Tip for easy gift-giving: Parsnips and Salmonberry Jelly.

[Discipline Before Dishonor]

Everybody likes Parsnips as gifts, with the exception of 5 villagers: Abigail, Sam, Haley, Vincent and Jas. But those 5 villagers like receiving Salmonberry Jelly. If you're like me and you don't want to think too much about gift-giving, but you still want to be reliably consistent with it, consider hoarding Parsnips and Salmonberry Jelly. Those two items ensure that you get +45 friendship points with anybody, anytime. Nothing beats a loved gift on a birthday, sure, but this fills in the gaps day-to-day and helps fight against relationship decay, while sparing your thoughts and contemplations for other matters you'd prefer to tend to. Gotta admit lol, only needing 2 rather accessible items to make everyone your friend is pretty dope.

I'm open to any easier alternatives that all 5 exception villagers like, because Salmonberry jelly is kind of bottlenecked in production until you can build a good amount of preserving jars.

[Nulien]

My lazy, easy option is flowers. With the exception of poppies, all the flowers grown by seeds you buy from Pierre are at least liked by everyone except George, Clint and Sebastian.

[Discipline Before Dishonor]

Damn really? That's pretty useful. Nobody's neutral to the flowers, it's always like, like liked?

[Chris P. Bacon]

Interesting, but I usually just use rabbit feet. They are loved by everyone except Penny, and they can be iridium quality once your rabbits are happy enough. I have five rabbits which give me more than enough iridium quality feet to cover everyone's birthday, and I also grow some poppies just for Penny.

[nine]

Originally posted by Chris P. Bacon:

Interesting, but I usually just use rabbit feet. They are loved by everyone except Penny, and they can be iridium quality once your rabbits are happy enough. I have five rabbits which give me more than enough iridium quality feet to cover everyone's birthday, and I also grow some poppies just for Penny.

true but thats not usually available during early game since rabbits/deluxe coops are expensive in the first year

[Stardustfire]

even in endgame rabbit feet are no common harvest.
i go mostly with gems, they are easy to get and after getting crystalarium even massproduceable. at least female npc love 1 or more gemtypes.

[ephemeraltoast]

Maple syrup and honey are liked by everyone except Maru and Sebastian, and they both like quartz. All pretty easy to get even in year 1.

Everyone likes coffee except the children. This one is super easy to remember.

[Yaeri]

Thanks for the tip. Both are cheap and in plenty supply.

[ULTRA]

I usually just do coffee

and then give it to myself

[ZWRulez]

Leah and Harvey will pretty much like any foraged item you give them, whether it be mushrooms, berries, etc. So that’s always useful.

Maru, Sebastian and Abigail will always take quartz and other gems you can find in the mines easily. This is useful as they all live right next to the mines, so you can run in for a second, get some gems, and run back out.

[dave.iceman42]

Tree fruits are universally liked, with a few loves in the mix. I delayed gift giving until year 2 while I concentrated all my resources on the farm and unlocking the greenhouse in year 1. Once my fruit tree saplings planted in the greenhouse started bearing fruit (Mid-Spring, year 2), I would load up on fruits whenever I rode into town, handing them out to anyone and everyone. Friday and Saturday nights at the saloon are a bonanza for gifting a lot of people at once.
But birthdays require a loved gift, preferably one of high quality for the bonus.

[Koodah]

I always go with parsnips for everyone except the 5 you mentioned and flowers for those 5. They like all flowers (except poppies). Note: daffodils count as a forage item not a flower - I think those 5 still all like them but there are quite a few of the townfolk who like flowers and don't like daffodils.

The produce jars are much better used on something more valuable than salmonberries in my opinion eg melons.

Apart from that, I use the wiki to help me make sure I'm giving each villager a loved gift on their birthday (if I can - otherwise they get a gold star flower or vegetable) and that's usually it for my gifting efforts.