Gifts for People Who Find Normal Things Boring

Some people are easy to buy for. A candle, a bottle of something, a nice scarf — done, wrapped, and forgotten by February. This post is not about those people.

This is about the other ones. The friend who has ranked Henry VIII's wives and will defend that ranking. The sister who describes her interior style as "haunted, but tasteful". The colleague who owns four tarot decks and has never once predicted anything. Buying for people who find normal things boring is a skill, and since being that sort of person is the entire reason this shop exists, consider this our specialist guide.

For the one who's already planning Halloween (it's July)

October is not a month for these people. It's a personality. The Skeleton Hands Coffee Mug gives them a pair of bony hands wrapped around their morning coffee, which is roughly how they feel before it anyway.



The Haunted House Mug is for anyone who's ever looked at the creepiest house on the street and thought "goals", and the Spooky Graveyard Mug captures the specific peace of a moonlit churchyard — quiet neighbours, excellent atmosphere.

If they'd rather wear the aesthetic than drink from it, the Skeleton Hands T-Shirt does the same trick across the chest. The rest of the year-round spooky range lives in the Spooky Mugs collection, because in this corner of the internet it's always Halloween.

For the one with the tarot decks

They don't need to believe in it. They need it to look fantastic on a shelf. Our skeleton tarot mugs take the classic cards and give them considerably better bone structure: The Hermit, wandering off alone as usual; The High Priestess, who knows something you don't and isn't telling; and Justice, holding the scales with admirable composure for someone with no muscles. There's also The Bat, which isn't in any traditional deck, but frankly should have been.

The full spread is in the Tarot Card Mugs collection. No shuffling required.

For the one with strong opinions about the Tudors

You know who they are. You mentioned Anne Boleyn once and lost forty minutes of your life. The Six Wives Portrait Mug puts all six queens on one mug — two annulled, two beheaded, one died, one survived, all present and correct at the breakfast table. For deeper commitment there's the Anne Boleyn Portrait Cushion — five hundred years after the block, she's on the sofa, which feels like a win — and the Anne Boleyn Hardback Journal for their own scheming.

The whole dynasty is gathered in the Tudor History Mugs collection, and if you want the full backstory before you commit, we wrote the definitive guide to Tudor history gifts already. We're thorough like that.

For the one who says "England existed before 1066, actually"

Fresh from last week's beginner's guide to the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy: gifts for the person whose favourite historical period doesn't get nearly enough merchandise. The Kingdom of Wessex Mug honours the kingdom that refused to lose, and the Alfred King of Saxons Mug celebrates the man who saved England from the Vikings and still gets remembered mostly for burning some cakes. History is not fair.

All seven kingdoms — yes, all seven, we checked — are in the Anglo-Saxon History Mugs collection.

For the one whose taste is fancy, but weird

Toile de Jouy: the elegant 18th-century French pattern, traditionally reserved for pastoral scenes and aristocratic furniture. We put frogs in it. The Frog Toile de Jouy Mug is what happens when nature's most characterful amphibian gets the chateau treatment, and it's joined by an equally refined fox, some very dignified mice, a dachshund with main-character energy and a cat who was going to ignore you anyway.

This is the gift for the person who wants their kitchen to say "I have taste" and "I am not to be trusted" at the same time. The whole menagerie is here.

For the one still living in a previous decade

Nostalgia is a love language. The Nuka Cola Mug and the Pip-Boy Mug are for the gamer who's spent more hours in the Wasteland than in most of their real friendships, while the Respawn in Progress Mug accurately describes anyone before their first coffee. And for a different flavour of retro entirely, the Spitfire Mug — British engineering at its absolute finest, and a guaranteed hit with anyone who's ever pointed at the sky.

For the honest and the tired

Some gifts just tell the truth. The Mentally Somewhere Else Mug is for the daydreamer who's physically in the meeting and spiritually on a moor somewhere. The Resting Witch Face Mug says what her face was already saying. And the Tired Dad Coffee Club T-Shirt is for the man whose personality is now 60% caffeine, 30% school runs and 10% wondering where he left his keys. He knows. He's fine with it.

Normal is overrated

Here's the thing about people who find normal things boring: they remember the good gifts. Not the candle. Not the scarf. The mug with the skeleton reading tarot, the frog in the French pattern, the queen on the cushion. The gift that proves you actually know them.

Haunted Bunny is the curious little corner of the internet where it's always Halloween — and where normal was never really an option. Go on. Get them something strange.