You cuddle when you’re sleeping, you text her “Good morning, beautiful” when she’s awake, you know that she’s been good all year, so you want to get your girlfriend the best gift, for goodness sake.
Your girlfriend seems to have everything: her purse looks like a suitcase and is filled to the brim, her vanity and closet are overflowing and she has picked out all of the for everything she could possibly accessorize. If your girlfriend won’t straight up tell you what she wants, you’ll have to do some snooping…
Find out how to be the best Santa baby for her this holiday.
1. Check her Pinterest
The real reason the creator of Pinterest made the site was to tell boyfriends exactly what their girlfriend wants. Pinterest is an online database of all of your girlfriend’s wildest dreams organized in neat boards. The site has even made buyable pins now. That means there is only one click between a sad, wanting girlfriend and a happy, satisfied one. Check every board to get some great gift ideas…except maybe the wedding board (unless you want a panic attack).
2. Check her likes on Twitter
Nobody can peel their fingers away from Twitter these days. If your girlfriend is a makeup junkie or a fashion maven, she has liked a few twit pics of the products and styles she’s drooling over. A shy girlfriend may never tell you the exact shade of Nars semi-matte lipstick she wants, but she definitely retweeted the tutorial for a look using the color. Valuable information about what your girlfriend wants is public to you, so you don’t even need to feel guilty for snooping around.
3. Check her shares on Facebook
Sick of looking through makeup and clothes? Check your girlfriend’s shares on Facebook for cool gadgets to buy. “Mostly if I want something I see on Facebook or social media I’ll just tag my boyfriend, and sometimes he still doesn’t get the hint,” Drake University sophomore Mia Tirado said. Focus, boys! Some videos she shares will probably blow your mind. An underwater camera? A full kitchen set that folds up to wallet size? Those headphones that translate languages? Okay, that one might be a little out of your price range. but whatever your girlfriend wants on her Facebook will be sure to entertain you both.
4. Ask her parents
A girl who doesn’t tell her mom what she wishes you’d get her probably doesn’t exist. Butter up your (possible) future mother-in-law and get that critical intel. You’ll get double brownie points: from your girlfriend for nailing her gift and from her mother, who now thinks you’re the most thoughtful boyfriend out there for finding out exactly what your girlfriend wants.
5. Ask her best friends
Since you likely won’t have access to a professional mind reader, your girlfriend’s BFF is the next best thing. A lot of girls use their best friend as a liaison with their boyfriends anyway. Hit up your girl’s closest companion (if she hasn’t already texted you a complete list) and ask for hints about what your girlfriend wants. Make sure her best friend helps you tell the difference between the actual Kylie Lip Kits and those cheap knock-offs, and pray that you don’t get hit with a sassy, “If you really knew her, you’d know what to get her.” This response probably won’t come unless you’re already in some deep sh-t. If you are, get her something extra shiny, stat.
6. Say you’re shopping for your sister
This tip works best if you and your girlfriend have just started dating. If your sister and your girlfriend are somewhat close in age, you can tell what stocking stuffers your girlfriend might appreciate by the gifts she suggests. “My sister is only a couple years older than my girlfriend, so my girlfriend suggested hair products and stores that she liked so I could go shop for my sister there. I ended up getting her the same hair product and a scarf from one of the stores that my girlfriend loved,” University of Iowa sophomore Teddy Hill said.
7. Snoop through her closet
A quick peek into the shrine that is your girlfriend’s closet will give you an idea of colors, styles, sizes and brands that your girlfriend wants. “My closet says a lot about my tastes, but sometimes I’ll even go through my closet when my boyfriend is in the room and be like, ‘Man, these Pink leggings in size Medium are getting old, I wish I could replace them,’” Tirado said. This tip may be the most dangerous tactic to try, though. A girl protects her closet like a temple. Those who trespass never go unpunished. (Ever witness your girlfriend fight with her sister over “borrowed” clothes?) If you get caught, pretend to be folding some clothes “because it’s never a bad time to do something nice.”
8. Check her Internet history
You’re that desperate? Come on, man, just get her some fuzzy socks and lotion. Okay, okay, if you really you want to get your girlfriend something she’ll really love, retrace her online footprints. Online shopping carts should be strewn around her history like real shopping carts in a Walmart parking lot after Black Friday, and we all know she didn’t buy all those things on a college budget. Warning: you might see some searches you don’t want to see. “I would be terrified to check my girlfriend’s searh history because I might find, like, ‘Why does my boyfriend suck so bad” in the searches, but I know there’d be some good stuff in there too,” Hill said. If you want to keep the sketchiness level below all-out stalker, just check her favorite websites. And you didn’t get this idea from me…
9. Go through your old messages
Your girlfriend may have been dropping hints to you in your text conversations all the way back in January, hoping you’ll remember during the holidays. Even if she didn’t know she was dropping hints, she must have told you there was something she needed or wanted at some point in your exchange of funny pictures and kissy Bitmojis. Take even the smallest hints of what your girlfriend wants and run with them. She said her room is always cold? Take a trip to Target for a cozy blanket and funny slippers. She said she wants to take up cooking? Chrissy Teigen’s cookbook is on Amazon Prime.
10. Take her shopping
So all of the other tricks failed. Her social media doesn’t help, her internet history says she’s nothing but a clickbait addict, your text messages look more like a meme account and her best friends and family tell you to figure it out yourself. Your last Hail Mary should be to take her to pick out her own gifts. “I’m really blunt,” Creighton University sophomore Gabi DiMatteo said. “If I want something, I’ll just tell my boyfriend. It’d be really convenient to do this in the actual store with him.” This can be a gift in itself and a very romantic outing for the two of you.
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