OK, it’s August but the shops are already getting stocked for Xmas. If you are not dating or in a relationship then Xmas and the new year can be  a pretty bleak period. Not least because you have invariably had great christmas’s previously and pulling a cracker for one just doesn’t work.

It is possible to pull a cracker for Xmas on a over 40 dating site because there are so many people waiting to hear from you. But why start now?

Lets say you start chatting to potential dates online during September and you feel confident to meet up with a couple in late September. One isn’t for you but the other is worth another date. Meanwhile you ahve two more potentials to fit in. Truth is that over dating can be a numbers game to get the right person on your arm.

That’s why, if it were me I would start the over 40 dating search sooner rather than later.

Let’s face it – men and women who are over 40 and still looking for love are either divorced individuals or people who have fallen out of love for all the obvious reasons! However, if it wasn’t because you were a whacko or weirdo that you didn’t get a date till this late, you probably would find love still waiting for you in some corner of the world! All you need to do is use your experience!

Over 40 dating, again for all the obvious reasons, can be really fulfilling and satiating – both physically as well as from the emotional perspective. The fact that men and women who are interested in over 40 dating, whether online or offline, tend to be mature and sincere individuals at this point of age, which makes relationships much more romantic and long-lasting than in their youth!

However, the rules of the dating game don’t change much, even when you have children who might be dating out as well! So if you were looking for an interesting and attractive partner, use your experience to make the match happen! For instance, if you knew you did not exactly have the gift of the gab, try and entice her/him with other aspects of your personality – such as common hobbies, humor and the like. Remember to make her/him laugh and smile all the way through the date, for no one likes a serious bore you know, even when you are over 40!

And no matter how excited you may be about the over 40 dating sojourn, keep your hands off her! It is wrong to assume that single ladies who are over 40 are eager to go into bed with you, and asserting that misconception may leave you with a black eye and a bad dating record!

Finally stay confident and learn to accept rejection, for with ages of experience, even suave Casanovas fail to woo a girl on their particularly bad days!

It is fun to buy gifts and when it comes to buying gift for your over 40 dating partner you need to think twice and choose cautiously. Try and investigate about his likes and dislikes. Every man is unique and has diverse taste for presents; I bet none of them would like being presented with lingerie, ties or socks as gift items. So you require doing a great deal of research to find out what you man wants?

If he is tech savvy, the best gift for him might just be the new model of Blackberry phone or I-pods. To boost up his engineering skills you might gift him with a set of power tools. Choosing you gift for your man reveals how much you know him and his hobbies.

While choosing your gifts you need to realize that you are presenting something to a guy who is sober and mature and has already seen forty springs of his life. You need to select something to complement the personality of your over 40 dating partner.

Here is the list of gift for your mature dating match:

Tickets of sport events or concerts- The best gift for any man, young, old, dating, single, married or divorced. Guys love to watch their favourite team play and cheer them to victor in the auditorium or listen to their favourite music maestro in concert. The best part of this gift is that, you can also accompany him.

If he is addicted to music, then you have a lot of option open right at your hand. Gift him a DVD/CD player or a collection of DVD’s of his favourite movies or songs he always longed for. Believe me; he will love you for this.

Wardrobes- you may prove to be a great help for deciding the wardrobe for you mature dating match. As women are considered to be more fashion savvy then men, you may gift him with something that is trendy and goes well with his style. As long as it isn’t another tie or underwear, he will be more than happier.

Men are often crazy for mild fragrances, if your man likes it too; why not gift him cologne? A cozy and luxurious bathing rob is another gift that can make him happy.

Wallets and accessories like expensive lighters and watches cannot be left out from the list your gift list.

What ever the gift may be, if will spell out your love, affection and concern for you man. Give some of them above mentioned items to please even the pickiest man. A gift of his choice wrapped in warm passionate love can really add to you over 40 dating moves turning it to a relationship of a lifetime.

One of the dilemmas of dating on line is the fear of rejection. It can be a bit of a shock sometimes to realise that not everyone finds us devastatingly attractive.

To put this into perspective it is probably down to a bit of inexperience on your part. To begin dating on the internet can be a bit nerve wracking, like anything else in life it is a journey and requires a bit of practise.

Choosing to chat with someone you find attractive, as opposed to someone who you have something in common with is probably not the best way to go forward in the world of internet dating, or on any date for that matter. Who asks who for the date can depend on the gender and age of the people involved? Men have traditionally done the asking, they risk rejection far more than the ladies, it doesn’t really matter who asks who for a date as long as someone does. Just be prepared for the answer. If it is a negative it may be that you asked to early. It could be that the other person feels hopeless and loses confidence. They could be painfully shy and fearful of rejection themselves, there are lots of reasons for someone to say no initially. The list is endless. So don’t take it too personally, nothing in life is without risk, but once you convince yourself that you’ve weighed up the pros and cons you have more to gain than lose.

Here’s another over 40 dating tip for success. Lots of research shows that men are attracted to bright colours and shapes. All things being equal, a little black dress among a crowd of other black dresses just won’t work. Now nobody wants you to go out dressed like a parrot but a splash of colour to draw attention to your best assetts will help you stand out from the crowd.

Try it yourself. Next time you are at a function and see what woman stands out from the crowd. I can almost guarantee it’s the woman with the figure hugging dress or a splash of bright colour.

Pretty much any subject is OK for conversation in a western democracy unless you are a religious misogynist. However, starting out on a potential new relationship, you might be better sticking to the warm, safe and neutral subjects of -

The Weather. OK, OK it’s boring I know but what the hell.

Location. Where you are right now, the sites, the smells etc. Paint a picture for the person listening and ask them about their surroundings.

Popular Culture. We all love something, be it pop, classics, movies, theatre or books. With online dating you may be speaking to someone with the same interests. I did however, once manage a proper argument about the movie Avatar which I consider to be the worst movie ever made (if you enjoy a plot, tension, good acting).

Early doors you may be best to keep away from politics and religion. God knows, I love airing my views on the dogooder politics dragging us into oblivion but even I (outspoken) have learned to keep this well packed away.

Do it too quick (a bit of  ‘how’s your father’) and you are missing out on the chance to get to know the other person emotionally first. It’s amazing what a barren spell inbetween the sheets allied to a bottle of wine will do to speed up time for people. I can’t believe I am actually writing this stuff seeing as my record from first meeting to bed was 15 minutes and that included a bag of fish and chips! Still, I guess that time makes you more sensible and now I am positively over the hill, I reserve the right to preach a bit. A good rule by the way is not to go to bed with someone until you know them enough to remember their middle name.   So the people without a middle name are getting nothing following that perticular rule. still you cant please everyone!

The days when men were expected to pay for everything on a date have come and gone. It makes a woman look modern and generous to at least offer and be willing to pick up the bill particularly if she has a well paid job. Even if not, then at least offer to pay something even if it’s only for the picnic sandwiches. Men, offering to split the bill makes you look cheap so don’t do it. Times are changing but not that quickly!

Dating is an adventure. Dating for the over forties is doubly the adventure with an added bit of baggage! It is advantageous then to have a little extra in the tool box, other than the usual. Why not try. The art of flirting, the very words evoke an image of a flash cad with a big wad! Not so, Use Flattery, the spirit of flattery is to look and listen to your date and find out what strikes you about that person? It may be that they have a job that holds a level of responsibility that requires a significant amount of travel. Hey, we all have to travel to get to work these days, but I take my hat off to the person who does a fifty mile trip before they even begin.  It would be nice if you registered this and acknowledged it as an accomplishment

We all have our comfort zones. Our homes, our cars, our local pub amongst them. When you go on a first date you leave all that behind and it’s just you apart from one thing. That thing or things are the clothes that you wear. My advice is not to wear a new frock, tie or shoes. Wear what you like and love and feel comfortable in. My partner met me online dating and she looked like she had just got off a horse the first time we met! Guess what? Love at first sight for one of us (not her) because she was just her and not a facsimile put together to impress me that was not her. Take your comfort zone with you.