Musical Wishes: from Men for Women

What gift for women will satisfy them all and won’t bring you to ruin? Best wishes recorded in an attractive format together with your pals!

You may give your beloved woman one of the presents I recommend for Valentine’s Day or anniversary in the Romantic Gifts tab. You may give your grandma (or mother) something from the For Grandparents tab. Yet each of these gifts will only please one lady. And the International Women’s Day is celebrated by 3.5 billion girls. Naturally, you may present each woman you know with a flower or a chocolate, but if you have more than a dozen female friends, you will need to figure out:

where to find money for that and how to deliver all gifts?

Several years ago my friends from college came up with a splendid solution to this problem, which I am going to share with you.

A song for women

It’s 8 March 2007. I’m checking my e-mail box. I have just received a message from a college friend. Its title reads: ‘A Song for the Ladies’. I open the e-mail eagerly.

‘Dear Ladies,
We would like to wish you all the best on the International Women’s Day. We have prepared musical wishes for you, which we hope you will enjoy. Once again, all the best – may you always be as wonderful as you are to us now!
Your Men’

The ‘To:’ field contains e-mail addresses of all the girls from my year. Attached, I find a music file.

‘How cool is that?’ I grin. I play the music, and my grin becomes even broader. My friends have not only picked a song for us and attached it to their wishes. They recorded it! I can easily recognise their voices. The instrumental background has also been provided by one of them. I play the song again. I can see my room-mate looking at me with envy. Why? Apart from a first-rate performance of ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, the recording contains best wishes specially ‘for the girls from the Faculty of Applied Linguistics’.

A music video for women

Three years later, our friends surprised us again. This time their message contained a link to You Tube, where we could find… a music video recorded in a college dormitory. Dressed in suits, the boys not only sang and played instruments, but also added a visual track. They definitely set themselves a very high standard, but they have earned an even greater admiration for their gift. I have no doubts that it was worth the effort. Why?

Main advantages of such a gift for women

One gift for many women

Undeniably, the boys put a lot of work into their gift. Yet their single effort managed to please almost 100 girls, without them spending a penny on it. They also had no problems with gift delivery. With a single click the mail with the file or the link reached all of their female friends.

2.A memorable gift for women

Ask your female friends whether they remember their gifts received on the previous Women’s Day. I find it hard to recall mine. Yet from time to time I still go back to the musical wishes I received 10 years ago. I also haven’t forgotten which boys turned out to be so creative.

3.A pleasurable gift to prepare

I am positive that my friends had great fun preparing their gift. Both in the song and in the music video the used their talents (singing) and skills (piano and violin playing). They also played with the music video convention and edited their clip on their own. Such a project definitely cemented their friendship.

Alternative gifts for women

If your talents involve neither singing nor playing musical instruments, think of what other skills you may apply.

If you are apt at using video editing programs, but you don’t enjoy performing in front of the camera, you may prepare a music video with the photos of all your female friends.
If you are good at developing interesting plots, create a photo comic with your own photos taken for this purpose (and/or the photos of your female friends) [you will find a short guide and a link to a suitable program here: Photo comic as a gift]
If you are more into dancing than singing, prepare a flash mob. It may be recorded and sent to the celebrating women or organised in a central spot (the school hall, a conference room, etc.). When I say dancing, I don’t necessarily mean waltz or ballet (although it could be rather funny), but synchronised steps (you may even flex your muscles synchronously if such idea appeals to both you and your female friends).
If you can draw, you may create a group portrait, which you will then scan and deliver to the recipients by e-mail.

There is still enough time left to the International Women’s Day for you to think of a gift idea. Whether it be for you classmates, college friends or work colleagues, let me know about the results! And if there are any girls reading this post, please share your memories of other creative gifts that you have received on this occasion!

My advice:

– Consider the choice of song well or… compose the lyrics on your own. The song chosen by my friends for the music video was ‘Too Marvellous For Words’ by Frank Sinatra. On the one hand, it was well suited to their vocal skills, and on the other, it had lyrics that fitted our course of studies perfectly. Since I hadn’t known it before, I was positive that they had written it specially for us 😉

– It is best to prepare these types of gifts with others. They may be time-consuming, so it is more enjoyable to work on them in a group. It is also easier to goof around in front of the camera with your buddies than on your own. If you can, encourage others to join in the fun!

– And if you are the only man around, you may try the trick of a certain physician. This doctor was the only male working in a clinic, so in order to spare himself the trouble on the Women’s Day, on the 8^th of March, he would put on a skirt under his white coat, and only enter the social room in a blond wig to celebrate with the other women J. I think that the female doctors appreciated his masquerade and enjoyed it as a highly original gift.

– Before you begin to edit your music video in Windows Movie Maker, read my advice in the post ‘How to Create a Music Video of a Party and Avoid Common Pitfalls’. Correct course of actions may save you a lot of time and spare your nerves!