ISTJ: A practical gift like a tool set or a detail oriented fun project like a difficult puzzle or a model building kit. The more millennial version of these options may be a home brewing kit for a beer loving ISTJ, or the famous make-up artist Kevyn Aucoin's in-depth make-up tutorial book, Making Faces, and a quality brush set.
ISTP: ISTPs are crafts people–they likely already have a known hobby like scrapbooking or building computers. If you can given them something around their hobby–go for it. If you don't known what they're interested in, their desire to learn how things are put together make The Mythbusters Game a great fit. They'll also love a guide to something they already own, like their motorcycle or a guide to photo editing.
ESTP: Something that will make them feel confident in social situations like a nice watch, cufflinks, or piece of jewelry. A powerful person's biography. A set of nice wine glasses or champagne flutes for their home.
ESTJ: A gift card or anything with a gift receipt. They already know what they want and your best attempts to give it aren't going to ever match up to their extremely particular expectations. No offense, they like it better that way. If you want to go out on a limb, get them something useful for their ambitions, like an iPhone 5, an expensive pen, or an eReader for business trips.
ISFJ: What to give them: A classy gift that will last forever, or something that can help this person help others. A gift like Carla Hall's Cooking With Love, will bring your friend pleasure in mastering a new skill, and also in providing comfort (food) to others. A couples massage is a fantastic idea for an ISFJ partner, because they'll value knowing you're sharing the experience with them.
ISFP: An acoustic guitar, a certificate for a pottery making class, or some other guide that allows them to explore their creativity.
ESFP: A ping pong table. Croquet lessons. Polo lessons. Racquetball lessons. They already know the other sports, but when in doubt, throw 'em a ball.
ESFJ: An apron. For a lady, something vintage or vintage-inspired (hint: if you want her to like you, buy it at Anthropologie). For a man, it should be humorous, like a full-frontal depiction of the Statue of David or some kind of snarky slogan like "Keep Your Hands Off My Buns!"
INFJ: What to give them: Something meaningful and smart, like a leather bound copy of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, a subscription to The New Yorker, or an autobiography of someone they admire, like Hillary Clinton.
INFP: Gift idea: Something that relates to their very specific, quirky interests. If you aren't sure what it is, buy them the latest piece of technology and let them find a way to meld it into their unique interests (unlike their counterpart the ENFP, they value a iPad as an instrument through which to express their intuition just as much as a dream catcher.) Any gift that feels personal to their interest, or even one that doesn't but includes a personal note, will make them feel special.
ENFP: The novel, Enlightenment for Idiots. Something related to their ideology du jour, bonus points if it has a heightened sense of mystery, intrigue, or adventure. A travel book to India, a copy of The Screwtape Letters, a set of tarot cards, a handmade journal with lock and key
ENFJ: Anything customized. From a piece of jewelry to a specialty tea blend, if you can prove you actually memorized what their personal preferences were while all they were trying to do was meet your needs, they'll be endlessly grateful. Try going to a food coop and pick up a few essential oils you select especially for their needs.
INTJ: Since they already know everything there is to know about everything, find something that synthesizes one everything times another. A book on the philosophical underpinnings of important 90s-era rap lyrics or The Rosetta Stone discs for an eastern European language they started to learn while overhearing their seatmates' conversation on an 8-hour flight back from Morrocco. Whatever you decide on, it's best to flatter an INTJ with an intelligent or somewhat esoteric gift that compliments their intellectual ability and taste.
INTP: Rubik's Cube, conspiracy theory book, or when in doubt, any of those complex brain-teasing puzzles from Sharper Image.
ENTP: Anything that makes them seem in-the-know ahead of time. Concert tickets to an obscure music festival. The first batch of beer brewed from a local, sustainable strain of blueberries. A cookbook for a type of western Nepalese cuisine which involves ingredients you have to buy on Amazon. Classes for a type of yoga so bizarre it's like having sex with yourself. Whitewater rafting. Turtlenecks. The point here is that you have to present it as "some crazy thing you read about in the New York Times" and let them think they invented it.
ENTJ: An axe. Seriously. Give them a real power tool or a decorative reminder of the power they exude from their strong personality.
