john doe wrote:

I would like to get my dad a home brewing kit for Christmas

Might I suggest asking Dad whether he's interested in brewing beer?

I don't know where your Dad is in his life. If he's working 60 hours a
week in some high-stress corporate job, he might not be "ready" to brew
his own beer . . . on the other hand, he might find it very therapeutic.
I would hate for you to spend $100 on a gift that is never used.

Another suggestion, which may or may not be appropriate based on your
relationship with your dad and where you live, is to go together to a
local brew store and select a starter kit and a couple of ingredient kits.

As others have mentioned in the thread, any good brew supply store will
have several starter kits. I'll share a personal preference: many of
the lower-priced kits come with an opaque plastic fermentation bucket,
and I think it's rather important for novice brewers to be able to
actually see the fermentation process. Thus I would opt for fermenting
in a glass carboy.

Don't go with one of those small-batch brew kits. Get real equipment.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/starterkits.html

I'll share one other personal preference. Buy 22-ounce bottles, not
12-ounce. This makes the bottling go faster (you'll get about 25
22-ounce bottles from a 5-gallon batch). Rather than drinking two
12-ounce bottles of beer at a sitting, I drink one 22-ounce bottle.