Present for grandparents

Rubynewshoes

Hi Everyone

Hope you can help me. I've managed to get some great ideas from this site and have almost completed my christmas shopping (or rather making!) except for my grandparents. I usually get them a joint pressie along the lines of food hamper, DVD sets, restaurant vouchers etc but am really getting stuck for ideas this year!

Anybody got any thoughts? I'd like to get them something they wouldn't normally get for themselves or something a bit different. My Grandma is 79, partially-sighted and diabetic and my Grandad is 83. They don't really garden much or anything like that and whilst my Grandad drives, I think he prefers not to these days.

Thanks in advance!

LEJC

How about taking them out for a meal...sometimes at that age its more the company of you than the physical present that they would enjoy...perhaps there is a nice hotel/cafe/garden centre that would do a nice cream tea or something similar that they may enjoy....although your grandad is not a keen gardener..would they appreciate some window boxes with spring flowers in or an indoor planted arrangement in a nice tub or contaimer that your gran will be able to smell.

florakid

What about an Amaryllis they look splendid or Hyacinths, they smell wonderful, you can get the grow your own and they could have a little competition on the side to see whos is biggest and best !
HTH

Flora x

Lower_North

Find out about a place that is special to their joint past and arrange for them to visit the place. Could be....church they were married in, place they first met, honeymoon hotel, their first home. This sort of thing

This will be a surprise and will hopefully help them remember happy times. It is always nice to remember happy times/places/people

jackieb8man

I found a lovely notebook in a national trust shop that I gave to my elderly Mum. It is full of questions about the past and encourages them to write down their memories and feelings about alsorts of things, then it is passed back to the giver later on as a sort of memoir record. Try googling "Memories For My Grandchild". You could even have a look at one in the shops and see if you can make one of your own. My mum was really pleased with hers as she had seen my Mother In Law decline with Alzhiemers and was worried she would forget lots of things herself. If your Grandma has trouble with her eyesight you could sit together and talk then you could write in the book for her. It is a lovely way to spend time together and you find out lots of things you may not have thought to ask before.

qwiksave

You can't go wrong with photos of the family for Grandparents, they love them! If necessary give them a magnifying glass with them too, my 90 year old grandmother in law loves looking through pictures of my two boys and other members of the family. If not a magnifying glass, get big pictures printed.

jackomdj

We bought my OH's Grandad a bird feeder a few years ago which he had outside his window so he could watch the birds.

I am doing the Grandparent journal for my Mum & Dad this year.

Rubynewshoes

jackieb8man wrote: »

I found a lovely notebook in a national trust shop that I gave to my elderly Mum. It is full of questions about the past and encourages them to write down their memories and feelings about alsorts of things, then it is passed back to the giver later on as a sort of memoir record. Try googling "Memories For My Grandchild". You could even have a look at one in the shops and see if you can make one of your own. My mum was really pleased with hers as she had seen my Mother In Law decline with Alzhiemers and was worried she would forget lots of things herself. If your Grandma has trouble with her eyesight you could sit together and talk then you could write in the book for her. It is a lovely way to spend time together and you find out lots of things you may not have thought to ask before.

This is a wonderful idea. Thank you so much! :T My grandparents love talking about their younger days and my grandma has a really sharp memory so will have loads to fill in. My grandad's full of filthy stories too so there should be some laughs in there!

Need to start working on all these fab ideas now, thanks everyone! :beer:

aloise

qwiksave wrote: »

You can't go wrong with photos of the family for Grandparents, they love them! If necessary give them a magnifying glass with them too, my 90 year old grandmother in law loves looking through pictures of my two boys and other members of the family. If not a magnifying glass, get big pictures printed.

O yes you can. We normally have enough photos and could do without any more. We feel obliged to put them on display and end up having loads that gather dust.
Take them for a posh meal or to a theatre, travel laid on

LEJC

The last posters comments have reminded me of a present we bought as a family for my mum for her 80th birthday...
Its so true that some people dont like all the photos round them as they get older as is dopes mean lots of dusting etc..but that shouldnt mean you dont like the photos...
we bought a good digital photo frame with lots of memory staorage and asked everyone in the family to supply their favourite photos of mum through the years and of members/friends of the family...scanned them all and put them on the frame
Mum loves all the photos and the slideshow element means she can be reminded of loads of times/events in her life...she has all the photos in one place and doesnt need to dust them either!

Rachel021967

I'm going to buy my in-laws a nice bottle of Chinon wine to remind them of their holiday in France. For my parents I will get something to remind them of a holiday in Ireland.