Original gifts that cost little and cannot be bought

The present people remember longest is rarely the most expensive one. It is something somebody did, made or remembered for them. What cannot be bought cannot be given by anyone else, and that is exactly why it sticks. Below, the kinds that work, and the pitfall that comes with each.

Time, with a date on it. "We should meet up some time" is not a present; a Saturday in March with a plan is. A walk you map out, an evening cooking at your place, a day helping with the move or in the garden. What separates it from a good intention is that it is fixed. Write it on a card, put it in both diaries and treat it as an appointment that does not get moved.

A voucher booklet that actually gets used. Vouchers for "breakfast in bed", "one puncture repair" or "an evening of babysitting" are a classic that often fails because the vouchers are never handed in. Two things help. Choose vouchers the recipient would genuinely ask for if they dared, not what you enjoy giving. And put an expiry date on them, so each one has a reason to be used. Three good vouchers beat twelve vague ones.

A letter. Not a card saying "enjoy", but a page about one memory, one quality, or one thing you never said. Handwritten, because the handwriting is half the present. For many people this is the gift they keep longest, and it costs an hour and an envelope. If you do not know how to begin: begin with "I remember when".

Something you grew, took a cutting of, or made. A cutting from your own plant with roots on it, a jar of jam from the garden's berries, a loaf, a bottle of cordial. The value is in where it came from: this is off your windowsill. Do say how to look after it or how long it keeps. A cutting that dies within the week is a present that leaves guilt behind.

Something you know and they do not. A family recipe written out the way it is really made, with the things that never make it onto paper. A playlist with one line per track saying why it is there. A map of the places from a time you shared. Anything that takes some digging in a memory works better than anything for sale, because it proves the digging was done.

A skill, in one afternoon. Teaching somebody what you can do: baking bread, fixing a puncture, a spreadsheet that finally adds up, the first chords on a guitar. The present is the afternoon together; the skill is a by-product. Choose something the other person has already said out loud they wanted.

The pitfall: a present that makes work for the recipient. A voucher for "a day out together, you choose" hands the planning to the other person. So does a homemade present with a long set of instructions. Do the thinking beforehand, and the present is finished at the moment you give it.

Want to buy something to go with it? A small bought thing can carry a big unbought one: a notebook with the letter, a good pot with the cutting. And the other way round: a wish list on GiftCoves may hold something no shop sells, such as "a day at the seaside together". Put it on, and whoever is looking knows it need not be about things.