--- title: Father's Day Gift Ideas: The Best Present Ideas Straight from 1963 description: That year's gift ideas "added up to a touching composite picture of the National Daddy," TIME noted canonical: https://time.com/3906042/fathers-day-gift-ideas-1963/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-21T12:00:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:17.237Z article:section: History og:title: Father's Day Gift Ideas: The Best Present Ideas Straight from 1963 og:description: The items from 1963 offer "a touching composite picture of the National Daddy" og:url: https://time.com/3906042/fathers-day-gift-ideas-1963/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt593349eeb04bc38f/698852aca988ca5f7c6b2d2f/dad.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Father feeding daughter sitting in high chair og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Father's Day Gift Ideas: The Best Present Ideas Straight from 1963 twitter:description: The items from 1963 offer "a touching composite picture of the National Daddy" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt593349eeb04bc38f/698852aca988ca5f7c6b2d2f/dad.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Martini Stones, a Time-Locked Cigarette Case and Other Vintage Father's Day Gift Ideas ## Video: The Best TV Dads [Watch (HLS stream): The Best TV Dads](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6dNnDwSX.m3u8) (1:54)  _Published 2014-06-13. The Best TV Dads_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 21, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Father feeding baby, circa 1960s Father feeding baby, circa 1960sH. Armstrong Roberts—Retrofile/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 21, 2015 12:00 PM UTC Father’s Day [dates back to 1910](http://fathersdaybirthplace.com/), just a few years after Mother’s Day came into being, and in 1963 TIME noted that the holiday was also following its precursor on the road to commercialism. But rather than bemoan the materialism, the magazine used it as a window into the state of fatherhood in the United States. “Father‘s Day, which is beginning to edge into equal, if less throat-lumping, status with Mother’s Day, came and passed last week in a blaze of angled advertising,” TIME [noted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1963-06-21/page/68/). “The things the stores picked out for special Father‘s Day promotion (after the usual collection of ties, bathrobes and gold-plated putters) added up to a touching composite picture of the National Daddy.” So what exactly did these gifts tell us? For one thing, dad needed some help: --- > “” --- Other takeaways were that dad had no will power (“a cigarette case with a time lock that will open only at preset intervals”), was young at heart (“an I Am an Executive pencil box”) and needed help making decisions (“a swiveled silver dollar mounted on a paperweight, for mature heads-or-tails judgment”). It’s enough to make you think twice before getting your father some inadvertently meaningful tchotchke. At least there’s always room for another necktie. **_Read the full story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Bringing Up Father](http://time.com/vault/issue/1963-06-21/page/68/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3906042/fathers-day-gift-ideas-1963/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3906042/fathers-day-gift-ideas-1963/"},"headline":"Martini Stones, a Time-Locked Cigarette Case and Other Vintage Father's Day Gift Ideas","datePublished":"2015-06-21T12:00:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:45:17.237Z","description":"TIME thought the items from 1963 offered \"a touching composite picture of the National Daddy\"","url":"https://time.com/3906042/fathers-day-gift-ideas-1963/","keywords":["Family","Living","Holidays","Father's Day"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt593349eeb04bc38f/698852aca988ca5f7c6b2d2f/dad.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt593349eeb04bc38f/698852aca988ca5f7c6b2d2f/dad.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Father feeding daughter sitting in high chair","caption":"Father feeding daughter sitting in high chair","creditText":"H. 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