Putting a price tag on love

The best gift ideas are those where the thought, and not the value, counts.  But if presents are meaningful and still expensive, then what is the problem? Especially on the occasion of Christmas — the festival of joy and giving — when your loved ones can truly receive gifts to cherish. Though, sometimes, these ‘meaningful’ ideas end up costing a fortune. However, for some dads and wives and husbands and lovers — billionaires, celebrities — that may not be an issue at all. It is the thought that counts, remember?

Waterfall

We were sure that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were in for the long run, but alas, that’s not how things usually end up in Hollywood. Their once-true-love, however, has been immortalised in a certain $1.6 million California waterfall, complete with adjacent fields, that Jolie gifted Pitt for Christmas. Now, the thought behind this gift lies in her ex-husband’s love for architecture, especially Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s creation, the Fallingwater. This beautiful house in southwestern Pennsylvania features a waterfall that Pitt absolutely admired. Good thing he got the next best thing.

24-karat gold bathtub

If American boxing legend Mike Tyson’s pet tigers and numerous supercars and mansions weren’t enough, take a load of this: he gifted one of his ex-wives a $2.2 million 24-karat gold bathtub for Christmas. Though not a big deal for someone who amassed over $400 million during his boxing career, the tub did eventually end up being sold to billionaire Derwood Hodgegrass, for $1.2 million. Once located in a Tyson mansion, a quiet Christmas eve with champagne and Neil Diamond playing in the background would have definitely made a beautiful setting for the erstwhile couple.

Ruby and diamond neckpiece

It was back in 2005. Victoria and David Beckham were pretty much in love, and you know it’s true because 14 years later, their marriage seems to be going strong. Anyway, this was the year David went all nuts with Christmas day purchases for his one and only: a $500,000 custom-made Rolls-Royce Phantom, a $100,000 diamond-studded handbag, and then the biggie — a $2.66 million ruby-and-diamond neckpiece from Parisian jeweller Boucheron. They say you cannot put a price tag on true love, but we’ll go with this one.