I’m a dad, and I’m probably hard to shop for. At least, I think I must be, since I have a hard time even shopping for myself pretty often, never ask for gifts, and can’t imagine what anyone else would get for me if required to. I can afford everything I need and most of what I want; the material things that I want and can’t afford won’t be provided by my kids in my lifetime. (It would distress me beyond imagining if I thought they were trying to provide those things for me, since they would be going without things they need in order to make the attempt.)
But my daughter lets me know how well she’s doing, which is wonderful to hear, because it wasn’t always so. It’s not boasting, it’s just “acknowledgement” that she’s in a good place, and thanks for helping her get to that point. Nothing makes me prouder about my own contribution to society, or happier to hear.
My son is a bit tougher, because he’s not so convinced that he’s doing so well – though I can see objectively that he is: he’s married to a wonderful woman and has a great family – but when he lets slip sometimes that he’s “not unhappy”, then that’s enough.
My daughter also understands my tastes in modern music enough to occasionally surprise me with a CD from a group that I had never even heard of before, and expand my horizons in that way.
Maybe you could surprise your dad with a really ugly tie with pictures of tools and eagles on it, including eagles wearing hats, or an eagle wearing a tie and a tool belt or something. He’d never wear it, of course, but that’s not the point. He’d be reminded of past Christmases and time spent with you and know that you were thinking of him – and only of him – when you made that tie. (Because where in hell could you buy such an ugly thing?) Try it; he might surprise you.