Gifts for German friends/host?

Hi!

Maybe St Louis Cardinals or KC Royals shirts? Can you buy sweatshirts from the high school the exchange student went to?

Is the family into biking? Maybe bike jerseys from local biking shop?

Are they into soccer? Maybe USA jerseys? I know when we went to Germany my kids both bought Munich Bayern jerseys and my husband has a German National team jersey.

My parents just visited some of our German relatives and they bought some good Kentucky bourbon - but these relatives always bring out the schnapps when we visit so they knew that alcohol would be an appropriate gift.

Maybe a bottle of wine from a Missouri winery?

Good luck and happy travels!

Hi Dianna,

We are in our 40s but our kids are much younger (3 and 6). I can only speak for our family of course. Personally I get to travel to the States once every year or at least once every other year. In terms of clothes I can tell you that we can buy pretty much the same over here. Sneakers and Jeans come in larger variety and at lower prices in the US than in Germany - but I doubt you'd find anything suitable without their exact sizes and knowing their exact taste.

We are Germans. We don't understand American football but we're crazy about real football (which you call soccer). Your national coach, Jürgen Klinsmann, is German and something like a hero over here. Anything associated with http://www.ussoccer.com/ would catch our interst (ok, mine). E. g. I'd proudly drink my office coffee from a US Soccer mug.

Our kids know Jelly Beans (the original ones) but they are very rare and very expensive over here. And we can only buy the standard packs and flavors. Generally speaking if there is a candy that you and your family really love (apart from standard Oreos as we can get them here as well) I'd find it considerate if you brought our daughters some.

Also I think we would be interested in anything that could show us the real Midwest or even the real US. Please keep in mind all we're seeing on TV about the US these days are shootings, discussions about racism and lots of questionable actions taken by US government institutions (kllings of innocents by US drones, torturing of prisoners and so on). It's not bad propaganda by our TV stations, it's just that bad news sell better than good news. So I would love for my family to hear, see, get a feeling about the real USA. You cannot possible all be running around with your guns shooting at each other all the time...

I think Andreas has said it all. I certainly don't think a German teen-ager is likely to be thrilled with a sports jersey of a team he has never heard of for a sport he doesn't play. I would suggest that you contact your former exchange student and ask for ideas for the boys. The 18 year- old girl is easier ......earrings? a bracelet? an American brand of moisturizer?

Did your exchange student have any favorite treats that you introducted them to? Or a momento of anything special you did while they were here? Perhaps you could a photo book or photo collage together if you took any pictures of your student while they were here. Or a recipe book of any favorite food you made for your student. If it were me, I know I (and my parents) would appreciate those things.

For the boys I would think a mix of candy would be fun. I know Reese PB cups are sometimes hard to get over there, so perhaps there are others that you could put together.

When we went we took our relatives some Cheryl's cookies (a Columbus OH thing) and a Tony Packo's T-shirt (a Toledo thing). Is there anything unique to where you are from? KC BBQ sauce for example? A model of the St Louis Arch? A book on westward expansion with Missouri being the starting place? Tchotchkes from famous Missouri sites would be fun too.

I love this answer from Andreas. It's interesting and enlightening even if one is NOT looking for gifts to take to a host family in his country! thanks for your generosity in answering so fully!

When we went to visit the cousins in Germany, we brought the teenager Jelly Belly and Hollister Tshirts because she loves them and they're expensive over there.

For the dad, he collects Starbucks mugs, so we got him one from Orange County. And he likes hot sauce, which isn't that available in Germany, so we went to Cost Plus and picked up some habaneros, etc. They also like "American" food, so we got Schillings chili packets, and other "American" food mixes.

Any gift is a nice gesture. I remember one RS post said to bring a calendar, magnet or even place mats which you can get at a Cracker Barrel which is very "Americana".

As a former exchange student, and having also visited an exchange student who was going to spend a year with us, my gits was a picture book of my home state. This is a place their son spent a year of his life, so letting them see it is usually appreciated.

My family is doing the exact same thing and are having the same problem. Our student's parents came here last year and brought us a nice kitchen knife. This was a great idea because we cook a lot and Germany is well known for high quality steel, especially in knives. We can't come up with anything remotely as "good". One problem is we're from Texas, but what we're known for / produce doesn't make great gifts (computer components, cotton, oil, cattle).

When they were here, they traveled to several national parks, so we've tried to go with that "theme" and have a smallish national parks coffee table book, and a coin book with the first few years of the national park quarters. We were hoping this would be appreciated because I figure national park quarters would be hard to come by in Germany, and we took the time to find them in circulation.

Those sound like lovely gifts. Photos of the scenery in the US are always a good choice, whether as a calendar or a coffee table book.