What to Get Grandma

When in doubt, do a Snapfish photo calendar. Super easy and perfect for someone who has everything. Every month she'll enjoy flipping to the next personal photo. Can't go wrong!

Give her a Coffee-Talk once a month. If she is close by, visit her 1x /month for coffee & chats, if she lives far, set up a Skype appointment. For something tangible, give her a special mug & a small bag of specialty coffee. (if she is not a coffee drinker, make it her favorite tea or what-have-you). T. :)

One of my friends and all of her family did a book of 70 Reasons Why We Love You for her grandfather's 70th birthday. There were memories, pieces of advice he had shared, thanks for things he had done for them, inside jokes, etc. They all contributed ideas and she wrote them out in a scrapbook. Then she included pictures of everyone. He loved it! When he developed Alzheimers just a couple of years later that book was his lifeline. He would sit and read it over and over. After he died, her grandmother cherished it even more. She loves to share it with the great grandkids who don't remember him and the new great grandkids who never got to know him.

My grandmother loved to send cards to everyone in the family on their birthday. I wish I could take credit for this one, but a cousin gave her a box of standard sized cards and had addressed and stamped each envelope for everyone in the family. All our sweet grandmother had to do was choose a card from the box and stick it the mail. She loved it!

Does she have a favorite charity, activity, restaurant, nail salon? Does she like a fancy dessert, going to the race track, seeing the ballet or watching nascar? Does she have some honey-dos that need doing? Would she welcome a snow shoveling service? A house cleaner? An art class?

There are many ways to give and give thoughtfully without adding to her clutter.

Best
F. B.

I used to get my grandma who was in her 80s good quality face moisturizers. Obviously, they weren't going to decrease her deep wrinkles or firm her skin, but I think every woman no matter her age, likes to pamper herself every now and then. My grandma certainly did and appreciated the moisturizers.

Your time....if you can cook, make her a meal. If she needs some cleaning...do that. If she like to play board games...card games...just spend some time.....that's the best gift of love.

hubbys grandma is a 90 yr old wine drinker. so she appreciates a good wine and cheeses to go with it.
my grandpa is an 88 yr old with a sweet tooth, we give him chocolates, fruit baskets with summer sausages and cheeses with jams and crackers.
all that we purchase for them is consumable so nothing to collect no junk to worry about. and they love to share it so everyone can enjoy it.

Does she live close to you? If so, then how about tickets to a play, concert, etc, that you can go to with her?

I got my parents (mom is 68 and dad is 79) a bunch of different soup mixes from Whole Foods. They love to cook and this way they will have a variety of things they can throw together and add their own touch to whenever they want. I also got them some scones mixes. We're giving them a new family portrait, too, but I wanted them to have something they could do together. Your Grandma might enjoy the soup mixes. Then she could cook for you. :)

If she's close by you can give her a book of vouchers that will give her something every month like lunch out with your family or a home cooked meal delivered to her house.

My mom is a hoarder so no gifts for her. Instead I gave her a voucher that entitled her to a lunch date on the first Sunday of the month. She looked forward to it and it didn't add to the clutter in her house.

Last year took my MIL to her favorite store to get some fancy teas she likes. We then went to lunch and had a pedicure. Great day. Maybe something like that?

let's see...this year mom's getting her Estee Lauder White Linen, FIL is getting a selection of nuts dried fruit, and cheese ans crackers and MIL is getting a vera bradley fleecey blanket....things that have gone over well in past years have been slippers, restaurant gift cards, a supply of k-cups

good luck

My daughter got my mom a book called something like Share Your Life. It was a smaller notebook and it had a lot of questions in it. The person it was given to was supposed to go through the book and write their answer to each question. Like Who was your best friend in 3rd grade, or elementary school. What sport or activity did you do when you got to have free time. Do you remember the first time you watched TV, when did you learn to drive, etc...

I thought it was the best thing ever when I got to read what she'd done. It's a way of connecting the younger kids to the older generation.

If you can't find a book like that at a card shop then you could make a journal jar. Any cute jar will do. You type/print all the questions out in a font and print she can read and then cut each question into a long thin strip.

You slide the paper across the blade of a pair of scissors and it curls like a Christmas ribbon. Then she takes one out and uncurls it and writes the question and answer in a special notebook that you got her at the same time. When she's done with the questions she gives the notebook back to the person who gave it to her.

http://christmas.organizedhome.com/crafts/gifts-in-a-jar/...

http://millermall.blogspot.com/2010/12/journal-journal-ja...

http://kigatsuku.me/2013/01/journal-jars-personal-history...

And there are hundreds of ideas on Pinterest.

A new warm shawl? New gloves? If her eyesight is not the best, a lighted magnifying glass? Stationery? Nice note cards with pre-addressed (to her grandchildren), pre-stamped envelopes? A scrapbook with her loved ones' photos and favorite photos of her and the family?

If she ever cooked or baked (or if she still does), ask her for her favorite recipes or something she was famous for ("Grandma, please make your chicken pot pie" or "Grandma's brownies were the best!"), or sneak a look at her recipe box, and make a cookbook for all the grandchildren and great grandchildren. Or ask her about her memories about her own mother's or grandmother's (or her dad's) meals or cookies, or her memories of her favorite childhood treat. I made "heritage" cookbooks for my husband and his brothers, of their mom and grandma's best-loved recipes. I used a software program to make 4x6 photos, but they weren't photos, they were typed recipes, many with their mom's personal notes, such as when she learned to make that, or how funny the boys were when they were fighting over who got to lick the spatula, etc. And I took photos of some of her original handwritten recipe cards(all stained with age, and drops of batter or oil that happened over the years) and photos of pages from her favorite old cookbook, and I made them nice with a photo editing software, put a nice background in, and included those in the scrapbooks. One page was their mom's memories of some kind of jam that her mom used to make, and how they'd sit on the porch preparing the fruit. She just reminisced and I listened and then typed out her words in a nice font on a nice background. When I gave those to her sons, she was so happy. So were they. Some of them aren't too interested in cooking, but they loved remembering certain meals or treats. And it was nice that they could all have a copy of their mom's recipes in her handwriting (since there are many of them and only one old ragged original recipe card).

One of the nicer gifts that we got for my grandmother in recent years was a photo book (which I had made on Shutterfly or SnapFish) of older photos that I had collected and scanned. This one took a lot of labor and isn't something you probably have time for now, but it might be good for a future gift. She kept it out and showed it off to everyone who went to her house...I gathered photos that her children, siblings and grandchildren had in their possession. Some were decades old and many were ones she hadn't seen before.

Another good gift was an Irish-knit blanket. She was 100% irish and loved her sweaters and thought a blanket of the same knit was pretty neat.

For my grandmother-in-law, one good gift was a Kindle. She was internet-savvy and loved to sit at her computer and surf the web, e-mail, and read books that she would subscribe to online (couldn't get to the library regularly). The Kindle was great because she was able to sit wherever she wanted to in the house and read on the porch or her favorite chair, check her e-mail, etc. (she was 90 years old when we got this - an amazing lady!).

Another good gift for her was feeding her baking hobby with fun new kitchen tools (her old stuff was functional but had seen better days) and tons of fun and seasonal cupcake liners because she used to go through hundreds of them a year.

Think about how she spends her time and what you could give her that she might not need but would still enjoy and wouldn't ordinarily buy for herself.

- A special china tea cup, coffee mug with nice tea, some nice biscuits to go along with it
- A nice warm luxurious throw. Every older person I know loves those. They have some out now that are so silky soft - those chenille type ones are great. Or just a nice wool thin one to throw over her legs
- puzzles with magnifier that stands over table, or a puzzle roll up thing if she's into it
- books or books on tape depending on if she reads
- An amaryllis plant
- nice new slippers
- a new nice robe or pajamas
- fragranced soaps (mine loved lavender) or hand lotion
- my mom (80) loves her Netflix - we did that for her last year. Or we've gotten her DVDs with mini series on them.
- nice new warm gloves or a pretty scarf
- a nice brooch

My son did the activity coupon book for DS last year. It was great - trip to the zoo, hot chocolate, bedtime story, that sort of thing. If she is still driving, an emergency car kit is great (reflective light weight blanket, thing that cuts the seat belt and breaks the window, flashlight (for when the phone battery is nearly dead) and those flares to keep people from hitting your car. Slippers - no one ever replaces theirs until they are way past needing it. Restaurant gift card to someplace she has wanted to try.

Baked goods? Gift card to a spa or her favorite restaurant, coffee shop, or bookstore?

book. blankie. favorite candy or treat or tea or booze. gourmet oil and vinegar. homemade pasta sauce. movie.
khairete
S.

Family pictures in an album or frame (the kids can make the frame).