From the Bismarck (ND) Tribune, 12/18/1913, a helpful article anticipating just how hard it is to find presents for guys. I love how, a hundred years ago, they, too, lamented the fact that everyone gives a tie -- no matter how unbecoming or absurd -- as the generic go-to gift for men!
WHAT TO GIVE HIM FOR A CHRISTMAS GIFT
Useful Offerings That Every Man Is Sure to Appreciate
A man is only a man after all, and he likes useful gifts, no matter who he may be. If you are wealthy or if your income is quite moderate the following gift suggestions may be adopted, as they are things that may cost only a little or may be quite expensive:
It is rather curious that women's one idea of a gift to a man is a cravat, for it is the one thing that a man detests having selected for him. But a man can nearly always wager that a woman will get him a cravat of a color that is not becoming to him or one that is too absurd to wear. And yet hundreds of thousands of women insist upon giving cravats for Yuletide gifts!
If you are overpowered by this idea please have a little mercy on mankind and select black and white cravats, for they are smart and becoming to every man. Silk knitted ties are again in vogue, especially those that are three to four inches wide. Ties of heavy faconne silks are also indorsed by London.
Something Unique in Handkerchiefs.
Handkerchiefs are always welcomed by a man if you give him plain white and do not attempt to choose colors for him unless you are his wife and know absolutely whether he prefers blue, lavender, green, gray, or another color. To make the handkerchiefs more gifty have his initials embroidered in a unique design.
The handkerchiefs in the {picture} are exceedingly new and attractive. The initial is worked on a square of lace in fillet design. If one is not expeditious with the needle the all over fillet net in the mesh could be purchased and cut up into the required size for the squares.
It is nearly always a man's fate to receive an abundance of unnecessary leather articles at Yuletide. There are men who never fail to get at least six leather mounted desk calendars and as many stamps and elastic bandboxes. Of course these are needfuls, but the man who possesses a desk generally has all such articles.
Leather Gifts.
Wallets and cardcases are always usable, and a man is pleased if he gets them in the latest styles every Christmas.
A leather traveling case makes a delightful gift if it is of the best quality--not all the investment in the case, but in the fittings too. It reflects better taste if you give a small and beautifully fitted case rather than one filled with a shoddy toilet collection and a cleaning apparatus.
A fitted travelling bag makes a superior gift if you wish to expend that much money--$25 or more. If so, it is advisable to get ivory, imitation ivory, or ebony fittings, as they are not quite so heavy as those of silver. The man who travels will be pleased to death with the nearly put up leather case seen in the illustration that is filled with scissors of different sizes and a penknife. And for the man who rides horseback what more appropriate than the whisk broom holder mounted in a stirrup setting?
I can almost guarantee that the "guy gifts" section at Kohl's -- the refuge of every person with a hard-to-buy-for-dude in their life -- is full of pretty much the same things: toiletry kits, things to clean up with, handkerchiefs. Dads and other guys have been opening the same presents, every Christmas, for a hundred years!
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