Clutter-free Gifts for Grandparents
- Tickets to a performance. Would your parents dig Kinky Boots or Jersey Boys?
- Donation to a favorite cause. Public Radio perhaps or a creative Kiva gift.
- Good eats. True locavore goodness: bring them a basket of the best stuff from your Farmer’s Market. Dark chocolate is a brain booster, check out the poco dolce tiles.
- Good drinks. Order a subscription to a monthly wine or coffee club.
- A class. Enliven an old passion like pottery or photography or encourage a new one with a foreign language or yoga class.
- Restaurant discounts. If they eat out a lot and if there are some good choices in their city, restaurant.com certificates are a great deal. Otherwise, choose a straight-up gift certificate to a known favorite place.
- A Kindle. For the bookworm grandparents, the Kindle Paperwhite is a clutter-saver and a backache-saver. For non-reading, non-techy folks, it is clutter. Higher end models also stream videos, too.
- Wireless digital frame. Like the kindle, in the right hands, these wireless frames can streamline a mantle and a refrigerator. We like this one by PixStar. (Routine tech support from you probably required.)
- Walking tours. If they live near a major city or have plans to visit one, arrange for an outing that’s educational and interesting.
- Family portrait session. A multi-generational picture by a professional will provide pictures that can be handed down forever. No matter your style, a pro is going to produce something better than those ones you keep emailing them from your iPhone.
- Birthday kit. Best for grandparents who are older, this is a DIY project. Create a binder with family birthdays listed and provide enough birthday cards (and stamps!) for your grandparents to stay on top of the important dates.
- Weekend alone with your kids. Oh wait, they should give that to you! See if you can pass this off as a gift rather than a favor. If not, you can however, purchase a museum membership for them to some place in their city. (And if it’s a children’s museum, they’ll enjoy it when they’re on duty.)
Whitney’s Father In Law would also like to offer up what grandparents don’t want: things that make them do work like blank books to fill out together or family tree charts. {Uh oh, does that mean that my babysitting idea is out?!}
Share any other great grandparent gift ideas in the comments below!
