wouldn’t give any of these gifts to someone else and hesitate. And that’s the only filter we really use.