My students have given me bottles of liquor, dinners, sunglasses. My best story is that students always want something i.e. more flight/ground time with instructor, solo, signed off etc. So this students kept on saying I, I, I, so I asked if he ever thought about me. He was like "what do you want" and I said "a watch". When I got back from my flight an hour or so later he was standing there with a fossil watch for me.

Ask him if he likes anything kind of like how parents do for christmas. That should get you in the ball park of what he needs.