As I said earlier, my mellow fellows are more into Don Giovanni and Don McClean than Don Cherry or Don King. If your gentlemen are musically inclined or just like to collect cool ephemera maybe some sheet music is in order. Sheet music can be found in Chapters/Indigo, Amazon and specific music stores. I'm lucky that my husband doesn't care in the least if I buy him something used. In fact, he welcomes it. Vintage sheet music can be found in old bookstores, on Ebay, fleamarkets or Abebooks.com.
Some of it is incredibly cheap. For instance, this one I just found on Abebooks called Skylarking - A New Dance, by George Eastman, is from 1908 and costs just $1 plus shipping. I'm guessing that it never made it onto a cylinder and therefore if somebody in your house can play the piano, you can time travel back to the Edwardian days and enjoy a song that hasn't been heard for 100 years.
My husband has some used Janis Joplin sheet music circa 1975. On the inside cover are hand-written driving directions. As I am a terrible spy, I was able to follow (their) route from San Diego to a house at the bottom of California's Cleveland National Forest. Around our house we also have some music from Don Giovanni and a three really old (1925) volumes of A.A. Milne sheet music - discards from the library my dad used to oversee. Sheet music can also be downloaded, tied with a ribbon and put in a stocking.
Hey wait, isn't that...
Oh, I'm running into trouble. This is where I start buying for me. Snap out of it! Posters. Reproduction vintage posters. Or genuine, depending on your budget. If your man hung out in Davos with a bunch of Australians in the early 80s maybe he'd like a poster to remind him. Places like allposters.ca have more than you can imagine. I've yet to order from them, however.
Does he like pasta? Or Italian beer? Or Bond girls? They can be found.
Favourite movies from when he was young.
Where Eagles Dare.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
The Shawshank Redemption. You get the picture.
Striped Socks. Just found a website called joyofsocks.com.
Anything but black. urbanoutfitters.com
Hair cutting kits. Because they're needed.
Fleece sleep pants. Because they're wanted.
So I've puzzed, and I've puzzed until my puzzler was sore. That's it for the Pup's list this year. I hope it inspires you to place something meaningful under the tree.