I second a gift of real ginger chews from the "Ginger People" as a stocking stuffer for all your ginger lovers out there. I got my husband a huge bag one year for Christmas. Probably too late for ordering now, but if you ever see them in a store, great products. That's the actual name of the company, Ginger People. I had to run out to find some sympathy cards and the only place they sell them in my town is either the mart marts which I was not going near, or the chain pharmacies, since we no longer have locally owned ones in business. Just as a side note, Rite Aid had a marvelous selection of gifts and Christmas decorations. Nicer than any of the big boxes in town. Some nice toys and books and activity books, specialty magazines, ornaments, etc. We really dialed down Christmas shopping this year due to financial austerity, but if you are looking for some last minute stocking stuffers, that was a surprisingly nice place to go. Lots of interesting toiletry products too. My husband has very little sense of smell so I don't get him fancy nice scented things, but they had some cool body washes and scented soaps and aftershaves. Natural products. My one suggestion of a last minute gift that I always loved getting as a kid were the candy Lifesaver "books" of assorted flavors of rolls. They now have activity pages too. I just loved the glamor of having so many types of Lifesaver candy. It combined my two loves, books and candy!

@Fun2BHere those plants are a great idea and I love the symbolism. @smiling that's a great list of ideas! Love the certificate for new business cards. That's something I've been bugging him about, too. @Oakley you and I are on the same wavelength - trust was the first thing I thought of but the young stylists do everything online now. He has never kept any client info on paper. @amykath I hadn't considered art but he has some framed vintage posters so that might be a possibility. Thanks all - I was coming up blank have lots of great ideas to consider now.

I don't understand the cutting people off as they become adults. A card, a small gift of a plant, flowers, cookies, no need to be spendy, but letting people know you are cheering them on as they enter adulthood seems like a nice thing to do. I truly appreciated the thoughtful gestures I was greeted with as I moved through my 20s, many visible milestones that decade, but many invisible as well. Of course I wanted for nothing, so that actually tends to make people more generous, which is perverse. Children are inherently selfish and have no idea of what the world is like outside their home. Giving them gifts is fine, but they take that for granted. Young adults, I find, could use some moral support.

I suggest you not think about gifts as some combination of holiday and home completion gifts. Focus on the construction of the home and an individual's contribution to it. At the risk of appearing as a Scrooge, I wouldn't gift anything to the company owner. I can't remember any of my clients giving gifts to any of my trades. What is worth more than any gift, in my opinion, is a personal note thanking those individuals (and you can include the builder if he/she did a great job) for the work they did to deliver your home and noting how their specific contribution was noteworthy (keeping everything on-time, in budget, maintaining a safe worksite, attention to detail, preventing mistakes, etc.)