80 presents for 80th birthday...help!

[tessiegirl]

My nan is shortly turning 80 and I wanted to try and come up with 80 presents for her
Is it possible?!
Presents can be small and cheap to some which can be more expensive...
Can anyone please help with ideas?

Trying to be helpful, I thought of eighty bottles of really decent wine - let's say £1,600 if you got a good bulk discount. (Less if bought en primeur, though it's a bit late for that ...) I'd be pretty delighted with that.

Or an orchard of eighty fruit trees.

A touring holiday lasting eighty days; that could be truly wonderful if well organised and requiring no effort on the part of the gift recipient.

That's about all I can think of.

Imagine what that'll cost. At an average of £5 per gift, which will inevitably include tat at that price, 80 gifts will cost £400. Just imagine how much more she'd appreciate one gift for a quarter of the price, something that she'd actually use.

It’s doesn’t matter how good the quality is and whether it’s not tat, don’t you think by 80 years old most people have bought the majority of things they actually want?

My Nan is 80. She has everything she really wants as well she’s had 60+ years as an adult to buy and be given stuff already.

Even something like ‘ expensive cashmere gloves’ people mention, she has two pairs, give her another and she will say thanks and they will go to charity or a friend within a few months. It’s not like people go around trashing woollen gloves that they need replacing yearly.

Literally the only things she would want are a specific thing because the other has worn out or broken, or consumables, photos or token gifts like a drawing from grandchild

Also photos, one nice photo in a nice small frame to stand on sideboard. Not large mix match canvas, not magnets, not photo key rings.

I keep seeing posts on various Facebook groups asking for ideas for x amount of presents for special birthdays and I agree with the majority I think it’s a terrible waste of money.

Oh is this where it comes from? Classic Fakebook where people post pictures of themselves showing everyone what a fabulous person they are with little regard for the recipient.

Ah @tessiegirl I feel kind of bad for you! You were trying to do something nice...

I think it’s a fun idea for an 18th or maybe 20th birthday. But it’s really, really not a great idea for the average 80 year old.

I urge you to discuss it a bit more with your mum and maybe do 8 presents for 8 decades (or some other variation) instead.

Otherwise I do truly think that something luxurious like a Fortnum & Mason hamper would be better - consumable, so nothing is wasted, and self-contained so it’s not too much stuff, plus it’s something that a lot of people would never buy for themselves. I know not everyone loves a hamper, but if I were 80 I’d love one...I’d love one now!

@HectorHalloumi

I keep seeing posts on various Facebook groups asking for ideas for x amount of presents for special birthdays and I agree with the majority I think it’s a terrible waste of money.

Oh is this where it comes from? Classic Fakebook where people post pictures of themselves showing everyone what a fabulous person they are with little regard for the recipient.

Ah. Now it all makes sense, as does OP's reaction to the sensible replies she's had here.

These 'clever' ideas are rarely about the recipient. I'd be pretty heartbroken if my daughters gave me a gift like this (which thank goodness they never would - they took me away for the weekend for my last 'big decade' birthday, which was the best gift they could give me - quality time with them)

Will no one think of the children??
Obviously the birthday girl will not be opening these on her own so the boredom of watching this is beyond reason. And imagine her face (and everyone else's) when the last one opened is insoles?

@saraclara totally agree!! As soon as I saw the Facebook reference, it made sense, I’m not on there but can just imagine this being a trend on there.

This thread is funny, I loved the list of suggestions 😁

Sorry but I’m dying laughing at favourite word and bin bag 🤣
Mumsnet is brilliant for threads like this, sadly not in the way the OP was expecting. Sorry OP is a terrible idea and if you really can’t see that you are making it all about you and not about your grandma.

I have a good idea, go into a charity shop and buy 80 items. At least you won’t have spent loads of money and then when your nan no longer has ‘need’ of the items, you know they at least have resale value.... and you’ll have given some money to charity. Win win really....

And if that doesn’t grab you, make sure you include sellotape and a big roll of wrapping paper and she’ll be able to create her very own lucky dip to donate to the local school fete if it goes ahead this year.

Surely it depends on the person and the OP knows her mum.

For my dad's birthday we got as many family members as we could together in a pub.

It's not something my dad would have thought to do for himself and he loved it.

We are quite spread out as a family so most people had to travel a few hours

For my dad’s 80th we got his brothers and sisters to come over from Ireland and surprised him at a lunch. They hadn’t all been together for years. They gave him a beautiful painting of a hill near where they grew up, which he loved. For MIL and FIL we had weekends away with extended families, I don’t actually remember what presents we gave, it was everyone being together that they enjoyed.

Surely it depends on the person and the OP knows her mum.

I daresay she does, sashh, but the thread is about her grandmother. So the OP herself is relatively young. And probably hadn't thought this through. And perhaps somewhat at a distance from her grandmother's actual preferences.

What is your budget, op? You're adamant that there'll be no "tat" involved, so I'm assuming each component will be at least a fiver?
The thought of £400 minimum wasted on bits of crap like shopping bags and fridge magnets is stressing me out, and I'm not the one getting it...
Take her to tea at Fortnums, and give her a basket to fill in the food hall when you've finished.

Stupid idea. The thought of sitting down and having to deal with 80 different presents sounds infuriating

What about 80 little puppies or 80 kittens?

@BigBlueDog

What about 80 little puppies or 80 kittens?

🤣🤣

Thank you for more suggestions! Some good ideas!

No, this is not inspired by facebook btw.

Soory @MayIDestroyYou I missed that.

But I knew my grandparents very well

I think it depends on the person. We did 75 presents for my Mils 75th because she adores presents and things and being made a fuss of. The gift was the experience of a ridiculous pile of presents and she loved it. She's mentioned it far more than the well thought out expensive gifts we've got her previous years. We borrowed a basic gazebo, hung fairy lights and filled it with presents.

Trying to be environmentally conscious, a lot of the presents were second hand. Charity shops tend to be full of the kind of ornaments she loved and I think they ranged from 10p to 5.00. Food and drink featured heavily, along with a couple of books.

I like the 80 photos idea.

I think the older people get the more they appreciate people and experiences rather than things.

How about spending 80 hours with her and taking her on holiday somewhere fabulous.

How about spending 80 hours with her and taking her on holiday somewhere fabulous.

Around the world in 80 days?

I got my nan anti-wrinkle cream when she was around this age. She loved the joke. Plus everyone needs face cream so it was actually useful!

You can laugh, scoff and think I'm deranged PP but OP asked for ideas....ideas I have supplied. I actually know people who have done this/had this for their 70/75 birthdays. Not me personally I would prefer a spa day, gin tasting or a tree to plant myself. But I jest not .... When I asked what they had for their birthday (expecting to be told family lunch, holiday or something) and was told 'a box with 75' presents.... I asked what sort of things. ...these were things that were listed. It was organized by the grown up children and I think the grandchildren suggested some things. I guess having done it for one birthday (Father's 75) they decided to do similar for the other (mother's 70). I didn't ask further about the appropriateness or whether it was appreciated. I assume some of the things were ironic.... or maybe not. I only know them through friends/neighbours.