Have you noticed lately that everyone seems to be talking about the “good old days”? Almost every industry is going retro. There’s retro furniture and accessories, music jukeboxes, cars, jewelry, fashion, art. Even the music and food industries are going retro. This trend has been explained as a feeling of nostalgia for a return to the age of innocence, perhaps to escape the stress of a culture seeking to cope with our technology explosion. Everybody seems to have a sentimental yearning or longing for something past.
Labels like Nostalgia Gifts, retro cars, vintage furniture very definitely connect a person to that commodity before they actually see it. Just seeing or hearing that label automatically elicits a sensation of something from the past that promised comfort and safety, joy and happiness, and a place of refuge – no pain, no anxiety, just sweet peace. It’s a sweet although brief, relief from the cares of the day.
It’s amazing how certain colors, smells, a song, a picture of a childhood toy can evoke such intense nostalgia, a feeling of homesickness for what used to be. You experience once again the serenity and tranquility of your uncomplicated life of simpler times, when families had time to enjoy being together, singing, playing that music jukebox, toasting marshmallows, swinging under an old oak tree. You bask in the pleasure and peace of reliving those times if only for a moment.
Maybe you haven’t been turned on to Nostalgia gifts yet, but supposing you opened a birthday or Christmas present and there was something you never expected to see again – a vintage music jukebox, straight out of yesterday! That’s when you experience nostalgia to the max -and each time you walk past it, it’s nostalgia all over again!
I would like you to think about something. When you were growing up and even now as you are possibly grown, who was the hardest person to buy for around the holidays? If you are like my household, it was always your father and now that your are grown and married, I’ll bet you it is the men folk in your family. How many times was a gift given to your father or your husband and you discerned it really didn’t capture his fancy-unless of course he had already informed you of what really wanted or needed, and then it was no longer a surprise.
Yes, I do believe that women, especially mothers, are more prone to explain just what they want, even where to get it. In the case with my father, it was hard because he wanted to be sure to get exactly what he wanted, no substitutes accepted. I suspect he needed to feel it, hold it and carefully inspect every inch of it because it was usually a tool of some kind that he wanted and it had to be just right. I just remember something besides a tool he would have loved-a music jukebox.
However, any one of the Nostalgia gifts, whether buying it for himself or receiving it as a gift, would definitely change the picture for gift buying. Can you imagine the look of surprise and pleasure on a father’s or husband’s face when he opens his gift and it’s maybe not his favorite tool, but better yet, it’s a retro style record player, radio, jukebox, or some other vintage gift, maybe even a popcorn machine?
I guarantee he would be pleased really pink with something like a music jukebox, a neon sign, a special electronic gift, or some other unique gift. Because it wasn’t the usual tie or belt, some kind of shirt or shaving lotion, he would feel really special. With the men folk uniqueness seems to be a key element for satisfaction-and that’s what you are looking for in a gift.