The Annual Gift Ideas for the Older Parents thread

My parents are the hardest to buy for... But this year I did get out ahead of it... YAY me!!!

For my mom we got her a Pandora bracelet with 3 charm's - 2 snow white, and one mom charm..
For my dad we are getting him a TV for the bedroom so he can watch sports, the one in there now is small, so we are going to upgrade his TV.

When my grandmother was still with us, she was really hard to buy for... One year we got her a new screen security door, she loved it... we painted her house another year as her gift, she really loved that... my parents replaced the ceiling fans in her house one year which was a good thing, one was so old it was ready to more than likely ready to catch fire. Carpet cleaning and we included the couches, another year lawn service - even though she had a guy that mowed the yard, and that's all he did... barely... so we found a young guy that was just starting out his business and he did it for the same price, mowing and it included edging, weed eating, and trimming the bushes when needed we all chipped in and paid a year in advance... He even would bring her trash can up from the road. Some other gifts that she would look forward to, she would get pears or apples monthly, David and Harry's monthly, Quarterly she would receive German style sausage's and cheese...
 
For those of you who give services - lawn, snow, car detailing, etc., are you local? I would love to do this for my dad but I am not local, and have no clue how I would begin to find someone or for that matter if my dad already has these services contracted out. If I ask about them, he would tell me not to spend my money on him so that won’t work. How did you find your contractors?

I live about an hour away from am from the area where my dad lives (we gave him the lawn maintenance). I actually had my mom (they're divorced) ask around and someone from her church had a side business so he was someone we knew and had a good price.

If you are on Facebook get on one of the Buy/Sell pages from that area and ask for recommendations. If you are from that area ask people if they know someone.
 
My dad always loves charitable donations-either to the food bank he’s actively involved in, or to international groups such as Kiva or the Heifer Project. We usually do that plus a gift-for him, typically a blues CD but this year we got him one of those collapsible soccer pull behind wagons from Costco after he saw ours and loved it for yard work.

Mom usually gives us lots of ideas :)-a quilt store gift card and locally made earrings always work for her.
 
Not sure if anyone already suggested this, but what about an Echo from Amazon? We're gifting some of those this year. We've done Ancestry DNA kits in the past, which were a hit. I've also wanted to gift someone The Ultimate Birthday Book from the New York Time, but haven't yet. That one might be best as a birthday gift.
My dad fought with his last year!
 


My inlaws always stress that they would rather experiences over more things. This year we are getting a gift card to the local theater and including the summer playbill with it. They can pick the show that interests them most and we will pay for ourselves too and join them. I think it will include dinner beforehand as well. It will be a nice outing.
My dad is hard. He buys himself anything he wants basically and his tastes are out of my price range. We got him an olive oil of the month club last year and he loves it.. so my sister and I are splitting the cost and renewing it for this year.
My mom is so easy to please. She loves brightly coloured puzzles of 1500 pieces or more. So we will get her another one and some nice pyjamas I think.
 
I've also wanted to gift someone The Ultimate Birthday Book from the New York Time, but haven't yet. That one might be best as a birthday gift.

Thanks so much!! I have never heard of these. I just bought one of these for my dad. This is right up his alley. He's going to love it and I'm really excited about giving it to him.
 
My mom is in her mid-90s, doesn't drive anymore, and doesn't recognize people in photos anymore. I typically get her a hat (she loves pretty blue baseball-style hats with brims to keep the sun out of her eyes), some old fashioned candy, and a practical garment (socks or sweatpants, always blue).

This holiday I am searching for a coloring book of birds or plants for her, which I will give her with a set of Staedler pencils (easel case and of course blue). She was an artist and would never have been interested in a coloring book, but I think with the increased "senior confusion" she may enjoy having a slightly structured way to play with colors.

Sadly I live 1,000 miles away so I can't take her out to enjoy experiences as a present. Besides my sister who lives with her does a fabulous job taking her places every day.
 


My parents are Depression-WWII-era frugal -- i.e. if it hasn't completely fallen apart they don't replace it. So the past couple years as we visit throughout the year my sister and I take note of what at their home is waaay past a reasonable lifespan and should be replaced. Last Christmas we bought them a new BBQ grill. We packaged a set of BBQ tools and the order form from their local hardware store that would deliver and set up. Their old BBQ was tiny and basically rusted out so they rarely used it (and we wanted to cook out when we visited too). This year they are getting a nice set of knives.

One year a few years back we did a "gift of the month" basket we made up. Some months it was inexpensive gourmet food, there were a couple movie and theater tickets, a home decor plaque, etc. My mother said getting to anticipate opening something new each month was almost better than the gift itself!

My mother also likes when we make a calendar with grandkid pictures through Shutterfly.

PHXscuba
 
Both my dad and my husband's father have passed so I sent both mothers (both in mid 80s) orange deliveries from Florida where we live.

Not inexpensive. Who knew it was easy to spend $200 on oranges.
 
My parents are getting:

Mom - New book in a series she reads
Dad - Wind up alarm clock. He has trouble with the "new" ones and this one is really easy and old-style for him
For both - Local restaurant gift cards (they love to eat out) and a Styrofoam cooler full of frozen meat/fish. I usually do Omaha steaks, but holy moly the prices were high this year. I wen to a local butcher and got T-bones, strip steaks, pot roast, etc. and then to the fish market for haddock, salmon, shrimp & scallops. I got 3x as much as I would have from Omaha steaks. It's stuff they won't buy for themselves as they don't like to spend more than $2/lb for meat, which means they eat a lot of chicken and pork.
 
As another poster mentioned, for my parents (both 82) our son bought them that Amazon Echo and is going to set it up for them (pretty easy) and show them how to use it (pretty easy). My mom's a bit of a computer geek so will enjoy the technology. My dad isn't a computer geek and will like how easy it is to use.

For my 93 year old mother-in-law we usually just send a Christmas floral arrangement, Omaha steaks, or something like that.
 
My dad fought with his last year!

My mother has an echo in her bedroom. She talks in her sleep, the echo answers her, then she gets mad at it because it woke her up. :headache:

A couple of years ago I scheduled a photographer for a group family photo and paid for a large print for her Christmas present (the sitting fee was her birthday present), she really liked that. I also do a restaurant gift card or two, she eats out all the time so they get used.
 
My Dad is 75 and my Mom passed away last year. It has always been hard thinking of Christmas gifts for them.

He and I play euchre once a week at a euchre league. This year my son (14) bought his Grandpa a $25 gift certificate to the pub we play euchre at so my Dad can order a meal there one night or have a drink or two over a few nights.

My daughter (19) purchased 4 pairs of 90% cotton socks. I always hated when my Mom used to say things like "your Dad needs/wants socks" but it's so true. My greatest joy this winter (in terms of retail shopping) was finding warm cozy slippers that actually fit me; look pretty and have great soles! :)

Now I'm trying to figure out a present for my Dad. He likes to get his feet taken care of every now and then at a local pedi/mani shop my Mom used to go to. I would still like to get something else as well.

Some great ideas here!
 
My mom passed away 5 years ago at the age of 90, but she was delighted with the "Care Package" she got every year from us.
It was filled with individual packages of food items and products.
Pouches of tuna, single serve portions of ready to eat canned soup, single serve packages of crackers, nuts, candy, fun sized candy bars, purse sized packages of kleenex, Q-tips, a box of microwave popcorn, small bottle of hand sanitizer, dental floss, etc.
 
I give my dad a photo calendar every year that's full of family photos from the previous year. My mom loves the basic Kindle I got her. She likes the fact that she can easily enlarge the text and that it's easy to use since it's just for books and magazines. Another big hit has been an Audible subscription and a gift certificate for computer repair/help. My dad has diabetes so I bought him some really nice diabetes compression socks that he liked. He also loved the throw blanket I got him that has a photo of his grandkids on it.
 
I posted here earlier that I am a 66 yr. old parent and that something I would like is a gift certificate for car detailing. My children didn't get me that, but I thought I would share what they did give as I think it is a wonderful gift! Our daughter and family gave us a gift certificate to a local photographer for a family photoshoot! We have 3 new family members since our last photo was taken. Other gifts we got from our kids, and love them all...a Disney book called the Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World, a Disney projection thing that shows colorful Mickey heads on the side of the house, Freddy's French fry sauce, packing cubes for when I go to Disney next, and my husband is thrilled because he got bolt cutters. Just wanted to share these ideas. They are all really appreciated!
 

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