Disney Gifts for Adults That Mean More Than Another Mug

Why most Disney gifts for adults end up in a drawer

The drawer is not full of bad gifts. It is full of gifts for a Disney fan in general rather than for this one, and the misses repeat.

• The logo instead of the memory. A castle on a mug, a character on a tumbler. It says they love Disney, which everyone who has met them knows. Nothing on it is about a day they actually lived.
• The duplicate. Disney adults buy the good merchandise in person, because buying it there is half the fun. Whatever you find online, they may well own their own version already, and like it better.
• The novelty that lasts four minutes. The trivia game, the countdown calendar, the joke shirt. Funny when it is opened, and then it needs a use that never comes.
• The gift for the child they were. A plush toy, or the kids' version of something they love. Some grown-ups adore these; many are tired of being treated as if loving the films means they never grew up.
• The gift that assumes a trip. A park guidebook or luggage tags for a vacation nobody has booked, which becomes a small reminder of the trip that is not happening this year.

The four kinds of Disney gift that last

The gifts that are still out a year later fall into four groups, and none of them needs a big budget.

1. A memory of their own. Something from a trip they took or a story that is theirs: the ride photo, the day itself, the person they went with.
2. The grown-up version of what they love. How the films were made, the music of the parks, the food, the art. Gifts for the part of them that has been paying attention for decades.
3. An experience with a date on it. Not a trip someday. A booked morning, a table, a tour, with the date written in the card.
4. A keepsake of them. A record of the person, or of the two of them, as they are now, and the one kind of gift that is worth more each year.

We make one kind of keepsake ourselves, so that section is honest about its limits. Curious already? See the two of them drawn, free, from one photo, with no account and no card.

A memory: their own trip, not the logo

Nothing in this group is expensive. It takes attention, and ten minutes in the other person's camera roll.

• The ride photo, finally printed. Disney PhotoPass, the parks' own photo service, has photographers at landmark spots, captures photos and videos on select attractions, and sells them as downloads and prints. Plenty of people buy the file and never print it. Find the one where they are screaming on the drop, print it large, and frame it like art.
• The whole trip, rescued. Disney's standard policy is that PhotoPass photos expire 45 days after they are taken, with no permanent storage. If the trip was recent and they paid for the downloads, save them all, choose twenty, and print them as a small book.
• The day, written down. A letter about one specific trip: who went green on the spinning cups, which ride broke down with you on it, the fireworks you watched from the wrong spot. It does not need to be well written, only specific, and nobody else could write it.
• A frame for the small stuff. Plenty of Disney adults keep the pins, the tickets and the wristbands from every trip in a drawer. A shadow box turns a drawer of souvenirs into one object on a wall.

The grown-up version of what they love

Many Disney adults have loved the same films since they were small, and what they have added since is curiosity: how it was done, who drew it, why a song still gets them. Those gifts go on the shelf they are proud of.

• A book about how the films were made. Chronicle Books publishes “The Art of” books for many of the Disney and Pixar animated films, full of the character designs, storyboards and color scripts behind each one. For the serious fan there is The Illusion of Life, by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two of Disney's longtime animators, which Disney Editions still publishes in hardcover.
• The parks' own music, on vinyl. The Disney Music Emporium, Disney's official music store, sells soundtracks on vinyl, including albums of music from the parks themselves. For someone with a record player, that beats any shirt.
• The cookbook of the snacks they wait in line for. The Official Disney Parks Cookbook, from Disney Editions, collects 101 recipes from restaurants across the parks, the resorts and the cruise ships. Give it with the ingredients for one recipe and an evening to make it together.
• Licensed art, chosen like art. A print of concept art from the film that is theirs, or a limited print by a licensed artist, framed properly, looks at home in a grown-up living room in a way a poster never does.

The rule here: show you know which part of Disney is theirs. A fan of the parks and a fan of the films are not always the same person.

An experience with a date already on it

A trip someday is the Disney gift most often promised and least often taken. What turns it into a present is a date: written down, booked, impossible to postpone politely.

• A tour for the fan who has done every ride. At Walt Disney World, Disney's Keys to the Kingdom Tour is a five-hour walk through Magic Kingdom, backstage and in the tunnels beneath the park, with lunch included, for guests 16 and older. At Disneyland, the two-hour Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour includes Walt Disney's private apartment above the Fire House, for groups of up to twelve, bookable up to 60 days ahead. Both need park admission for the day.
• A table, booked. The restaurant they always mention and never manage to reserve, booked for a date you chose, with the confirmation printed and folded into a card.
• A gift card, with a plan attached. The official Disney Gift Card has no fees and no expiration, and at Walt Disney World it can go toward park tickets, resort hotel stays, dining and merchandise. It is the most useful gift on this page and the least memorable, so write the weekend it is for in the card.

An experience has one flaw: there is nothing to unwrap. So wrap something that stands for it: the printed reservation, the park map with the route inked in, or a book in which the two of them spend a day at a park. If that last one is the idea, our theme park book for couples starts with one photo of them, drawn before you decide.

A keepsake of them, the one thing they cannot buy

Keepsakes are the one group that grows in value, because the people in them will never look quite like this again. A Disney adult can buy anything with a castle on it, but not a picture of themselves they did not know existed.

• A portrait, drawn or painted. Portraits go on walls, and nobody throws one away. Book the artist by early November, since custom work fills up long before December.
• The trip as a photo book, day by day, if someone will give it the evening that choosing photos takes.
• A storybook that puts the two of them in it. Ours, and we will be plain about what it is.

Ours is called The Day We Were Kids Again. You send a photo of the two of them, we draw each of them as a character, in the look of a modern 3D animated film, and the same two faces carry all thirteen spreads of one whole day at a theme park: the glowing headband somebody said no to twice, the roller coaster with one pair of arms up and one pair of eyes shut, the haunted house where the wrong one screamed, the fireworks over the castle.

What it is not: a Disney book, or any real park. The park, its castle of honey-colored stone and the big soft dinosaur who wanders about it are our own invention, and we have no connection to Disney. The story is ours, and every couple who picks this title gets the same one. What belongs to them is the likeness, their names woven into the words, and a dedication you write, which we print word for word on the last page. If what you want is their real trip, choose the photo book. If you want the two of them, unmistakably themselves, on the best kind of day, choose this, before the trip or after it.

Before anything is printed, a real artist checks every book, and printing happens in the United States. Our other books for two, for a wedding, an anniversary or a baby on the way, are on our shelf for couples.

Disney gifts for her, and Disney gifts for him

Most lists split Disney gifts for her and for him into jewelry and gadgets. That is the wrong split: what decides the gift is which kind of fan they are, and that has little to do with whether they are a woman or a man.

Disney gifts for her. The trap is the default: something pink, something sparkly, a princess on it. Some women love exactly that, and already own it. What lands is proof you know which part of Disney is hers: the ride she does first, the film she watches when she is sick, the character she has quietly collected for years.

Disney gifts for him. Men who love Disney are used to getting the joke version: the novelty mug, the shirt that says he was dragged along. If he loves it, take it seriously. The book about how his favorite film was made, the tour that goes backstage, the record he can put on at home.

A sentimental Disney gift for a wife or a husband

For a wife or a husband the calibration changes: you are not only buying for a fan, you are buying for the person you go with. The most sentimental Disney gift is almost always about the two of you there together.

• The first trip, remembered. The park where you got engaged, the honeymoon, the trip before the children. Frame the photo from that day, or write the letter about it.
• The next trip, booked. A date on the calendar and a reservation at the place you could never get into. For the spouse who plans every trip, the gift is that this time they do not have to.
• The two of you, drawn. A portrait, or our storybook of a day at a park with both of you on every page. It is the rare Disney gift that is about your marriage rather than about Disney.

If the occasion is a wedding anniversary, our guide to Disney anniversary gifts is written for exactly that. Want to see the two of you drawn first? Try it on a photo of you both: it costs nothing, and nobody needs to know until the box arrives.

For a couple who do the parks together

Often the gift is for two other people: a son and daughter-in-law who honeymooned at the parks, or friends who go every single year. The rules shift a little.

• A single gift for the pair, one that favors neither of them. A big present for the collector and a token for the other one is two gifts, and everyone can tell which was the afterthought.
• Nothing for display, unless it is them. Every shelf in a shared house has been argued over already. A picture of the two of them gets a place; another figure does not.
• Something used up together. The parks cookbook with the ingredients for one recipe, a bottle of something good for the night they plan the next trip, or an evening of babysitting.

A wedding has its own guide, Disney wedding gifts. For fans with small children, the children's side of the gift is its own question, and our guide to personalized books for kids is the place to start. Our storybook works as a gift from a parent or a friend as well: all it needs is one clear photo of the couple, and you write the dedication.

For mom, or the grandma who took everyone

Some of the most devoted Disney adults are the mothers and grandmothers who planned the whole family trip and still have the photo from the log ride on the fridge. For them, the gift that lands is almost never about Disney. It is about the family they took.

• The family photo from the trip, framed and dated. Better still, two trips in one frame: the first time she took her children, and the first time she took theirs.
• A letter from the grandchildren about the day, in their own handwriting, with the ride they liked best drawn underneath.
• The next day at the park, together. Not a whole vacation: one grandchild, one grandma, one day, with the date written in the card.

A Disney grandma is still, most of all, a grandma. There is a whole guide to Disney gifts for grandma, written from the grandchildren's side, and our guide to gifts for grandma from the grandchildren covers the rest, including a book we make with a grandmother and a grandchild drawn together. For a mom, the best gift shows her the trip she worked so hard on is remembered by someone else too.

For a friend, a coworker or a Secret Santa

A small budget is where Disney gifts go most wrong, because the cheapest things with the logo on them are the ones every fan owns ten of. Small can still be specific.

• An ornament of the ride they love. Disney Store sells glass ornaments based on park attractions and park snacks. Chosen for the ride they head to first, it is small and specific, and it comes back out every December.
• The snack, at home. The dry ingredients for the one park treat they talk about, in a jar, with the recipe written on a card.
• For a Secret Santa at work, something consumable with a light touch beats the fifth mug on their desk: good hot chocolate, a candle, a small art print.
• For friends just back from a trip, a print of the best photo they posted, framed before they get around to it.

For a friend who is half of a couple of fans, the storybook works as a gift to both, which is why it sits with our day out gifts for couples: it needs one photo of the two of them from the trip, and you can try it on that photo before you spend anything.

Disney Christmas gifts for adults: the dates that matter

Everything personalized is made after the order comes in, so what matters is making time plus shipping time, and December stretches both.

• November is the comfortable month for anything made to order, from a commissioned portrait to a printed photo book or an engraved ornament.
• Our book: order by December 1. It is printed after you order, and December 1 is the last day we can promise it under the tree.
• Experiences first. Disney recommends booking its tours in advance, so reserve the date, then wrap the reservation.
• Pick the photo now. A picture where both faces are clear and turned toward the camera is harder to find than it sounds.

If the two of them do Christmas at home rather than at the park, our Christmas title, Under the Mistletoe, is the better fit.

More ideas for the season are in Christmas gifts for couples, and the preview is free at any hour, so you can see them drawn tonight and sleep on it.

Running late? Order anyway, copy the delivery dates the cart shows before you pay into a card, and let the book itself arrive after Christmas. A week late and exactly right beats on time and meant for anybody.

A short list, if you want one

Everything above in one table, by kind.

Pick one, and pick the one that would make no sense handed to any other Disney fan.