A gift for someone who has everything: give a place, not another thing

People who have everything rarely have their place on the wall. The things are already there, but not the mountain they first climbed, the lake they grew up by or the valley where the two of you met. You cannot buy a place off a shelf, which is exactly why it works as a gift.

This is a guide to finding the right place, not the right object. It only works if you know the person you are giving to. That is the whole point.

Why a place works when things do not

A new thing competes with the old one. Someone who already owns good gloves, a good coffee machine and a good knife also has firm views on which ones are best, and they are rarely yours.

A place competes with nothing. Nobody has two home towns or two first summits. And nobody needs telling why that particular place matters, because they already know. The gift says that you know too.

Five ways to find the right place

1. Where they come from. The mountain outside the kitchen window growing up, the lake by the summer house, the island the family always went back to. For a 50th or 60th birthday it is often the strongest choice, because it reaches further back than anything else.
2. Where you met. For a wedding or an anniversary. Be honest about the place: if it was in a city, take in the landscape around it - the lake, the ridge, the nearest mountain. A relief shows the shape of the ground, not the streets.
3. The first summit or the big trip. Kebnekaise, a stage of the Kungsleden trail, a hike someone still talks about. More on choosing the right mountain in our guide to gifts for hikers.
4. The trip that happens every year. The same ski resort every winter, the same valley every half-term. Rarely the grandest place, almost always the one that matters most. See gifts for skiers who have everything.
5. The cabin. If they have just bought a place in the mountains or by a lake, the choice has been made for you. How to approach it is in our piece on housewarming gifts for a cabin.

When a place does not work in relief

This is worth knowing before you decide. A relief lives on height differences. If the place is a city centre or flat farmland, the piece comes out almost smooth, however lovely the place is in real life. A printed map is often the better gift then, and we would rather say so now than afterwards.

Mountains, valleys, fjords and islands with steep coasts work. What decides it, and how to shift the square so a flat place picks up something with shape, is covered in which places work as 3D topography.

How to turn your own place into a piece

If the place is among our ready-made 3D topographic maps, it is simple. If not, you draw the square yourself in FRMD by You:

• Mark exactly the area you want on the map. You get the terrain, not buildings.
• Choose 25 x 25 or 50 x 50 centimetres, and an oak or black frame.
• If you have wishes, such as where the summit should sit in the square, write them in the notes field.
• Within 24 hours of your order we send a 3D model showing roughly how the piece will look, before it is made.

Allow for the time

Every piece is made to order. Allow 1-2 weeks before it ships, then the delivery itself, which takes longer to the rest of the EU, Norway and the UK than within Sweden. A custom place also needs time to go through the model together. If the gift has to arrive for a birthday or a wedding, order a month ahead rather than a week.

A gift is no less personal for arriving on time. It is, if it arrives late.