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Half a century of marriage. That means being linked with the same person for over 18,262 days and spending over 2.6 billion minutes as the wife or husband of that person. This is some milestone. To have resisted the temptations of straying, to have remained faithful and committed to that one person in an age when half of all marriages end prematurely is a major feat for the two people involved with the marriage. How then can you celebrate or help the couple to celebrate this major achievement? What gift can possibly be appropriate?

Many of us starting with a blank piece of paper to write down ideas for fiftieth anniversary gifts would still be sitting with that same blank sheet in two hours or even two days later, wracking our brains and still not coming up with any suitable ideas. Think how much worse is must be for the couple themselves, now likely to be in their seventies, who have gone through this same dilemma on forty nine previous occasions. Within this article it is intended to look at a few gift ideas from two viewpoints, the first being the couple that are celebrating and second being their family and friends.

If anything, the choice of gift for the couple is going to be far more difficult than for those outside of the marriage relationship. By this time the two people will know each in an intimate way that few of us will ever experience. They will know the signs when the other person is keeping a pleasant secret, and be able to tell when there is gift scheming going on behind their backs. Thus it is difficult to come up with a truly unique and memorable gift and certainly one that can be kept a secret. Difficult it may be, but nothing is ever impossible.

In the position of either one of the couple I would first think back over all the conversations that I have had with my partner over those fifty years and try and pick out something that they have always said they wished they could do but which, for whatever reason, we have never gotten around to. It may be that there is a special country they have always wanted to visit, for example to view the Egyptian pyramids, or the romantic city of Paris. A weeks break of this nature, especially if you have not been able to get abroad that much in the past, would be truly surprising, and you can keep the secret even better if none of the arrangements take place from within the home, nor any booking information is sent there. Hopefully they will be fully taken in when you say that you have arranged a short break

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