They've got the scarf. They've got four mugs. Before you add a fifth, work out which Arsenal they mean when they say Arsenal. Someone who still calls it Highbury and does the Michael Thomas commentary at weddings wants a different present from a kid who thinks the club started with Saka.
As a rough rule, the older they are, the more of this list should be about Highbury.
For the one who wants to be there
The Emirates stadium tour takes you through the dressing room and down the tunnel, you get a sit in the dugout, and it ends in the Arsenal Museum. If they live miles from London and have only ever seen the ground on telly, it's a good day out. The club also runs tours led by former players.
If it's a game they want, single tickets for a big league game mostly go to season ticket holders and members, so a membership is the bit that actually gets them through the door. It won't guarantee anything. It does give them a shot all season.
An Arsenal Women match nearly made the top spot on this whole list. The women play all their WSL home games at the Emirates this season and tickets are far easier to come by than for the men. They're also European champions. In May 2025 they beat Barcelona 1-0 in the Champions League final in Lisbon, and it was Stina Blackstenius who scored. Most people buying a gift for an Arsenal fan never think of it, which is half the reason it works. I'd rather go to one of these than queue all season for a men's ticket that never comes.
For the older fan, a walk round Highbury is free. The old art deco East Stand front is still there, now part of the flats built on the site after Arsenal left in 2006. Pair it with the tour and you've got a day in N5.
For the one who reads
Start with Fever Pitch. Nick Hornby, 1992, and it's as much about him as about the club, which is why people who don't like football end up reading it too. If they've only seen the Colin Firth film, give them the book.
If they still bring up 49 games every time someone mentions Liverpool's unbeaten run, Amy Lawrence's Invincible is their book. She covered Arsenal for years and talked to the players for it, and it goes through 2003-04 from the inside.
Stillness and Speed is Dennis Bergkamp with David Winner, and it reads more like a long conversation about how he saw the game. Yes, the Newcastle goal is in there.
Then there's Tony Adams's Addicted, which he wrote in 1998 while he was still playing and still captain, and in which he talks openly about his drinking. That's a very different read from Wenger's My Life in Red and White, which came out in 2020. If they remember George Graham's back four, I'd go Adams.
To wear and to hang up
Retro shirts only work if you get the era right. For the late 80s lot it's the JVC home shirt. For the Henry generation it's the redcurrant one from 2005-06, the last season at Highbury. And then there's the yellow and navy away kit from 1991 to 1993, the bruised banana, which anyone who was a kid back then will remember on the back of Ian Wright, all elbows and celebrations, banging them in from everywhere in those first couple of seasons after he came from Palace, and which they probably begged their mum for and never got. Yes, that shirt. If you're buying anything signed to go with it, only buy with a certificate from a seller you can trace.
The best thing here, though, is a programme from their first game. It costs very little and I've never seen anyone not go quiet when they open one. Get the date from a parent or an old mate without giving the game away. Second-hand programmes turn up for most seasons, and Highbury ones are easy to find. The Women's match came close, but a ticket is one afternoon and a programme sits on a shelf for thirty years. Write the date inside the cover.
Then there's a framed XI, and the obvious one is the Invincibles, the side Wenger used through most of 2003-04 in a 4-4-2:
Lehmann; Lauren, Campbell, Touré, Cole; Ljungberg, Vieira, Gilberto Silva, Pires; Bergkamp, Henry.
Every one of those eleven was at the club for at least four years, and Vieira was captain. Edu played a big part that season and some will want him in for Gilberto. I wouldn't, but I'd hear the case. The other row you'll have is over Lehmann. In an all-time frame most Gooners would put Seaman in goal without thinking. For this side, though, Lehmann played every league game, so he stays.
Put that eleven up against the Spurs side from the same season and I'm not sure one of theirs gets in. Go on, try to name one.
Quick answers
What's a good Arsenal gift under £50? Any of the books, a second-hand programme, or tickets to a Women's game.
Last minute for Christmas? Book the stadium tour online and put the confirmation in a card.
If you want their team on the wall
The Invincibles come ready-made as a framed Invincibles print, and there are more classic sides from £69 in our Arsenal prints. Or use the YourXI builder to do something only they'd want, like Graham's back four with Seaman behind them, the Anfield 89 side with Thomas in it, or their own Sunday league team in red and white with a message from you on the bottom. It's £149 for 12x16 in or £199 for 18x24 in, black or white frame, free UK delivery. We email you a proof before anything is printed, so leave a bit of time before Christmas or a birthday.