It’s always fun to make your spouse or another couple feel special with a great gift.
The problem is it can be tough to find a gift that is both unique and meaningful.
So, I thought it would be fun to assemble a “Top Ten Gifts” list of sorts (and then added more).
Of course, this is an Engaged Marriage list, so the gifts here are a mix of pure fun and those that can enhance your marriage and family life.
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Based on my own thoughts, input from my awesome wife, a bit of research on Amazon, and some excellent responses that I received on our social media channels, I have assembled what I feel is a pretty nice list of ideas.
Rather than be a stand-alone list, I hope these ideas get you thinking a bit. I really want to hear from you in the comments section of this post with your own suggestions as well.
15 Awesome Gifts for Married Couples
15. Noise Cancelling Machine
Whether you’re looking to feel more confident about being intimate with others in your home, or you’re just looking for a more peaceful night’s sleep, adding a white noise machine to your bedroom can make all the difference in the world. This Marpac machine has over 15,000 positive ratings on Amazon.
14. Bonsai Tree Seed Starter Kit
Growing a Bonsai tree is a really unique and fun way to bond as a couple. The reviews on this kit reveal all of the challenges and bonding opportunities that come with growing one of these ancient trees.
13. Fill-In-The-Blank Journal
This is a simple, yet sweet, way to enhance the communication in your marriage. This gift journal provides fill-in-the-blank prompts that make it easy to share what you love about your spouse.
12. Couple’s Weighted Blanket
Weighted blankets are super popular right now – they are calming and soothing while promoting great sleep. If you’re looking to snuggle up to your spouse, adding a large weighted blanket to your bed can be an amazing experience.
11. Premium Luxury Sheets
There is nothing better than crawling into bed with your spouse under premium, high thread count sheets. These Mellanni sheets are the highest rated on Amazon for good reason!
10. Luxury Dual Shower Heads
It can a lot of fun…and very “romantic” to share a shower with your spouse. These chrome dual shower heads make sure you can enjoy this special time together without fighting over who gets the hot water!
9. Melt Sweet Almond Sensual Massage Oil
This is the BEST massage oil ever! Whether you just enjoy giving (or receiving) a nice back rub, or you have a legitimate interest in massage, this oil is a dream.
We have taken the online couple’s massage courses from Melt, and we highly recommend them for amazing at-home date nights. You can get a discount on Melt: Massage for Couples when you use this link.
8. SimpliSafe Home Security System
On the surface, it may not seem all that romantic to purchase a home security system, but the peace of mind that comes with knowing you and your family are safe can be really powerful.
This is our favorite system, and it’s very affordable yet easy to expand to include video cameras, a smart doorbell and even water/fire sensors.
7. Art of Appreciation Gift Basket
Art of Appreciation Baskets come in many different varieties, and they are the top-rate gift baskets on Amazon. From candy to meat to snacks, they’ve got you covered!
Art of Appreciation Baskets6. The Five Love Languages
In this best-selling book, Dr. Gary Chapman unpacks that five different languages that we speak in our marriages. There may be no better resource for improving communication, and we know how important that is to achieving an extraordinary marriage.
This book is a must-have on every couple’s bookshelf!
5. Funny Coffee Mugs
Everyone can use a funny coffee mug, and if you’re affirming your spouse while sharing a laugh over your morning joe then all the better! If you prefer shot glasses that discuss buns/guns, then try these instead.
4. Espresso and Cappuccino Maker
If you love a great cup of coffee, then this Cafe Barista machine is going to be your new best friend. With nearly 3,500 positive ratings on Amazon, this is the hottest thing going in premium coffee making right now.
3. Roomba Robotic Vacuum
Robotic vacuums are a great way to help your family save time cleaning! This means more couple time for you….
…and if you’re buying this as a gift, you know they will love it!
2. Deluxy Couple’s Apron Set
The Deluxy Couple’s Apron Set is a unique and clever gift for Christmas, Anniversaries, weddings or wedding showers. The matching aprons are an ideal choice for couples who enjoy spending time in the kitchen. Whether it’s BBQ, grilling or baking, these aprons are great to have around. The set also includes over mitts, a potholder, and a romantic recipe book.
1. 15 Minute Marriage Makeover
This book was written by me for the Engaged Marriage community of busy married couples. The 15 Minute Marriage Makeover is designed to help you Refresh Your Relationship, Add Sizzle to Your Sex Life and Be Happier Together in Just Minutes per Day.
Check it out today and see what 15 minutes can do for your marriage! It’s available in paperback and Kindle formats to suit your gift-giving needs.
***BONUS GIFT idea: An overnight date without the kids***
In the hustle and bustle of the season, it’s easy to get wrapped up focusing on physical gifts.
Why not surprise your spouse with plans to get away from the responsibilities of home for an evening away? Or if you’re buying a gift for your friends, offer to watch their kids for a night and maybe they’ll return the favor soon.
For more awesome gift ideas and reviews of products that can enhance your marriage, please check out the following posts:
15 DIY Anniversary Gifts for Him To Show Your Love
19 Gift Ideas for Your Guy This Christmas
24 Glamorous Gift Ideas to Wow Your Wife This Christmas
How to Write an Awesome Romantic Love Letter: The Simple 5R Approach (a Free option!)
Want A Happier Marriage?
Great! Grab our 7 simple steps to improve communication in your marriage (in less than 15 minutes):
We got “The Five Love Languages” from my sister-in-law for our wedding and it is truly a blessing! My husband is ‘physical touch’ and I’m ‘acts of service’, so we were always showing the ways we love each other in ways that didn’t make sense to the other person. I would clean the bathroom and he would try to rub my feet (stop touching my feet!! LoL) and we’d both be at a standstill. It’s an excellent book to understand how to show love and affection to your spouse in ways he or she will understand. I highly recommend it! Great suggestions!
Awesome, Kathryn, thanks for sharing an excellent example of how The Five Love Languages can really help your relationship. My wife would TOTALLY hate it if I tried to give her a foot rub, too! 🙂
I want to vote for this one. This book was so good, I now teach all my marriage and relationships coaching clients how to discover their love languages and their partners’ and how to use that knowledge for some love boosting.
It’s funny, but love languages affect a whole lot more than intimate affection. Teachers can use it to motivate students, customer service can be improved and the sky is the limit, because … we’re all human!
.-= Family Matters´s last blog ..How to Praise Your Kids (1) =-.
I also agree that “The Five Love Languages” is an amazing book. I can honestly say that it was one of the major factors that helped turn our marriage around during our very rocky first year as a married couple and now, five years later, we still give a copy as a gift with every single wedding gift we give. The key is to re-read it every couple months to remind yourself to speak your spouse’s language on a daily basis!
The Kindle is AWESOME. My husband rallied all the troops for my birthday to all chip in and get me one and I have absolutely loved it. It is so cool to be able to carry around so many books at once in such a small package and I love being able to read in bed without fumbling with a big hardcover novel. The prices of Kindle books are affordable and there is a wide selection to choose from. Big fan!
I totally want a Wii. Jealous!
Wow, Sarah, it sounds like The Five Love Languages was really important for your marriage. It definitely helps to keep such helpful info fresh in our minds.
I am so “on the edge” of buying a Kindle! The DX is so stinking awesome it almost hurts to read about it! But it is also a lot pricier than the standard version. Which one did you get?
I have the second generation Kindle. It’s the standard size, but the secone model. Does that make sense? It is really nice, but definitely not cheap. It’s great for a collective birthday gift though!
The Five Love Languages is CRUCIAL to our marriage. We just celebrated our fifth anniversary and I can honestly saw we wouldn’t have made it this far without it. I about swooned the other morning when I woke up to find two baskets of folded laundry in the living room that my husband had done while waiting to feed the baby after I had gone to bed. One of my languages is Acts of Service so I immediately called him at work to let him know I’d be speaking his language (Physical Touch) as soon as he got home! 🙂
You can get a free ClearBlue fertility monitor if you participate in the study being conducted by the Marquette University Institute for NFP. They even will pay you $10 for each cycle charted. I agree, it can be helpful in certain special circumstances and may even be preferred by people who are more technologically inclined. But, it and the urinary test strips are expensive. And, monitoring more traditional fertility signs (mucus/temp., etc.) are up to 99.6 effective and allow cross-checking.
For more information on the Marquette Method, you can go to: http://nfp.marquette.edu/index.php
You can learn and chart online! You can chart just mucus, mucus and temp., mucus and monitor, or just monitor. There are many options. I am a certified instructor in this method and can provide you with more info. about temp. and a chart which allows you to monitor temp.
Please see more info. below my name about how to participate in the study.
Batrice Adcock, MSN, RN
cssnfp@charlottediocese.org
Marquette University
College of Nursing
Institute for Natural Family Planning
Effectiveness Study on Two Internet-Based Natural Family Planning Methods
We are looking for couples who are interested in using natural family planning (NFP) to avoid pregnancy for at least one year and would be willing to participate in a study to determine the effectiveness of two NFP methods: 1) electronic hormonal fertility monitoring and 2) self-observation of cervical mucus to estimate the time of fertility. Both of these methods will include the use of an online (Internet) charting system that automatically computes the estimated time of fertility.
To be eligible for the study the woman NFP user needs to:
• be between the age of 18 and 42
• be in a sexually active committed relationship with a man
• have a menstrual cycle range of 21-42 days
• have not used Depo (injectable) contraception for the past 6 months
• have not used oral or patch hormonal contraception for the past 3 months
• have not breast-fed baby for at least three months
• have no known fertility problems
• not be using medications that interfere with fertility
• not smoke cigarettes; and
• not be pregnant.
Her male partner needs to:
• have no known fertility problems, and
• be between the ages of 18 and 50
• be in a sexually active committed relationship with his lone woman partner.
The potential participants will also need to be open to a possible pregnancy. When used correctly the NFP methods are estimated to be 98-99% effective. When not used consistently and according to instructions the methods are estimated to be 86-90% effective.
All participants will receive a $200 ClearBlue Easy Fertility Monitor and $10 for each menstrual cycle charted online. However, the participants who are in the cervical mucus observation group will only receive the fertility monitor after completing the 12 months of charting. Couples who agree to participate will be automatically assigned either to the fertility monitor or the cervical mucus group. All participants will be asked to fill out a 10 item user satisfaction survey at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months.
If you are interested in participating please visit this Web site: http://nfpstudy.marquette.edu/portal/login.php
If you have further questions about this study please contact Dr. Richard J. Fehring, PhD, RN at (414-288-3838) or by e-mail (richard.fehring@marquette.edu).
Batrice,
Have I mentioned lately that you are awesome? Thanks for sharing this great information!
I’m a huge fan of a weekend get away. We used to always make plans for such a trip for Christmas. We’ve not had one yet since we had our first child who is now almost 17 months old. We have had an evening date though, which was amazing!!
I do look very forward to our first weekend trip together alone. That may be awhile as she is still breastfeeding frequently.
We hope to get a Wii sometime. I do think we would really enjoy it. I look forward to your post Dustin on how it is good for marriage and family!
Batrice, we love our Wii! I have asked Santa for Wii Sports Resort for Christmas. It is a sequel to Wii Sports, and we love it because my 4 year old can get in on the action (and beat me occasionally as well).
Awesome list! These are all terrific ideas. I’m especially fond of The Love Dare and The Total Money Makeover. I think these are both incredible resources that will benefit almost every marraige. In addition, my family thinks the Wii rocks! Even my 4-year-old gets in on the action. It brings us together as a family and helps us to have lots of fun together. I think a lot of people will appreciate these ideas.
.-= Jeff@MySuperChargedLife´s last blog ..Stay-At-Home-Mom: Why My Wife Stays Home With Our Kids =-.
Thanks for affirming my recommendations, Jeff! Like I said in the comment above, the Wii is a source of a lot of family fun in our house. We really love it when my in-laws get in on the action and everyone from age 4 to 60 is having a good time together.
I loved this post. Some very great.. and unusual/interesting ideas! 🙂 I’m pretty positive I could never get my husband to listen to Taylor. I agree with kathryn that the 5 love languages is a GREAT book. My husband and I read it years ago.. we should probably read it again!
This year I don’t think my hubby and I are going to get each other anything. We never really do much for Christmas. I might get him… well, gosh I have no idea. Our anniversary and his birthday is also this month!! 🙂
.-= Samantha @ Mama Notes´s last blog ..Making Time for Family =-.
Yeah, Samantha, I’m definitely a reluctant spouse when it comes to listening to Taylor Swift. But I do my best to be accommodating. 🙂
We would be fine with not getting each other presents either, especially now that we have kids and nieces/nephews around to buy for. We usually end up getting a family gift like the Wii last year. That gives us something to do during Christmas break (my wife’s a teacher and I usually take off the week between Christmas and New Year’s to be home), and we have a blast!
My hubby was nice enough to watch our kids one night when I won tickets to a Taylor Swift concert. I sent him photos and he was happy. 🙂
.-= Sarah K´s last blog ..Those Darn Michigan Kooimans! =-.
I’m a big fan of #1, the weekend getaway. I love spending time with my kids like nobody’s business but spending the weekend with just my wife helps re-enforce why we’re together in the first place and gives us time to just focus on us. Last April we spent the weekend in Estes Park, CO and had a wonderful time. The week long vacations are nice but it’s tough to do more than once a year and you’d be surprised at how powerful a weekend trip can be for your relationship if you can just do it 1) without the kids and 2) make sure you actually go somewhere. Whether you fly there or not, we find that just going somewhere to “get away from it all” for a day or two is a great recharge.
Also, I slightly disagree with your pick for #2 and I have some reasons why! http://rantsandstuff.com/2009/10/29/amazon-kindle-vs-barnes-and-noble-nook/
Good article otherwise and a very positive site overall. Great start man!
.-= Brad´s last blog ..Why is a Droid on Verizon better exactly? =-.
Hey Brad! Thanks for stopping by and bringing your geekiness with you! I love your technology blog, and you make some compelling arguments for the Nook.
Great list! I’ll have to check out Dan Miller’s book….I’ve heard lots about it. Your list is great and I’ve used most of these resources. I would also recommend resources done by Jimmy Evans over at www.marriagetoday.org
Take care!
Thanks, Ken! As you can tell, I’m a big fan of Dan Miller and his work. It looks like you have your own great blog going…congrats!
Interesting that you included “The Love Dare,” because I strongly disliked “Fireproof.” I mean really I might read LD (if someone bought it for me–I’m still unemployed), and could give it a chance since you recommended it.
I agree about the Wii! How funny is that. We got a Wii from my Dad for last Christmas, and *love* it! Good Family time. No substitute for conversation and all the good stuff, but it certainly is fun!
I’m ambivalent about the CB Fertility Monitor, but it certainly is decent for identifying ovulation and achieving pregnancy, so I hear.
Good list overall, especially the marriage retreat recommendation.
On my recommendations, we benefitted from reading from reading/retreating with Greg Popcak’s “For Better…For Ever!” (Including, I think, a little section on the love languages). Also, scheduled family meetings are awesome–cover the spiritual, emotional, family, and financial basics.
.-= Nfpworks´s last blog ..30 Rock & the Big Snip =-.
Great ideas! I, like some other posters, will not be exchanging gifts with my husband this year. He is back in school and finances are tight. On the flip side I guess you could say that we are giving each other your #1 pick, although it is a 2 night stay. This is something we started last year (we have only been married 3 years). My husband has dubbed it “The State of the Union.” We take time to get away from the hustle and bustle of life to prayerfully set short and long term goals for ourselves and for our marriage together. We just found a fantastic book that is for this very purpose and we are so excited to use it as a tool during our “State of the Union” getaway. The book is “Getting Away to Get It Together.” We aren’t going anywhere fancy or far. In fact it is a hotel that is only 15 minutes away from our house, but phones get turned off so we can tune in to each other. We found a great deal for the hotel on travelocity.
Thanks, Sarah! I love the term “The State of the Union” and the fact that you have started such a healthy tradition early in your marriage. Thanks for the great book recommendation as well.
So, I have to ask what you disliked about Fireproof so much? Besides the obviously cheesy acting, I thought the story and the awareness brought to the problem to internet porn addiction was great. I have not actually read the Love Dare, but I’ve flipped through it several times and know what it’s about. I do plan to read it sometime soon.
Thanks for your other recommendations! Wii rocks!
I really like the idea of getting a gift to enhance your marriage & family life. That’s what the Holidays are all about right? Being with the ones we love. I keep trying to get my husband on board w/ the Wii, but he is convinced the PS3 will have remotes similar real soon:) I really like the idea of an overnight stay for the two of you, or just an evening to focus on your relationship. The Five Love Languages & Love Dare are great books that bring up great conversation. Another book I would recommend is the Couple Checkup from P/E. With the new year approaching it is a great time to have a relationship checkup. Whatever the gift, It is important to not focus on the price , but the value your marriage will receive from it:) Thanks for sharing your list!
I totally agree, Renee. And it’s easy buy a gift that enhances family life whenever it’s a Wii! 🙂
Thanks for your recommendation for the Couple Checkup. I hadn’t heard of it, but it sounds like a great resource.
I have to echo the kudos for the Dave Ramsey book — it is pretty tremendous. I’m trying to do some debt-reduction and get a handle on spending (and debt, obviously, even though we really mostly have car and mortgage, plus home equity loan). So I’m haunting lots of sites, and checking out books for ones that are worthwhile. Ramsey is, and so is Debt-Free Millionaire by Anthony Manganiello. There are a lot of people who are looking into debt elimination plans (you know, the ones you hear on television or the radio), the author says. But he says, they all lie — because even after you go through whatever plan, you’re probably still likely to have some kind of debt. So he outlines the pitfalls of those plans, and also has a plan to get out of debt and on the right financial path. What a blessing that is.
.-= Liz´s last blog ..lizreads: great idea for xmas gift for football novice: book on the basics! www.guidetowatchingfootball.com by sportscaster. good info, great stories. =-.
Thanks for your comment, Liz! I’m a big Dave Ramsey fan, and I truly believe there is no secret to getting out of debt. You simply must spend less than you make, and have intense passion for the goal of getting free!
I’m surprised your wife didn’t mention diamonds to you. That always seems to enhance the relationship. At least for one night.
.-= Living with Balls´s last blog ..Least Surprising Study Ever Finds that All Men Watch Porn =-.
Man, I love the name of your blog and at first glance it definitely looks hilarious. I just followed you on Twitter. Despite my seriousness about marriage, I still have quite a juvenile sense of humor.
Congratulations on your blog! I learned about it after it became a top 10 …
I love your Christmas list and would like to add one more book that I know you and your readers would like: “A Short Guide to a Happy Marriage,” just released. It’s a beautiful gift book to bring home to your spouse and read together. It’s straightforward and will inspire and motivate you to keep making your marriage the best it can be. Take a look at borders, amazon and many others and please stop by @ www.ashortguidetoahappymarriage.com
Thank you, Sharon! I appreciate you becoming part of the community here, and thanks for passing along the info about your book!
Next year, I’d like to make part of our Christmas gift to each other a donation to a charity. How great would it feel to wake up on Christmas morning knowing that a little one out there somewhere is opening a present because of you, or that your donation to St. Jude’s helped save a child’s life? I don’t think there could be any better gift than that.
Great suggestion, Melissa! I try to be giving both monetarily and in service throughout the year, but it would be a great family tradition to help those outside of our families as part of our Christmas celebration.