This story is sponsored by Crest
In years past I’ve given him NFL football player’s jerseys. Well, jersey t-shirts because I’m not made of solid gold, ya know?
There were also Star Wars and Lord of the Rings LEGO sets and Xbox One shoot ‘em up games (that I remain conflicted about buying) all wrapped, ribboned and bowed. One Christmas, I gave him a certificate to take him out shopping for a nice suit to rock at all of the sweet sixteen shindigs he had upcoming on his spring social calendar. Speaking of solid gold, MAN! — that outing ended up being far more expensive than I was prepared for. The parties came and went but I think I’m still paying off those sharp outfits!
The middle of my three nephews is 17 now and this Christmas I’m giving him something I’ve watched the finest English footballers confidently carry off their team buses and into changing rooms all over England — a suave toiletry bag full of essential products to look good and smell better.
You may be thinking, “Hmmm, Jeff, I dunno, that seems an awfully odd Christmas gift for a young man,” but instead of another wartime video game or a new pair of kicks I can’t afford to buy him anyway, I am thoughtfully putting together a cache of bathroom products — from lotion to shave gel and toothpaste to soap — in a clean, refined bag that will accompany what any sensible teen wants most: a pocketful of flash money, for weekends out with friends at the mall, movie theaters, and concert venues.
Alongside the lotions, deodorant and body washes — all travel size for easy transport — I’m putting a full-size tube of Crest Pro-Health Whitening Power toothpaste and a brand new Oral-B toothbrush for him to take with on sleepovers and during the next exotic vacation he gets to take with a pal (no joke, that lucky kid got to go to the Dominican Republic with a friend’s family last summer!)
So yeah, a radically different Christmas gift than when he was younger. Out are the American football t-shirts, in marches a handsome English footballer’s smart self-care carrying bag.
