Gifts for teens...
 

I'm going to visit relatives and want to take some gifts/souvenirs. What would the typical German teen want from America? (Keep in mind that I'm a relative and that I'm spending < $25 per head.)

Thanks.

My cousins in Germany always liked getting American food. Teddy Grahams, marshmallows, and chocolate chip cookies were particularly popular.

Clothing with logos on they can't buy there - colleges, your company, US airlines, FT, etc. T-shirts, sweat shirts.

Long scarves (girls).

Peanut butter. (Kraft's Macaroni and Cheese isn't sold in Brazil and a young friend there got addicted to it while living in the US. She was ecstatic over our gift of 6 boxes of it.)

Cool gel pens and other writing supplies.

Maybe shop at a college book store. Anything that treats them as a little older than they are.

Romelle

Abercrombie&Fitch, or something from a Polo outlet, New Era basecaps, something with the logo of a college or pro sports team on it. Definitely not a Flyertalk T-Shirt.

I second the suggestion with special food items (e.g. Hershey products) and the special clothing.
It really depends on age of the kids.
The older, the more clothing gets interesting.

For the adult relatives:
Always a nice gift from USA is a large box of Asperin, as it is extremly expensive here in Germany compared to your standard.

I just took a young teen-aged granddaughter shopping at Ulta. They really market to that age group as well as other ages of women.

i had a coupon for $3.50 if I spent at least $10. I told my granddaughter her budget was the $10 mark or just enough over to come out even so I got the $3.50 discount.

She agonized over different hair ornaments and bands. Finally ended up in the body lotion and shower gel area. They have many teen-friendly scents like tangarine and vanilla and brown sugar and coconut and lemon. She finally ended up with a couple of shower gels and a couple of body lotions, one pair vanilla scented and I think the other a brown-sugar. But she really liked lots of the others.

http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/prod....+Bath+Coffret

is a nice looking gift-pack I think would be a major hit with a girl teen.

This was a runner-up with my granddaugher (I think the tangarine scent):

http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/prod...dy+Swirl+Cream

The store seems expensive, but has lots of coupons and specials so one can usually find a good value with a little research.

Romelle

IME with friends and family from Germany (people who don't even know each other), Chips Ahoy cookies, Crocs, and stuff from The Gap are always requested.
But for teens, it may be helpful to know their ages and to which "group" they belong... girls who only wear pink, boys with oversized jeans, emos (Tokio Hotel fans), etc.

Several things come to my mind but the very first and best (if a little over your budget) would be Original Levi's 501 Shrink-to-fit Jeans. These things are almost impossible to obtain in Germany. They cost around $40 in the USA but even the standard 501 cost around $120 in Germany. Plus, the shrink-to-fit model is very hard to find. So your prestige with that kind of gift would be sky high. It is also a quintessential American cult item. Most Germans have seen the advertisement where the guy sits down in a bathtub with his jeans. I actually did that, and it was great fun. Now, in the summer, it will actually be warm enough that you can let them dry on your body without getting a cold. The advantage of the shrink-to-fit process is that you have some tolerance in terms of sizing and that they do adapt to the body shape.

The second thing is peanut butter. I like Jif the best. You can get all natural peanut butter in Germany that is similar to the all natural stuff you get here. But the standard industrial stuff is hard to find.

Jelly Beans are cool, too. I wouldn't go for Hershey's, though. No offense, but even German standard chocolate is objectively much better than Hershey's, let alone Swiss chocolate which Germans are used to. So the Hershey's won't win you a prize.

Otherwise, for clothing, Harvard T-shirts are super desirable. Also think about baseball caps with the letter of their first name. It doesn't matter what team it is. They won't know it anyway but it will be cool to have a Cubs cap with a C for a girl named Carola, for example. Fitted caps are almost impossible to get in Germany but I realize that the sizing is a bit difficult there. A&F and Polo are also good choices.

Aspirin for the adults is a nice idea. It is not a charming gift so it shouldn't be the only gift, unless they were once joking that you give them a headache. ;)

In terms of food, beef jerky or even alligator jerky would be really crazy for Germans to experience. If you want to scare them, bring a can of spam. Or micro-waveable pop-corn.

Till

I am going to vote for the logo t-shirts of your local college/pro sports teams, although they seem perfectly content wearing cheap bogus nonsensical stuff from C&A over there, not sure how many truly appreciate the genuine article.

I can't recommend taking Germans peanut butter (hardly anyone likes it) or American chocolates (like taking sand to the beach). However, the suggestion for aspirin is a good one...maybe find out if they prefer ibuprofin or paracetamol (the European name for the ingredient in Tylenol). I once gave my dear friend a 500 count bottle and she was over the moon!

Agree for the chocolate and meds (see my post above) but disagree for peanut butter. Nutella and jam are more popular, no doubt, but I don't have a single friend who really dislikes peanut butter. Plus, the stuff we get in Germany is really not great. Unless you find the Dutch 'Calve' brand. That one is really good.

The local college might be an easy and personal option. However, the only really well-known university is Harvard. Depending on your education level other Ivies might be known. But the Harvard symbol is also rather appealing.

Till

More than once, I've struck up a conversation with a woman returning to Europe who had a large shopping bag filled with a serious run on US toiletries. Of course nowdays it couldn't be carry-on, but could be checked through.

You'd need a list from the recipients of course, but all sorts of things could be possibilities - hair gels and waxes, deodorants, Q-tips, toothpaste, etc.

My experience while traveling has been the same as the other posters here. The stuff is MUCH more expensive in Europe.

I did find Crocs in Budapest for 8 Euro. Maybe you can use that number to see if you can do better here on those.

Romelle

Well I lived over there for many years and don't have a single friend who really likes peanut butter, so there you go. ;)

I would also say that the people I know tend to appreciate the "personal" touch in learning something about where foreign friends come from. Considering how many t-shirts one sees from fictional American college/pro sports clubs, I am all for educating the German public about the real deal!

Thanks for all the suggestions. Some were very surprising.

I'm leaning toward the college t-shirts. It looks like my local Div III university is out...but Villanova and UPenn are pretty close so they look like winners (even if they don't know who Villanova and UPenn are).

I'll probably throw some American junk food in there, too (now remembering that one went nuts for Oreo cookies when she came to visit).

Living on the space coast we see many German Tourist that love anything to do with NASA. Hair styling products from the US are big with teens. Bath and Body works. The Atlanta airport always has the greatest deal on the travel sizes. American Reef or Roxy flip flops. Life is good stuff! Harley Davidson is a huge item that German men love. Affliction shirts, Ed Hardy, etc.

Well, these might not really be for teenagers but I also thought that Melatonin and Gas-x pills are hard to find or only prescription there. ;)

Clay, my experience are just as anecdotal as yours. Moral of story, none of Clay's friends like peanut butter but none of Till's friends have anything against it. :)

Till