Father's Day Gift Shopping Survey 2026: Results, Key Findings and Statistics

More than 80% of UK consumers say they enjoy shopping for Father’s Day gifts, yet 67% admit that they struggle to come up with gift ideas for their dads. It’s often said that dads are “hard to buy for”, and this still rings true in 2026; however, our research reveals that new sources of gift inspiration are making this process easier for some.

We surveyed over 1,000 UK consumers who will be buying gifts for Father’s Day this year – either for their own dad, or another father figure in their lives – to find out about the kinds of gifts they look for, where they go for ideas, and their typical shopping habits around this occasion. We also asked what makes gifts special, whether they consider themselves to be sentimental, and how important personalisation is to them.

Georgia Stephenson, from the marketing team at Create Gift Love, said: 

“It’s been three years since our last Father’s Day polls, and it’s been really interesting to see how things have changed since 2023. Our recent survey found similar trends in the kinds of gifts we buy our dads (food, fragrance and clothing still proving popular), and we saw that the majority of shoppers still opt for ‘practical’ Father’s Day gifts over emotive ones. We are noticing some changes in consumer behaviour, though. Shoppers are leaving it even later to find their gifts, with 64% now waiting until the week before Father’s Day, up from 53% in 2023, and we’re seeing an increase in consumer spending in higher price brackets.

“One rapidly growing trend that was only just starting to emerge in 2023 is the number of shoppers using platforms like ChatGPT to help them come up with gift ideas. Over 50% of respondents in our 2026 survey said they use AI for gift inspiration, and half of those people had bought products AI recommended. It makes sense - our surveys repeatedly show that people find it hard to know what to buy their loved ones, and sites like ChatGPT can make it more straightforward with tailored, bespoke suggestions.

“But genuine thoughtfulness still has huge power. We asked respondents about the most thoughtful gifts they’d ever received and what made those gifts so special. Over and over, people mentioned things like family heirlooms, photo collages and keepsakes from important moments in their lives - the kinds of personalised Father’s Day gifts we make at Create Gift Love. While off-the-shelf recommendations can be helpful, the gifts our respondents treasured the most were the ones that reminded them of loved ones, fond memories, and nostalgia. I just don’t think that kind of human connection and creativity is something that can be outsourced.”

Key Data

• 81.5% of shoppers in the UK say they enjoy looking for Father’s Day gifts; however, almost 70% (67.4%) say they struggle to come up with gift ideas for their dads
• Google search and in-person browsing are the two main sources of gift inspiration for Father’s Day
• 50% of UK shoppers use AI chatbots for gift ideas either ‘frequently’ or ‘occasionally’, and of those, 51% have bought gifts based on AI suggestions
• 64% of UK shoppers leave it until the week before to buy their Father’s Day gifts, up from 53.8% in 2023
• Two-thirds of shoppers in the UK expect to spend between £10 and £50 on Father’s Day gifts in 2026, the most common answer being £10-£30 (34%)
• 67% of Father’s Day gift shoppers consider themselves to be sentimental, yet 66% say they would choose a practical gift for their dad over an emotive one
• Almost a third of UK shoppers cannot remember what they gave their dad for Father’s Day last year
• 67.2% of dads say they would prefer a personalised Father’s Day gift over a non-personalised one

Highlights of our survey findings include:

Gift ideas and shopping inspiration

• Do you enjoy shopping for Father’s Day gifts?
• Do you struggle to come up with gift ideas for Father’s Day?
• Where do you usually look for inspiration when shopping for Father’s Day gifts?
• Have you ever used ChatGPT to come up with gift ideas?

Father’s Day shopping and spending habits

• How far in advance do you usually buy Father’s Day gifts?
• How much do you spend on Father’s Day gifts?
• What kinds of Father’s Day gifts do you usually buy?

Thoughtful gifting

• Would you call yourself a sentimental person?
• Would you prefer to give a practical or emotive gift?
• Would you prefer to give a personalised or non-personalised gift?
• What makes a gift special to you?
• How memorable were last year’s Father’s Day gifts?

We also found out how shoppers feel about...

• Buying UK-made products
• Shopping with small businesses
• Buying sustainably/ethically made products
• Buying handmade goods

Do you enjoy shopping for Father’s Day gifts?

We kicked things off by asking our respondents whether they enjoy shopping for Father’s Day gifts, and 81.5% said that they do. This feeling was shared equally by both male and female respondents, with 81% of males and 81.8% of females enjoying the hunt for Father’s Day gifts.

Despite this, it’s clear from our next question that finding the right presents for our dads doesn’t always come easily…

Do you struggle to come up with gift ideas for Father’s Day?

Over two-thirds of respondents (67.3%) said they struggle to come up with gift ideas for Father’s Day.

This is down from 78.2% in our 2023 Father’s Day survey, indicating an increase in inspired shoppers over the last three years. However, a large majority still feel the struggle.

The struggle was slightly more apparent among female respondents, with 70% saying they find Father’s Day gift ideas hard. But the male respondents were also lacking inspiration (64.6%), showing that the old cliche of men being “hard to buy for” still holds true, regardless of the shopper’s gender.

Next, we ask where shoppers go to get inspired.

Where do you usually look for inspiration when shopping for Father’s Day gifts?

Online search engines continue to be the number one source of gift ideas for Father’s Day, with 67.6% of respondents saying their gift hunt starts with a Google search. Browsing in person was an extremely close second at 67.1%*, and the third most common source of gift inspiration was social media, which has increased in popularity from 28.8% in 2023 to 49.9% in 2026.

For the first time, we listed AI chatbots as an option given their increased popularity in recent years, and found that 24.3% of our respondents use them for Father’s Day gift ideas. We explore this trend further in our next section.

*respondents could select multiple options

Have you ever used ChatGPT to come up with gift ideas?

We asked respondents whether they had ever used ChatGPT or a similar AI assistant to come up with gift ideas (not necessarily for Father’s Day), and found an almost 50/50 split.

18.1% said they “frequently” used AI for gift ideas, and 32.4% said they had used it “occasionally”. 36.1% answered “no, but I would be open to trying it”, and just 13.5% said, “no, I am not interested in using it”. This suggests that just over 50% of UK gift shoppers have already used AI for gift inspiration, and with another 36% open to the idea, this figure could rise to over 80% in the near future.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, AI use for gift ideas appears to be more popular among younger users – typically early adopters of new technologies. 60.3% of the 18-24s we surveyed said they had already used it (either “frequently” or “occasionally”), rising to 66.7% among 25-34 year olds. Usage then declined with age: 50.2% of 35-44s used AI for gift inspiration, 36.4% of 45-54s, and 25% of those 55 and over. 

Our older age group also had the largest share of those who were “not interested” in using AI for gift ideas. 22.1% of the over-54s said they were not interested, compared to just 8.96% of 25-34s, the age group most in favour of chatbots.

There was also a slight difference in usage by gender: 55.8% of male respondents said they had already used AI for gift ideas, compared with 45.1% of female respondents.

If yes, have you ever purchased gifts based on AI recommendations?

Of those who had used AI to find gift ideas, 51.5% said they bought gifts the AI recommended.

43.4% said the chatbot gave them useful suggestions, but they ended up choosing something else, while just 5.2% said they did not find the gift suggestions helpful, highlighting an overwhelming majority of helpful product recommendations from ChatGPT and the like.

Again, the 25-34s appeared the most in favour of all groups, with 62.9% saying they had bought gifts based on AI suggestions. Similarly, males (of all ages) were more likely to purchase AI-recommended products, with 58.1% reporting that they had.

How far in advance do you usually buy Father’s Day gifts?

The majority of UK gift shoppers wait until the week before Father’s Day to start looking for their dad’s gift.

Our 2026 survey found that while 30% of shoppers said they purchase their gifts a month in advance, most are more last-minute customers. 64.5% of shoppers wait until the week before Father’s Day, and 5.1% say they purchase their gifts just a day ahead.

And it seems that shoppers have become even more last-minute in recent years. In our 2023 survey, 41.4% of Father’s Day shoppers were getting organised a month ahead, 53.8% were shopping a week ahead, and 3.5% were leaving it until the day before, showing a clear shift towards later shopping in 2026.

How much do you spend on Father’s Day gifts?

Two-thirds of shoppers expect to spend between £10-£50 on Father’s Day gifts this year: 34.1% in the £10-£30 bracket and 32.3% in the £30-£50 bracket.

12.5% think they will spend £50-£75, 10.5% said £75-£100, 4.5% said £100-£250, and 2.1% expect to spend over £250. At the other end of the scale, 4.1% of respondents expect to spend under £10.

There have been some shifts in spend brackets since 2023, which is to be expected with rising costs, most notably in the £10-£30 bracket, which fell 10.3% (down from 44.4% in 2023). The £30-£50 bracket remained stable, while shoppers in the £50-£100 bracket rose 8.8%, from 14.2% in 2023 to a combined 23% in 2026.

What kinds of Father’s Day gifts do you usually buy for your dad?

The most common gifts bought for Father’s Day were food and drink (chosen by 54.2% of respondents), personalised gifts (45.7%) and clothing (45.6%). The least chosen categories were tech accessories (18.5%) and experience gifts (19%). Respondents could select more than one option.

We also asked the respondents who were dads themselves (30% of the whole survey group) which gifts they would most like to receive, to see how the gifts chosen by shoppers compare to what dads actually want.

There were some variations in the proportion of respondents choosing different options across the board (illustrated in the diagram below); however, when ranking the categories, tech accessories showed the largest difference in opinion. In the main survey, tech accessories were the least chosen of all nine groups (18.5%), while in the dads group, they were the fourth most popular (31.3%), so perhaps it's time to rethink traditional gift ideas.

When shopping for Father’s Day, would you prefer to give your dad a gift that’s practical or emotive?

65.7% of shoppers say they would prefer to give their dad a practical gift rather than an emotive one. We described ‘practical’ gifts to be things like tools or kitchen equipment – something useful – and emotive gifts being things such as memory books and framed photos, something sentimental. This follows a similar trend to 2023, when 64.1% of shoppers said they would prefer to give a practical option.

We also asked the dads in the group which they preferred, and the results were almost identical, with 66% preferring practical and 34% preferring emotive. This also correlates with the previous question on gift types, where dads preferred practical items such as clothes, food and tech.

When shopping for Father's Day, would you prefer to give your dad a gift that's personalised or non-personalised?

We then asked whether shoppers would prefer to give Father’s Day gifts that were personalised or non-personalised, and the majority (64.5%) said personalised. The dads' group followed a similar pattern, though slightly more opted for personalised gifts. 67.3% said personalised, and 32.7% said non-personalised.

Based on the two previous sets of responses, the very best Father’s Day gifts are useful, practical items with personalised elements, which sounds a lot like the personalised gifts for dads we make at Create Gift Love.

Would you call yourself a sentimental person?

67% of Father’s Day gift shoppers described themselves as sentimental.

Our survey found that gender had some impact on sentimentality: 75.7% of our female respondents considered themselves sentimental, compared with 58.4% of male respondents. There was also a pattern across age groups: as age increased, the percentage of sentimental respondents declined. The 18-24s were the most sentimental group, with 79.4% describing themselves as such. Interestingly, we noticed a similar pattern in our Valentine’s Day gift shopping survey (January 2026), where younger age groups were more likely to consider themselves ‘romantic’, with this likelihood declining with age.

Sentimentality had some impact on shopping habits and attitudes towards Father’s Day. 84.4% of the ‘sentimental’ shoppers said they enjoyed shopping for Father’s Day, compared to 75.4% of non-sentimental shoppers, and 69.6% said they struggled to come up with gift ideas, compared to 62.7% of the non-sentimental group. 

Both groups were still most likely to choose a practical gift over an emotive one. However, these were favoured more by the non-sentimental group (61.4% of sentimental shoppers opt for practical gifts vs 74.6% of non-sentimental shoppers). However, when it comes to personalisation, sentimental shoppers were much more likely to buy a personalised Father’s Day gift. 71.8% of sentimental shoppers said they would choose a personalised option. In contrast, just 49.7% of non-sentimental shoppers would do the same, the only question where the majority went against the overall survey group.

What makes a gift special to you?

We told all respondents to think about some of the most thoughtful gifts they’ve ever received, and asked them to describe what it is that makes those gifts special. 

While the actual gifts mentioned by our respondents varied, some clear themes emerged 

Thought and effort

The overarching theme from the majority of responses was thoughtfulness and effort. Gifts are made special by the thought that goes into choosing them, while the idea of our loved ones putting effort into finding gifts they know we will love makes people feel seen and understood. Several respondents said that their most special gifts came from when a loved one remembered something they had mentioned long ago.

One respondent described:

“The feeling that someone has thought about me and understands who I am and what I enjoy”

Emotional connection

Another common answer was gifts with some kind of emotional or sentimental connection: this could be the way they were made, where they were from or what they reminded people of.

Many respondents mentioned that gifts felt special when they were personalised, homemade, or nostalgic, with elements like photographs, handwriting, and keepsakes reminding people of favourite memories.

“One of the most thoughtful gifts I ever received was a scrapbook a friend made for my birthday. It wasn’t about the cost, it was the fact that they had saved movie tickets, photos, and inside jokes from over five years of friendship. It’s special because it shows she was paying attention to our shared history and took the time to preserve those memories.”

Hobbies and interests

Many answers referred to hobby or interest-related gifts. Respondents said that these kinds of presents make them feel special because they show the gift-giver really thought about what they might like and took the time to research gift ideas in their area of interest.

One respondent said their most thoughtful gift was:

“A vinyl record that I was searching for for a long time - I love music, and it means a lot to me, so to have someone take their time to find something that would’ve taken a while to find is very important to me”

How memorable were last year’s Father’s Day gifts?

We wanted to find out how much of a lasting impact Father’s Day gifts make on the giver and recipient, so we asked our respondents whether they could remember what they had given their dads on Father’s Day last year (at the time of the survey, Father’s Day 2025 was 10 months ago).

67.3% of shoppers said they could remember, with named gifts including whiskey, aftershave and pyjamas, while 32.7%, almost a third, could not.

Our survey found that male respondents were more likely to remember the gifts they purchased, with 71.4% answering yes, compared to 63.3% of female respondents. We also found that respondents who considered themselves sentimental were slightly more likely to remember last year’s gifts than the general population (69% vs 67.3%).

We then asked the dads in the group if they could remember what they had been given last Father’s Day, and the results were very similar. 68% of dads could recall what they received last year.

How important are the following…

Finally, we asked respondents about several product attributes often associated with gift shopping to determine how important they were perceived to be. Respondents were asked how far they agreed with the following statements: “buying UK-made products is important to me”, “shopping with small businesses is important to me”, “buying sustainably/ethically-made products is important to me” and “buying handmade goods is important to me”. They could answer either strongly disagree, disagree, somewhat disagree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat agree, agree or strongly agree.

The statement that garnered the most positive response was about shopping with small businesses, where a total of 75.3% of respondents answered either somewhat agree, agree or strongly agree. However, responses to all four statements were majority in agreement. 70.3% agreed that buying sustainable products was important, 69.5% agreed that UK-made products were important, and 65.6% said that handmade goods were important.

The statement on handmade goods received the highest level of disagreement of all four. However, this still accounted for only 11.49% of respondents: 7.1% said they somewhat disagree, 2.9% disagree, and 1.5% strongly disagree.