Well for me, I bought quite a large doraemon plush doll( she like Doraemon but not a fan of plush doll), and I put a nice bracelet on its pocket. At first when i give this doraemon to her, she was kind of like disappointed but tried her best not to show it, and when i ask her to dig the pocket, she was overjoyed and nearly moved to tear when she saw the bracelet.

well, to me present/gift idea always work if you have some surprise elements on it.

How about you cook for him for his birthday? Cook something nice and special? and throw in a special handmade card for him, might be enough to do the trick