If you still have a grandmother or older people in the family you know that sometimes it's no easy to pick them a gift, what do they enjoy? So I guess I discovered that older people still have vanity, because I've been buying clothes to my almost 90 year old grandmother and she loves it! What do you buy to the older people from your life?
I find that with the older folks, they LOVE pictures of their family. Something, anything home-made that will remind them of their family is great. Framed group picture, a collage, or even a life-sized card from everyone in your family. Also, you can make those coupon books for the older folks that says like "Movie date!" or "Lunch and walk at the park!" This way they can spend time with you, which I think is what they ultimately wants more than anything else.
Yes, that is a fact. I gave my grandmother two little frames with pictures from my kids and also an envelope with other pictures in it's regular size and I put there by accident another envelope for my mother. I came to her asking her for the envelope and her eyes had a fear that I wanted to take the pictures away from her, I mean, she really loved them.
I think age doesn't make any difference in what a person likes or dislikes. One has certain traits throughout life, and that doesn't change all that much just because we are getting on in years. My grandfather loved sports all his life. And even now, being in his 80's, nobody can stop him from riding his bike and going to the gym once a week. So, my present for his birthday this year has been a renewal of his gym membership card.
All my grandparents are deceased but when my grandfather was still alive in 2006, one of his progeny bought him a suit and shoes and he really loved them. I think for most old people clothes and shoes would make good gifts because they'd have some use for them.
You're right about the pictures! The older generation isn't quite as into the digital side, but an amazing gift that "keeps on giving" is one of those digital picture frames. You can upload the pictures so they show a constant slideshow....and then whenever you visit or the next holiday comes up, you can bring a new flash drive or SD card that has new pictures added to it so they can continue to see new shots of their loved ones!
This post made me think of my beloved late grandmother. Let me tell you it wasn't easy picking a gift for her. She had FINE taste and liked expensive things. My grandmother gave the best gifts ever and I treasure them so much. However I could never please old granny because it had to be the best. She always said, "Spend, spend, spend!"
LOL, spend spend spend? I think that older people treasure memories the most, my grandmother is writing her memories, she writes poems and she does stuff for us and at the same time she loves to have our pictures. The only thing that makes her as happy as pictures is clothes, she loves to have new clothes, once a woman always a woman I suppose.
I think another cool thing you can do is either: 1) Take the old family photos that the elderly have and restore the color at any photo shop or at any drug store that has a kiosk machine to do that service. 2) If they are a writer or something, and they keep their writings in files and has a ton of individual pages, put it together into one big book
Those aren't bad ideas at all. The first one I've done, I took an old picture from the house where my grandmother used to live, I enlarged it and framed it, she loved it and she has it on the wall of her living room. Accessing her writings wouldn't be a bad idea, but she treasures them too much, so I don't think I could take them to make a book. More, all that is handwritten, so it would be even trickier.
You know what, all my grandpa's and grandma's have died when I was young, the last one died when I was 12 yrs. old, so I guess I will never know what it's like to buy a gift for very old people. But I guess if they were still alive then I would easily know what type of gift to give them based on their hobbies and interests.
I am sorry to hear about that sidney, I only have a grandmother too, all others died when I was really young. As for old people's interests, it depends on how active they are because quite a few people don't do nothing except caring for the family and they live for the family, so they don't have many interests really and it's a hard choice.
For a few years now, me and my cousins' gift to our grandparents have been a breeze, we just all get together and take a picture, get it nicely framed and wrapped. You'd think it might get old but my grandparents are always beaming when they open it up, they're always really happy to get it.
Are you serious Strykstar? That's a really cool and economic tradition, so all of you just get together, take a picture, frame it and offer it to them? They must have already at least over 20 pictures no? I think that when we can't afford more expensive things that is a great solution really and creating a tradition around it it's even better.
Wow that is great that you are able to still buy an outfit for your 90 year old grandmother. I don't have many older people in my life I have to say and I really don't know what I would get them. I guess I would have to pay close attention to what they're interests are and buy according to that.
Yeah, to be honest the idea only came to my head more or less 5 years ago, I always gave her "something", but that year I gave her clothes and I noticed a special shine in her eyes and I knew it was a good idea. I guess that once a woman, always a woman, vanity doesn't go away.
My grandparents, mostly my grandmothers (both from my fathers and mothers side) love(d) everything homemade. Last year, I had made my grandma a crocheted blanket and she still uses it now. I think grandparents tend to prefer something homemade or something heartfelt, that's the way my grandmothers always were anyway, but it seems like from everyone else's experiences on the tread, that it seems pretty common and you can't go wrong with it.
I think that home made things are good, but I am not very gifted to work in that way. Also, the time is something that doesn't exist much when we have a full time job and kids, the days just go by, so it's easier to buy something than to make it at home. My grandmother realizes that, she's 90, but still has a great head.
I agree. I always buy clothing items for the older women in our family as well and they always are very happy to receive them, though I think they also just appreciate that the kids in their family are paying respect and adoration for them in their old age, which I think is more and more appreciated with age. I usually buy shawls or scarves so I wouldn't have to worry about sizes, and they seem very happy with them. Also, from time to time I like buying small furniture items like fruit baskets or nice desk lamps.
Having a small house I am always sensitive to buying furniture or large items for other people because I hate when people give me huge things that I don't have space to put in, even more things to my place, I mean, I like to pick the things I have around my house. It's always hard to pick gifts though, we need to know the person well.
