I am thinking ahead to my Son’s birthday party next month and thinking what we are going to get him for his birthday. Compared to shopping for adults, kids are easy. My son’s eyes light up with delight whenever he sees a truck… or a bus… or a bird or a squirrel or mommy or daddy or a cow or a monkey or Elmo or a dog or a cat or a plane or a train or even green eggs and ham.

It’s easy to shop for someone who isn’t jaded yet.

I’m not going to get him one of everything, though, so we have to pick one obsession to cater to with his birthday party and I think we are going to go with an owl theme. My wife, who knows these things, tells me that owls are trendy right now. I think that anyone could love those eyes.

But what to get?

Owl Gifts for Kids

Busy tree

Option 1: Owl Decor Thinking through how my son interacts with owls there are a couple of options that occur to me. He likes to look at pictures of owls and talk about how they live in trees.

He already has one wall of his room given over to vinyl wall decals of a springtime scene showing cherry blossoms and sparrows, I think he might very well like a similar scene with squirrels and owls.

Mom and I get to feel sophisticated for the Spring/Autumn dualism and I think he might like the clear black/white images.  My boy might like trucks and dozers, but cute gifts still have an advantage with mom and me.

Going for this gift is the price – $2.95 is a steal, Amazon has great prices on vinyl wall decals (click through the image to see the set on Amazon).  Going against this option is the setup factor.

My little boy is turning two so his attention span is about 2.5 second long. It will be difficult to connect the opening of the present with the new owl decor on his wall.  He might not care at this point, but for mommy and daddy it would be anticlimactic to have him open his present and then wander off uninterested.

The baby owl is so cozy!

Option 2: Stuffed Owl It might seem like a stuffed animal is an obvious choice for a two year old, but not for my guy, stuffed animals give him the willies so a stuffed animal owl is not guaranteed love.

This stuffed owl from Skip Hop caught my  eye, though.

It is not strictly a stuffed owl, it is designed as an all-inclusive baby distractor for a younger child.

I think it has potential for older children though.  I made this picture bigger so you could see a little better, but there are actually two owls, and the baby owl hides in a pouch in front of daddy owl. (Well, mommy owl I am sure, but allow a dad to pretend)

My guy is just getting big enough to notice other smaller babies around and he is very interested in them.  He is already interested in owls, so perhaps the two of them together will catch his eye.

Going for this present is the adorableness of your kid cuddling stuffed owls.  Going against it is the fact that it is obviously made for a six month old, but that is more likely to bother his parents than to bother the birthday boy.

Unusual/Unique Owl Gifts for Adults

Looking around at owl stuff for my son I stumbled across a few neat owl gifts that are more appropriate for the older set.  I try to always be thinking about gifts for people so I made note of some owl stuff that might come in handy around Christmastime.

Owl Cufflinks For Him – Or, really, for me. I absolutely love the look of these. Cufflinks are such a fun accessory for men and we get to wear so few acessories in the normal course of daily life. As it is I almost never wear cufflinks but they are something I aspire too and something that I could get for some of my male friends. Also I have some friends who went to Reed (their mascot is the owl) so this might be very appropriate if I decide to get them a gift.

I can’t help but think these would be adorable with formalwear too.

Owl Earrings For Her – Who doesn’t enjoy an owl nesting in their hair? I think these, like the cufflinks, are a great example of how to do a ‘theme’ present without getting too cutesy. I think it’s really easy when selecting a theme gift like an owl gift to stray into trinket land because, hey, it’s owl stuff right? Wrong, you’re better than that.

I like these because they are beautiful in their own right in addition to being an owl gift My wife keeps threatening to re-pierce her ears so that she can wear earrings again, I am keeping these in mind for if she does.

Owl Themed Gift Wrap and Gift Bags

The last thing after picking the gift is, of course, to wrap it. I kind of think that if you are going to give a ‘theme’ gift like an owl then it makes it more fun if you see the theme through to the end and I think it shows that the gift is more thoughtful if you put together a complete package. No half-measures!

Plus it is pretty easy to find owl-themed gift wrap or gift bags if you go looking. I usually go to a dollar store for gift bags and gift wrap since they usually have a good variety of gift supplies at low prices (at least in the Northwest, YMMV). For inspiration, though, here are some gift wraps from Amazon.

Good Luck!

So I’ll come back and edit this after I buy and give my son his owl-themed birthday gift in about a month. Until then leave a note in the comments and tell us if you have ever given a particularly successful owl gift or if you are hatching a similar scheme for the near future.