Gift ideas

Birthday gifts for dad: what people actually spend

The 5 ideas here run from $0 to $250, and 1 of them come in under the $55.65 people say they spend on an adult's birthday gift — per Empower, 2025.

This is the national figure for an adult's birthday gift, not a breakdown for a dad — no published survey we could find breaks spending down by relationship, and the per-relationship numbers you will see elsewhere carry no source.

How the figure was collected — survey, sample and the date it was run.

• Under $25

  He says he wants nothing, and he means something specific

  Taken literally, "don't get me anything" ends the conversation. Taken as information, it is unusually precise: he does not want to be an expense. That is a different sentence from not wanting attention.

  $0–$25

  checked 2026-08-26

• $25–50

  Aimed at what he does, not at the fact that he is a father

  There is an entire industry of gifts whose only idea is that the recipient is a dad. He has received several. None of them was about him.

  $25–$60

  checked 2026-08-26

• $50–100

  Something good that gets used up and leaves nothing behind

  Past a certain age most people have enough objects and are actively trying to have fewer. A consumable sidesteps the entire problem: it is enjoyed and then it is gone.

  $45–$110

  checked 2026-08-26

• $50–100

  Getting the tapes and slides off formats nobody can play

  There is a box. Video tapes, slides, a reel of cine film, or a shoebox of photographs with no negatives. Nothing in the house can read any of it, and every year the box gets a little less recoverable.

  $60–$150

  checked 2026-08-26

• $100–250

  Taking him somewhere, and being the one who pays

  There is a specific gift available to an adult child that is available to nobody else: reversing who pays. For a lot of fathers this registers more than the outing itself.

  $100–$250

  checked 2026-08-26