I have not used thier tea-delivery but I have used Peet’s Recurring Deliveryfor a year’s worth of coffee for my father-in-law and he seemed very happy with it.
My Grandmother loved the monthly house-cleaning coupons that my Mom gave her last year. She also really likes knitted dish cloths. When I was there in June, I saw that she was still using the ones that I had made her 4 years ago–they didn’t look so good anymore. So, I made her more for Christmas.
We often buy my grandmother old TV shows and westerns on DVD, which she seems to like.
I’m a knitter, and my knitting skills have recently been improving, so this year I’m giving them knitted gifts. Grandpa wears sweater vests out in all weather (including the middle of summer) and always wears one that is starting to look a little ratty. I knit him a light sweater vest that won’t overheat him as much in the summer, and looks a lot nicer than what he’s wearing now. I made Grandma an afghan in colors that I know she likes that will go well with her house decor.
Last year, I made them a giant basket of baked goods. Grandma is a pack rat, so my father and aunt begged me not to get them anything that could add more clutter to the house.
Dad generally sends Grandma a plant or something; not sure what he does for Grandpa.
One year, we got Grandpa a really nice valet- one of those things with divided compartments that can sit on the desk. He has a tendency to misplace things, or leave the house without them, so this way he has a designated place to put his keys/cell phone/ hearing aid, as well as a designated place to pick up all of those things before going out the door.
I have a lot of these folks on my list. I used to make everyone tins of cookies, but now more than 2/3 of them have dietary restrictions, and nobody in the same house has the same restrictions so that’s out, but I still focus on consumable gifts.
teas and coffees, blank note cards, locally roasted unsalted nuts, unusual cheeses
For two of them I have for several years renewed magazine subscriptions they were already getting.
All the grandparents get photos in whatever format is most useful to them. My mom gets a stack of printed ones to add to a photo box, but my inlaws are a little more high tech and used to get CDs but this year will get a USB flash drive for their digital frame.
Re: digital picture frames…I may get one for my mom (age 84).
I thought it would be cool for each of the kids (or at least, those who want to do so) to put together a card of their family pictures. We’re a family of ten kids, so she could look at photos of child one’s pictures, with her spouse, kids, etc. and then change cards and look at child 2’s family and right on down the line. You could also have seasonal memory cards for Christmas, family reunions, special events like graduations and so on. Given that you can also play them as slide shows, with music courtesy of mp3s on some frames, I thought it would be kinda kewl.
Another alternative is a mini digital picture frame, e.g. for the keychain…sort of a traveling brag book. I’d be choosy about the images loaded onto it, however. They’d be good for headshots and all, but maybe not much more.
I concur with the monthly service and digital picture frame ideas, and add one that my sister came up with for our divorced Mom: a journal. Mom wrote in it almost daily, filled it and has already requested a third for Christmas. She said it’s a great alternative to all the crap TV she’s been filling her days with; now she can write in her diary like she used to when she was a girl and save the TV for the good stuff, like “Dancing With The Stars”.
I admit to being curious as to what she’s writing about; I must ask her if she wants us to shred them or read them after she … uh, you know.
After buying these keychain picture frames for my wife and my Mom, I’m not a big fan. Maybe I just got a bad brand, but I think the image is just too small, and you have to view it at just the right angle or it looks funny. Also, it was a (relative) pain to load with pictures - no easy insertion of a memory card. If anybody out there has found a really good one of these, I’d like to hear about it!
That is a fabulous idea. My 81-year-old grandmother is constantly whining about how she never gets pictures, but she also refuses to use the Internet, so we have to print out pictures, which is fine, but it adds another step.
I’m going to e-mail the other grandkids to chip in for a nice digital frame from all of us.
Robin
My dad’s favorite gift we ever got him was a wireless headset for the television. His hearing wasn’t terrible, but hearing dialogue on TV was often difficult. They sell them at any electronics store. Most of them do not interfere with the operation of the TV’s built-in speakers, so everyone else can watch, too.