B-Day Care Package Ideas?

April 10, 2008 10:32 PM

Unique gift ideas for surprise birthday/care package for female friend in the UK for under $50 (not including shipping)?

I'm in the U.S. She's an American student in London. Loves coffee, jam bands, unique art, nature.The combination of memorable b-day gift and fun parcel from the U.S. is so much pressure. I'm coming up clueless. I have some artistic talent(drawing, paint, music) but the pressure is blocking me from creating much. Want to send in the next few days.

posted by swiffa to shopping (3 answers total)

How about a personally decorated presentation box, filled with all of her favourite U.S. snack foods, candy, etc. A `taste of home' if you will. We send this sort of parcel to friends overseas occasionally, with local things you can't get in other countries. For $50.00 you could fill a decent size parcel with a multitude of nice things.
posted by tomble at 11:57 PM on April 10, 2008

Make a dvd of her friends and family expressing their well wishes and just saying hi to her. You can also film familiar environments that she may be missing and update her on the recent changes ("this is the gelato place that just opened on the block... the pistachio sucks but the owner's cute"). May be too ambitious since you intend to send it off in a few days' time, though.

Along the same lines as above, take goofy polaroid shots of yourself and other friends of hers and write birthday greetings on the pictures.

Decorate a cheap, lightweight frisbee. Throw in a picnic blanket or some other paraphernalia for fun in the outdoors when it's warm enough.

Mixtape (ok, not very unique).

Small thermal flask to tote around her coffee in school.
posted by hellopanda at 3:11 AM on April 11, 2008

For my last birthday a friend posted me a wee, three panels comic about an in-joke we have. I too was transatlantic, and feeling it at the time, so I found it quite sweet.

I think it's obligatory to post some sort of pictorial representation of cake, as sending a real one is obviously off the cards. Combine a picture of cake with a silly photo of friends doing thumbs-up for dorky (or cute) effect.

The above answers have it covered for tasty treats, mix cd, photos, the whole shebang.
posted by eponymouse at 9:22 AM on April 11, 2008