{"id":1125,"date":"2026-06-10T12:16:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T17:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/?p=1125"},"modified":"2026-06-10T12:16:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T17:16:52","slug":"fathers-day-the-origin-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/fathers-day-the-origin-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Father&#8217;s Day: The Origin Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ChatGPT-Image-Jun-10-2026-12_03_44-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ChatGPT-Image-Jun-10-2026-12_03_44-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1126\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Father\u2019s Day is coming, which means families everywhere are preparing to ask the most difficult seasonal question known to humankind:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What do you get for the guy who claims he doesn\u2019t want anything?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is not helpful, Dad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, \u201cnothing\u201d rarely means nothing. It usually means he doesn\u2019t want anyone making a huge fuss, spending too much money, or buying him another gadget that requires an app, a firmware update, and three hours of emotional patience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So before we get to the part where you panic-buy something vaguely grill-adjacent, let\u2019s talk about how Father\u2019s Day became a thing in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>A Daughter Had the Idea<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The story of Father\u2019s Day traces back to <a href=\"https:\/\/spokanehistorical.org\/items\/show\/948\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sonora Smart Dodd<\/a> of Spokane, Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After hearing a Mother\u2019s Day sermon in 1909, she wondered why fathers didn\u2019t have a day of their own. Her father, William Jackson Smart, was a Civil War veteran and widower who raised six children, which is impressive under any circumstances and especially impressive before the invention of grocery delivery, group texts, and noise-canceling headphones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dodd believed fathers deserved recognition too, so she started pushing for a dedicated holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first Father\u2019s Day celebration took place in Spokane in 1910. It was local, heartfelt, and probably involved fewer novelty aprons than we have today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>The Holiday Took Its Sweet Time<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Father\u2019s Day didn\u2019t become official overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mother\u2019s Day was recognized nationally in 1914, but Father\u2019s Day spent decades trying to convince the country that dads were also worth putting on the calendar. There were proclamations, campaigns, supporters, skeptics, and probably at least one person arguing that dads already had enough attention because they controlled the thermostat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eventually, the holiday gained momentum. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a proclamation recognizing the third Sunday in June as Father\u2019s Day. In 1972, President Richard Nixon made it a permanent national holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is a very long waiting period for a holiday honoring people who already think five minutes is too long to leave the garage light on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Then Came the Stuff<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Once Father\u2019s Day became more familiar, the gift industry did what the gift industry does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It looked at dads and apparently decided they were interested in four things: ties, tools, golf, and meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To be fair, this was not completely wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, the holiday developed a certain reputation. Mother\u2019s Day got flowers, brunch, heartfelt cards, and emotional television commercials. Father\u2019s Day got a rack of barbecue accessories and a card involving bodily functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not exactly a balanced portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>The Point Is Paying Attention<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At its best, Father\u2019s Day doesn\u2019t involve searching high and low for the most dad-coded object in the store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s about giving a little appreciation to the fathers, grandfathers, stepfathers, uncles, mentors, and father figures who have shown up in ways large and small. The people who gave rides, offered advice, fixed things, carried boxes, checked the weather, stood over the grill, told the same story again, and somehow always knew the \u201cbetter way\u201d to load the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of them are sentimental. Some would rather eat a live battery than admit it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Either way, they like knowing someone thought of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>&#x1f6a8; SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT &#x1f6a8;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you really want to let Dad know, \u201cYou\u2019re my guy,\u201d then you\u2019ll present him with our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/viewitem.cfm?itemid=17&amp;catid=1053&amp;rnd=0.786821751108\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Guy Food Gift Basket<\/a>. Oh yeah! This Dad-pleaser features dipping pretzels, mustard, beer cheese, sausage, nuts, cookies, and salsa.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Father\u2019s Day is June 21st, so get those orders in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>A<strong>bout BasketWorks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>BasketWorks is a woman-owned gift basket company located in the north suburbs of Chicago (specifically Northbrook, IL) since 1997. We are proud to offer a variety of gifts and gift baskets appropriate for all occasions. Each of our packages is built to order, allowing for customization at no additional cost to our clients.&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/contactus.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Contact us today<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please subscribe to our blog, and follow us on&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BasketWorks.Chicago\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/basketworks.chicago\/\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@basketworks.chicago\" target=\"_blank\">Threads<\/a>, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/basketworks\/\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Father\u2019s Day is coming, which means families everywhere are preparing to ask the most difficult seasonal question known to humankind: What do you get for the guy who claims he doesn\u2019t want anything? This is not helpful, Dad. Of course, \u201cnothing\u201d rarely means nothing. It usually means he doesn\u2019t want anyone making a huge fuss, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1127,"href":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions\/1127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.79gifts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}