I am terrible at gift-giving, and have close to no imagination, so whatever the occasion is, I get someone a bottle of scotch. Its a fairly good gift in that it has a variable price tag for different occasions, and its somewhat classier than alternate forms of alcohol, excepting wine.
The best present I've given recently was as a present to the groom when I was best man organising the buck's party. It's surprisingly awkward ringing around strippers till you find one (actually 2 out of the 4) who will agree to let you (or in this case, the groom) snort lines off them. Sure, I could've waited till random strippers arrived and asked them then, but I felt that was leaving entirely too much to chance. Sadly, I don't think this would make a good 'go-to' present for the family. I usually get people concert tickets, drugs, or booze.