7 Father’s Day Gifts That Aren’t Lame

Life Hacks

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There are oodles of Father’s Day gift guides out there but they all assume that the dad in your life either loves golf or needs a 37th pair of socks. Read on for a list of 7 Father’s Day gifts that aren’t lame.

Dad standing with sons. Father's Day gifts that aren't lame

Let’s face it: shopping for dads is hard. All the dads in my life either don’t really want much or just go out and buy something whenever they have the money. They don’t get all dramatic about their Amazon wishlists, themed Pinterest boards and albums full of product screenshots like we women do.
Wait, is that just me??

So this year I’ve compiled a list of some fun, unique ideas that I know the man in your life will really enjoy. Mostly because they’re things that Luke has either bought for himself or wanted for a long time.

1. Portable movie projector

We’ve had a movie projector for probably 10 years now and have loved watching things on a giant screen. But when we purchased this portable, battery operated projector last year, it changed the GAME! You can take this little thing anywhere: think camping or to a cabin, road trips, poolside, etc, but our favorite way to use it is setting it up in our backyard on a tripod and watching movies on the side of our (white) house.

The screen clarity isn’t crazy high definition like our thousand dollar projector, but you absolutely cannot beat the price and portability of this one; it’s about the size of a soda can! The speaker would probably be adequate for a quiet, small room but when we watch outside (next to our busy road), we use a big Bluetooth speaker (see number 7).

The next thing on our list is a big blow-up screen to make outdoor movie-watching even cooler!

2. Ryobi Tool Kit

When it comes to ease-of-use and convenience, we’re kind of obsessed with Ryobi tools. Luke and I started our marriage with a bunch of random power tools we’d accumulated over the years but when they started to die, Luke went out and bought this Ryobi 6-Tool Combo Kit and we’ve never looked back.

All of their tools are really user friendly, affordable AND (the best part) they all use the same battery pack! So as long as you have one battery charged (we now own 4 of them so there’s always one ready), you can use the power drill, circular saw, work light, or anything else.

We’ve pulled out these tools countless times to do little odd jobs around the house and haven’t regretted this purchase for a second. But if this kit looks like more than your man will ever need, they have smaller packages like this one with just a drill and saw.

3. Extra Large Camping Griddle

I think it’s my husband’s secret fantasy to be in charge of fixing a ginormous breakfast for a huge group of people because he was bizarrely excited about this purchase. This thing doesn’t come with a heat source, it’s just a huge metal cooking surface designed to sit on top of an outdoor cook stove.

The men in our former church congregation would make breakfast for hundreds of people on the morning of our 4th of July party and most of them used something like this. It measures 1.5 x 3 feet and is just enormous! It would be fantastic for camping, obviously, but works just as well for any outdoor barbecue, breakfast or other summer shindig.

Bonus: a man’s excitement over a cooking apparatus = fewer meals for his wife to make.

4. Echo for his Man Cave

We now have an Amazon Echo in almost every room of our house; our family loves them for playing funny games, jokes, music, audiobooks and, of course, counting down to birthdays. Purchasing one for dad or grandpa’s garage, workshop or home office means he also gets to enjoy his favorite tunes, books or podcasts while puttering around.

If you want to go one step further, get an Echo Show (the kind with a screen) and set it up to cycle through family pictures so dad can see his cute kids (and, his hot wife, obviously) while he’s working.

5. Dad’s Club Membership

This is one of the gifts I’m getting Luke this year so, shhhh! It’s an online membership that sends dads (or really any caregiver) a short, 10 minute summary of a New York Times best-selling parenting book every week. That means that in less time than it takes your husband to drive to work, he can listen to a Cliff’s Notes version of any parenting book he could possibly want. They also send out each summary in text form so the recipient can choose between reading or listening.

I have so many parenting books in my to-read pile that it’s getting embarrassing; this might be one of those gifts that I give to Luke but fully and unabashedly intend on using myself. Get more details on the Dad’s Club here.

6. Portable floodlight with stand

A portable floodlight is one of those weird things that you never think you’d want around until you really need one. We hosted our first backyard wedding a few weeks ago and loved having a giant floodlight for lighting up all the dark back corners.

The light we bought actually ended up being shorter than we wanted so next time we have a party, I think we’ll purchase this one to go along with it. It comes in two brightness levels and the stand extends over 6′ tall. We plan to use ours for playing in the yard after dark, pool parties and any other evening get-together.

7. Bluetooth Speaker with Microphone

Luke bought this huge karaoke speaker and mic on a whim (despite my giant eyeroll) and we have used it so many times! Sure, we’ve hooked it up to our phones to play a couple rounds of family karaoke but we also used it to play the audio from our church services when we had to watch them on Zoom for months on end during Covid (an iPad speaker didn’t stand a chance against my noisy kids).

We also used the mic to emcee the wedding service we held in our yard and a homeschool co-op gathering with 30+ families. Plus we regularly use this speaker to pump music through our home and yard or hook it up to the projector (see number 1) for an outdoor movie. The kids get a kick out of the changing lights and we keep wondering how we lived without it for so long.

Best of luck shopping for Dad this year! Let me know in the comments what you’re getting the dad/husband/grandpa on your list.

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