Gifts for: Grandparents

By the time people reach grandparent age, they usually have all the "stuff" they want (and sometimes more!). For this reason, I like to stick to either consumables or small gifts with nostalgic or sentimental significance. 

CONSUMABLE IDEAS

Restaurant gift cards are easy, and easy doesn't mean bad. Both my grandfathers were raised during the Great Depression--a free meal is always nice. You can also consider gift cards for massages, manicures, housekeeping, golf courses, sports events, music or television streaming services, and other events and services.

For other ideas, think of your grandparents' favorite foods. My paternal grandfather, upon learning I like to cook, gave me the recipe for his mother's bread. I was a teenager, and guess what recipe I knew I'd be pulling out every Father's Day, Grandpa's birthday, and Christmas? My maternal grandfather loves unusual and spicy foods, so any display of unconventional food gets a once-over from me. He also has a favorite recipe, "Sacred Cake" without which his birthday is incomplete. Do you grandparents like coffee, and is there a roaster nearby? Tea, snacks, sweets? You could put together jars of dry ingredients for baked goods, if you know your grandparents enjoy baking. Be mindful of dietary restrictions like diabetes, but if there's a treat you know you can find or make, you're set.

For non-edibles, consider stationery, candles, soap, tickets to events or places (and they don't necessarily need to be "for old people;" so long as you know your grandparents would like it, why not tickets to an amusement park or zoo?), art supplies, bulbs and seeds for flowers and other plants, cosmetics, and maybe even help setting up Skype or Facetime or something similar to talk to family members who are far away.

GIFTS REPRESENTING YOUR HOME

A simple idea, great for a group of siblings and/or cousins, is a collection of little gifts representing where you live, especially if there are several locations involved. For example, one year, my two siblings and I each lived in a different state from our grandparents. We gave them three potholders, one representing each state (Arizona, Hawaii, and Texas), and a small consumable gift from each one: Arizona's Fairytale Brownies (a fantastic gift on their own; they're delicious), Hawaiian-made honey, and a Texas snack mix.

If you're looking for very specific fabrics, eBay is a good place to start--you can usually find fat quarters or by-the-yard cuts of an amazing assortment of oddly specific fabrics. In this instance, the Hawaiian fabric was found in a store in Honolulu (Fabric Mart, which has an online shop), and the Texas and Arizona prints were from eBay. Another great website is Spoonflower.

This way, the grandparents had something small and useful as well as fun treats, all of which reminded them of their grandchildren. Most cities and even small towns have some shop with locally-made consumables and/or small items: candles, chocolates, spice mixes, soaps; maybe even a book by a local author or about a place's history or folklore.

GIFTS FROM EVERYONE

If you have lots of cousins and you're close with them, you might be able to get all the grandkids working together for a present. I've done this a few times for grandparents' Christmas presents, and every time not only were the cousins willing to help, they were happy that they didn't need to come up with a gift idea. One year, I had several people help me with knitting afghans. I taught a few how to knit and they did anywhere from a few stitches to a few rows, and others just helped pick colors. 

Our grandmother ended up using this to keep warm during chemotherapy treatments years later;
fortunately she's recovered now.

Another year, I had my cousins send me pictures of their families (aunts and uncles too). Everyone chipped in a bit of money for printing the pictures and for a 100-page 4x6 photo album. At the time, there were a few of us grandchildren were pregnant, so some of the empty pages had sticky notes "saving" them for pictures of the great-grandchildren. We still send pictures now and then to keep the album updated.

Young children can get in on the fun as well. Just recently, I helped my children and my nieces and nephew make stepping stones for my mother-in-law's birthday. I purchased some kits from a craft store that came with cement mix, molds, and stones and glass to set in the cement (and added some of the random buttons and broken jewelry I'd accumulated over the years). Each child decorated a stepping stone and we used the included letter stamps to put their names on their stones. Since my mother-in-law loves gardening, having things in her garden that her grandchildren made was perfect.

Of course, a group gift doesn't need to be elaborate. There have been some Christmases that several of us chip in for a restaurant gift card so our grandparents can enjoy a nice dinner. Every time, regardless of how much work went into a gift, it's fun to write all our names on the "from" section of the gift tag.

GIFTS ABOUT EVERYONE

In my opinion, these are the most fun. I have a large extended family, so if I can think of an idea to showcase all of us, I'm all over it. One I recently saw was in a neighbor's house. She has four children, several grandchildren, and a few great-children. She had a shadowbox with "Counting my Blessings" written across the top, and three labels inside: children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. Each label had hooks underneath, to hold numbers representing how many of each she had. I might need to do that for my grandparents.

One gift I have made my grandparents is a birthday calendar. If you have the time and inclination, you can make your own. You'll need fourteen screw eyes, several wooden disks (or hearts or whatever shape you want) ideally with two holes already drilled in, small metal rings, hanging wire, a long wooden board, a fine-tipped permanent marker, and paint (I like acrylic best for this). You can also purchase custom ones on sites like Etsy.

Told you it's a big family

While I actually made it, I presented it as from all of us, because I had help from everyone in deciding colors and figuring out birthdays--it was very much a group effort. I was also able to go to a thrift store and buy 50 greeting cards at a dime each: enough for a card for everyone (there are 51 markers up there, but that's including our grandparents themselves and they don't give cards to each other).

Again, these don't need to be big, elaborate endeavors. I find gifts like this fun to plan and make, but I know not everyone does. There was one year we all chipped in for a collage picture frame and put pictures of us in. Our grandparents loved that, too. My in-laws loved the digital picture frame loaded with pictures of the grandkids. And really, the most important thing for them was the time spent with us during the holidays or their birthdays. They absolutely loved the sentiment and thought behind the gifts, but talking with us was the real highlight for them.