When in doubt, just ask him! We've done special dinners out, spa gift cards. (We have treated both daughters as things have come up. We helped one daughter pay for an impromptu trip to France.)

I have 2 sons that have passed this milestone birthday. One chose a leather jacket and the other a notebook (iPad) that he uses at school. For this birthday, I was willing to spend a little more $$.

My daughter's birthday is right near July 4th. Since we live near the beach she asked if she could invite a group of friends for a holiday/birthday weekend. We ended up having 12 college kids stay at our house. It was fun and exhausting. To be honest, it would have been cheaper to buy a macbook pro :)

I agree with ellendi -- ask him. Our oldest wanted some very specific video editing software for his 21st and I would never have known if I hadn't asked. And then of course you need to take him out for a nice dinner and let him order his first (legal) beer!

Sue, you reminded me of a story with one of my oldest daughter's friend. She called my daughter at midnight so they could go together to the supermarket to legally buy beer.
Of course, the check out person did not even ask for proof. She so wanted to pull her driver's license out!

I did the following for my daughter's 30th, and she and her friends Loved it! I prepped 30 bags of 30 things each. (I call it a 30 x 30 gift) Some were silly, some were useful. 30 lollipops...because 30 sucks! 30 pebbles, because 30 Rocks! Then there were 30 bandaids, 30 pencils, 30 paperclips (cool ones), 30 individually wrapped Lifesavers.... and the last one she opened had 30 $5 bills, so she could buy the camera she wanted to replace a stolen one. I packed each brightly colored paper gift bag into a bigger tote bag. I was unable to go to her surprise party as she lives six hours from me, but I got pictures and video of her opening it...it was quite the hit!

So, you could do a 21 x 21 bag instead of a 30 x 30, but it's a great way to mark a landmark birthday without getting dreadfully expensive. Pictures in one! One for each year of their life!

I'm right there with you, wondering what to do, as my DD turns 21 (OMG!) in March. Since her birthday falls during her university's Spring Break, she has asked us to fund a trip then. Other ideas might be something significant for your son's car. Or, a new tv or something comparable for his apartment or room? But, I agree with other posters here to ask him what might make for a special gift. Good luck coming up with the right one! I will be starting my own thread soon regarding DD's Spring Break trip ideas, which is stressing me out a lot!
Lynn

Hollow Oak Farm,
What a clever gift!

We always made it a big deal to celebrate the fact that they could legally order a drink. So we would take them to a fancy restaurant and everyone would order a complicated cocktail and then let the birthday person order (or we'd order for them) something fruity and full of picks with fruit or umbrellas-anything that was a presentation.

Servers here seem to ask anyone under 40 for ID, but just to be sure, we'd alert them ahead of time to ensure they'd ask. Everytime the birthday kid would just glow, even if they don't drink. I remember DS's 21st-his sisters gave him a sampler of a 21 different single shot bottles and the other got him a half case of different micro brews. The drink server was indignant! YOU CAN'T DRINK THAT HERE!! she screamed. No kidding!!

I know it's not every one's cup of tea, but in our family it's a goofy tradition, especially since we rarely drink.

Last year DS said "I can't wait till I'm 21 and can go into a bar and order a White Russian", we thought that was kind of odd but then we saw The Big Lebowski. DS loves movies. He says he doesn't drink, and really, when we brought up taking him out, well, he wasn't interested. Too bad, because it would be easy. Maybe we'll get him a White Russian, anyway!

DS is a theater major, so maybe pay for his headshots? But we'd probably pay for that anyway. (We paid for a couple of sessions with his old voice teacher to prepare for an upcoming audition) Or we'll make up a gift cert/couponp for the Second City Training Center; he's done classes and workshops there before, but they don't seem to have gift certs.

I love the 21x21 idea! There's a lot of fun as well as serious gifts that can go into that. Our other DS turns 16 a week later, so maybe we'll reprise the idea for him, too.

Bpathome, Second City does offer gift certificates. I sent several last year to some young friends living in Chicago and they were good for shows or classes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Second City GCs

This post was edited by kswl on Wed, Dec 31, 14 at 21:41

Thanks,,Kwsl! I didn't see that :)

Our son plays guitar.
By the time he turned 21, we knew it wasn't a passing interest.
We got him a really good guitar - he loved it!
He plays every day; he's very good and gets better all the time.

Other ideas:
A huge card with various gift cards inside.
(Restaurants, movies, coffee shops, amazon, eBay, etc.)
An iPad.
A laptop.
A really nice suit.
A really nice overcoat.
A weekend trip.
Tickets to a sports event, or concert, or play.

I'm going to borrow HollowOakFarm's great idea!
:)

Plane tickets for him and a best friend to where else but Vegas! What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! Could be his most memorable birthday, and there will be plenty of opportunity to pull out his ID.

If he's low on funds, you may have to foot the bill for the room, or at least half.

Plane tickets for him and a best friend to where else but Vegas! What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! Could be his most memorable birthday, and there will be plenty of opportunity to pull out his ID.

If he's low on funds, you may have to foot the bill for the room, or at least half.

Thanks! Vegas? He's a Theater major, that's a gamble enough for me lol! We ended up giving cash (Saving the Second City gift certificate for when he knows what he's doing in the next 6 months; even though they don't expire, he might forget he has it) and his own domain. You can now have a domain name like, f'r'instance, ".actor", so that's what he has for resume, etc. He was so happy! Next step, to design the site. What fun!