Finding a great gift for older parents can be a bit of a challenge. As our parents age, their tastes and needs can change, making it hard to know what to get them for special occasions. My personal perception of my parents is that they already have everything they want, so what more can I give that they would appreciate? Though it may seem difficult, with a bit of thought and creativity, you can find (or make) the perfect gift that will show them just how much you care.
The Formula for a Great gift
First and foremost, before we get into the ideas, I feel it’s important to note the important factors of what makes a great gift in order to get you thinking beyond just my list of ideas.
A great gift is one that is well-received by the recipient and is perceived as thoughtful and appropriate for the occasion. Some important factors that contribute to a great gift include one or more of the following:
- Personalization: A gift that is tailored to their interests is more likely to be appreciated.
- Utility: A gift that is useful or serves a practical purpose is always a nice added benefit.
- Quality: A well-made gift of good quality is more likely to be valued.
- Timing: A gift that is given at an appropriate time or occasion is more likely to be well-received.
- Creativity: A gift that is unexpected and creative will be more memorable.
With this in mind, let me share with you some great gift ideas that are almost certain to impress your older parents. These all are backed by my own experience and were very impactful gifts for both my parents and my parents-in-law. You’ll notice that each of these ideas includes at least one or two of the factors above. I also strongly recommend working with your siblings, kids, nieces, nephews, and some of their relatives and friends to accomplish these gift ideas. The ultimate concoction of a great gift is the combination of nostalgia mixed in with the people they care about.
So without further ado, let’s talk about seven great gift ideas you can give to older parents.
Gift Ideas
1. Custom storybook illustrated by their grandkids
Just this past Christmas I reached out to all of my siblings, many of whom have younger kids, to create our own personalized illustrated storybook to give to our parents. We decided to pick a story from each of our parent’s childhoods and create a storybook illustrated by the grandkids which tell these two stories. One of my siblings wrote the two stories and separated them into different parts, which became the separate pages that would be illustrated. Then, each of the 15 grandkids chose a part and illustrated the page on a regular 8.5 x 11 sheet of white paper. Once they were finished, we scanned them into a computer and headed over to Costco’s Photo Center website to compile the story and illustrations in a hard-cover book.
2. Their Own Family History Book
“Memory lane” gifts are a great idea for older parents, as they allow them to reminisce and reconnect with their past. If you’ve never tried using a Family History website you’re missing out on a treasure trove of photos, stories, and information about your parents and their lineage.
The two websites I recommend for this one are (1) Ancestry.com, and (2) Newspapers.com. With over 30 billion historical records, Ancestry has the largest consumer genealogical database in the world and Newspapers.com has almost 1 billion newspapers archived to date. You may be surprised by what you can find with these two sites. Also, both websites offer a free trial period that is long enough for you to find all the photos and records you’ll need for this project. Once you’ve found some photos and records, either download them or take screenshots of them and include them in a photo book. For this one, I also created a hard-cover book through costcophotocenter.com.
3. Customized board or card game.
If your parents have a favorite board or card game, another great idea would be to create a personalized version of that game. One specific idea that I did a few years ago that you could try is to create your own family version of Monopoly. Growing up, we went on one out-of-state trip a year which gave me enough photos to populate all the Monopoly property spaces with family photos in the different vacation locations.
I then worked with my siblings to think about some of the fun memories we had growing up and included those as the content for the “Chance” and “Community Chest” cards. It’s helpful if you have an original Monopoly game to know what the gain and loss values are for these cards. You’ll also want to copy all the information from the property cards so the flow of the game won’t be altered. From there, we had an extra Monopoly game on hand where we took out all of the money and game pieces and included them in our personalized version of the game. If you have the time and energy though feel free to customize those pieces too. 🙂
I used The Game Crafter to build our board game. They include template files for you so you know the proper dimensions for the board game cover as well as the board game board itself.
4. Personalized Comic Book
This one was kind of a fun idea but was one that took a little bit more work to put together. The idea is to create a personalized comic book featuring a story of their grandkids. To accomplish this, first, come up with a story and then draw it out as a storyboard. From there you’ll know what photos you’ll need to take and how you’ll need to frame them up for the comic strip. Below is an image I created to help me draw out the different comic strip variations. Feel free to copy any of the designs.
After that, you’re ready to start turning your photos into stylized comic book images. Here are the steps to make your photos look like a comic book:
- Watch this Youtube video to show you how to turn a photo into a stylized comic book illustration.
- Compile these illustrations together using a program like Adobe Illustrator or even a Google Doc. Follow the storyboard structure you put together previously.
- For the speech bubbles and other comic-book-looking illustrations, you can hop over to texturelabs.org and download them for free.
- Next, download some of these comic book fonts:
- Once that’s all done, head over to lulu.com which has the option to print customized comic books. Lulu’s website has template files, tutorials, and a book creation guide that will walk you through the whole creation process.
5. Create your own “Hollywood feature film”
Growing up I loved making little movies and videos with my siblings, so one idea that naturally came was to create a personalized movie acted out by my kids. I recommend starting the same way as the previous idea, which is to come up with a fun story and draw up a storyboard of it. From there, it’s time to film the movie. Don’t feel like you need fancy camera equipment to do this. Your phone will do just fine in filming everything. After you’ve finished recording all of your scenes, put it all together using one of the many free video editing tools out there.
6. Nostalgic video compilation
This one is closely related to the previous idea but is one that may be a little easier to execute. This idea is a nostalgic video montage video featuring old photos and videos of you and your siblings growing up. Speaking from experience, if done well, this one can really bring out your parent’s “waterworks.” Every few years I do another variation of this idea in one way or another for my parents and they love it every time.
If you don’t have very many photos and videos of you and your siblings growing up, there’s also no shame in creating a video compilation using more recent photos and videos too.
7. Specialized gratitude journal.
Last but not least is putting together a special gratitude journal. I originally got this idea from a book I read called “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy. The author tells of a gift he gave to his wife where he decided to put together a special Thanksgiving gratitude journal for his wife. In doing this, he committed to writing down at least one thing he appreciated about his wife every day for an entire year. He was able to fill an entire journal with notes and entries and gifted this journal to his wife on Thanksgiving. Did his wife like it? Hardy noted that “she literally cried after receiving the journal.”
If you like this idea, commit today to jot down anything and everything you appreciate about your parents. Or, you can even think back throughout your life and write down all the random things they did that made you feel especially grateful. Once you’ve compiled a good list, it’s also fun to try giving it to them in a creative way. By trade, I build websites so it was only natural for me to create a special webpage featuring a timeline that included photos and videos.
Conclusion
When it comes to gift-giving for older parents, the most important thing is to give something that shows you care and understand their interests and needs. Though the task may be a bit daunting at first, with a little thought and consideration you can give your parents a truly great gift that they will cherish and love for years to come.
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