Many gentle hugs. I would say for gifts to think about things to help them manage their lives as adults. Gift cards for wm as he navigates the world - to places to eat if he goes to them, to itunes or another music site if that is helpful to him, maybe a new mp3 player to keep his music on, or even one that uses sd cards sot hat he can put one kind on one card and expand as he gets more music. I would stay away from computer and phone gadgets as they may not be able to make good choices on those.
If you are considering phones for them, take a look at kajeet (if you are not locked into a contract). Also think about experience gifts. Not items to keep, memories to make and things to learn. Classes at an arts center (we have a community art center here with classes from quilting to sewing to stained glass to photography to making your own spa products and cooking classed), or in some topic they obsess on. We did a LOT of lectures on dinosaurs when Wiz was little. Often he was the youngest one there and the one with the best questions. Even at six when he was rolling on the floor for part of it he still asked the best questions - NOT my perspective but what the lecturers told us time and again. Maybe a museum membership or a class at a gym or pool? Or an outward bound experience if that would be doable and helpful.
Maybe scrapbooking things to help them compile memories? Or what about thigns to help them create their future. At that age I got stuff for my dorm room (went to college a month before age 18) and my mom started giving me Christmas ornaments and decorations. NOt typical birthday gifts, but she recognized that soon I would have my own home and want/need my own decorations, so starting my collection was her way of beginning to sort of let me go and be my own adult.
What are their favorite foods? If they have one, consider indulging it. One of my most memorable gifts from husband was 8 pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. They lasted months and I savored every single bite. Consider ordering a shipment of ice cream from Graeter's in Cincinnati. They are the only ice cream maker in the US to still use the French Pot process, and batches are far smaller than those of any other ice cream place. I have tried fancy/expensive/gourmet ice creams from all over the country and NONE are as good as Graeters. There may be an extra fee for the flavors with chips - it is more than well worth the price. The chips are NOT uniform - some are small and many are HUGE. And if they/you like dark chocolate then ordering Graeter's bittersweet sauce is a MUST - it is the most intense, amazing and wonderful chocolate sauce I ahve ever found. And trust me, I have tried a LOT of chocolate sauces! Having grown up in Cincy, I didn't realize how special Graeter's is until we moved away. It was one of my favorite things about moving back to OH with husband. That is truly the BEST ice cream (better than Ben and Jerry's or Hagen Daz - seriously, not joking) and the BEST chocolate sauce. They do shipments all over the country packed in dry ice, and they work very well. The shipment my family got in July one year was actually too hard to eat when we opened it!
Then there are clothes. Those are often items that teens enjoy. Maybe a gift cert or promise to take them shopping or send them with an attendant when they are able to do that would be good.
Of course, books are also always fun - at least in my family. but we would rather read than breathe, so we may not by typical. I had to quite working at bookstores because we couldn't afford it - too many temptations, Know what I mean??
