Unusual gifts for men are the hardest brief in the whole gifting calendar, and it is entirely his fault. Ask what he wants and you get "nothing, honestly". Ask what he needs and he points out, correctly, that he already owns a coat. He is not being difficult, he is being accurate: most men buy the things they need at the moment they need them, which leaves you shopping in the narrow strip between novelty socks and a gadget that gets charged exactly once. So this guide takes a different route. Instead of another object he has to find a drawer for, give him a project: a make-your-own kit that ends in bacon, gin, hot sauce or a bowl mended with gold, made by him, with the bragging rights to match.
Why are unusual gifts for men so hard to find?
Because almost every list of gift ideas for men is really a list of objects, and objects are exactly what he has covered. The wallet is fine. The headphones are fine. The whisky glasses from two Christmases ago are still in their box. When a man says he doesn't need anything, he is usually telling the truth, at least about things.
What he almost certainly doesn't have is a plan for a free afternoon. That is the gap a making kit fills, whether you're buying for a brother, a husband, a mate, a colleague or a Secret Santa draw you slightly regret entering. A kit isn't a possession to store, it's a thing to do, and then a thing to eat, drink or show off afterwards. The best presents for men end in a story he gets to tell.
Why does a project beat an object?
Three reasons.
- A project can't join the pile. It isn't finished until he has made something with it, which is more than can be said for the drawer of forgotten gadgets.
- The result is his. The jerky is his jerky, the gin is his signature gin, and no shop-bought version will ever be spoken of quite so fondly again.
- There's no skill barrier. Every kit is designed for complete beginners, with a step-by-step booklet and the specialist ingredients you can't pick up in a normal supermarket, so the gap between "never tried it" and "made it myself" is about one weekend wide.
He supplies only the everyday bits, a pork belly here, a bottle of inexpensive vodka there. Each kit is hand-packed in Britain, and each one arrives looking like a present rather than a hint.
Which unusual gifts for men match which man?
Every man on your list is one of these. Some of them are several at once.
The one glued to the barbecue
He owns tongs that no one else is allowed to touch. The Ultimate Meat Making Kit is his next level: bacon, jerky, biltong and more, all made at home with no smoker and no special equipment. The bacon uses a cold cure, curing and then air drying in the fridge over several days, with the whole process taking about a week, which for this man means seven happy days of progress reports. It's the big, generous option for a milestone birthday, or for the man who genuinely does own every gadget already.
The one who judges every cafe by its bacon
Buy him the Bacon Making Kit and let him settle the argument himself. He rubs the cure into a piece of pork belly, picks one of three flavours, chilli and garlic, juniper and fennel, or pancetta, and lets the fridge do the slow work. Because his bacon is dry-cured and air-dried rather than wet-cured like most supermarket bacon, it fries up firm and full of flavour instead of leaking water and shrinking in the pan. The booklet even includes the trick for hanging it in the fridge while it dries. He will mention this bacon for months.
The one with a snack drawer he thinks is secret
Two options, depending on his allegiance. The Beef Jerky Making Kit is the American classic: lean beef sliced thin, seasoned with a barbecue or chilli and garlic blend, then dried slowly in an ordinary oven in a few hours, with enough seasoning for two 500g batches. The Biltong Making Kit is the South African answer, marinating the beef in cider vinegar with coriander, black pepper and Himalayan salt before drying, and the simplified method gets him there in a couple of hours. Either way, the snack drawer enters its artisan era.
The hot sauce evangelist
You know him. Every meal is an opportunity, every bottle gets a review. The Chilli Sauce Making Kit makes seven different sauces from six dried chillies and flakes, running from gentle green and jalapeno up through chipotle and cayenne to habanero, facing heaven and piri piri. The recipes include a smoky chipotle, a garlic sriracha and a mango habanero, and the kit packs in tasting pipettes, a mini sieve, kraft labels for his inevitable branded range, and gloves, because the chillies are not joking. This is the gift that gifts back, usually one bottle at a time.
The one with strong opinions about gin
The Ultimate Gin Making Kit calls his bluff, magnificently. Inside are juniper and 13 botanicals, enough to make up to ten 700ml bottles, along with the sieve, measuring spoons, tasting pipettes, funnel and bottle tags. He adds a bottle of inexpensive vodka, a premium one is wasted here because its subtle notes disappear under the botanicals, infuses for a couple of days, and strains off a gin built to his own recipe. It's completely legal too, no still and no licence needed, because this is infusion rather than distilling. By bottle three he'll have a signature blend, and a name for it.
The one who insists rum and cola counts as a cocktail
The Spiced Rum Making Kit upgrades him gently. He adds a bottle of inexpensive plain dark rum, drops in a spice sachet, and tastes his way through 72 hours of infusion with the pipette until it's exactly as bold as he likes, then filters, settles and bottles it, all inside a week. The kit makes two batches in two blends, a Captain's blend of classic pirate spice and a Jamaican ginger with proper zing. A strong Secret Santa move, because it looks far more considered than the occasion strictly demanded.
The one on first-name terms with the kebab van
The Kebab Making Kit brings the Friday night order home: a classic doner he can carve into thin takeaway-style slices, a spicy shish and a minted kofta. He adds 500g of lamb per batch, minced for the doner and kofta, diced for the shish, and each recipe feeds two to three, so the gift extends to his table. The booklet includes a quick yoghurt and mint sauce to complete the effect. Dangerous knowledge, in the best possible way.
The quiet maker
Not every man wants to eat his present. For the thoughtful one, the fixer, the one who would rather mend than replace, the Kintsugi Repair Kit is the most unusual gift on this list. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with seams of gold, celebrating the cracks instead of hiding them. The kit includes a two-part epoxy, a premium gold mica pigment and two practice bowls to break and mend before he trusts himself with anything precious. One unhurried evening plus 24 hours of curing, and he has made the only piece of its kind anywhere.
Do making kits work for birthdays, Christmas and Secret Santa?
They were practically designed for the big three. As birthday gifts for him, a kit beats another bottle of something because it lasts beyond the weekend and finishes with something he made himself. At Christmas, a making kit quietly solves the dead week between Boxing Day and New Year, which is exactly when a man with a new project is happiest. And for Secret Santa, a colleague, or the friend you only half know, a kit reads as genuinely chosen rather than grabbed, without you needing any intelligence beyond "he likes hot sauce" or "he guards the barbecue".
Unusual gifts for men FAQs
What are good gifts for men who have everything?
Something he can't already own: an afternoon of making. A kit hands him a project, a result and a story in one box, which is why making kits have become our standing answer to the man who swears he needs nothing.
Do the drink making kits contain alcohol?
No. The kits contain the botanicals or spices, the equipment and the instructions, and he buys the vodka or dark rum separately. That also means you don't need to be 18 to buy one as a gift, though he'll need to be old enough to buy the spirit that goes into it.
Does he need any experience?
None at all. Every kit is designed for complete beginners, with a simple step-by-step booklet, and he'll only need a few common kitchen items alongside it.
Can I send a kit straight to him?
Yes. At checkout, simply enter his address as the delivery address and the kit will be sent directly to him.
What if he doesn't start it straight away?
No rush. We aim for every kit to leave us with at least 12 months on the best before date, so a birthday kit bought early will still be waiting happily months later.
What will he need to buy himself?
Just the fresh or everyday parts: pork belly or lean beef for the meat kits, lamb for the kebabs, vodka for the gin, dark rum for the spiced rum. Each product page lists exactly what to add.
Browse the full gift kits collection, every kit hand-packed in Britain with free UK delivery over £25, and cross the trickiest man off your list.
