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?

For my Mum's 80th my sister made her a memory box. She used good quality notepaper with roses on and hand wrote out 80 memories she had with Mum using an ink pen and best writing. Mum cried she loved it so much. We bought her nice gifts but it was clear what Mun's favourite gift was. I bought her 80 tulip plants (her favourite flowers).

What about 80 hours of ‘vouchers’ written on cards for things such as:
Days out
Shopping trips ( not Tesco’s!)
Hours of cleaning and/ or gardening/or DIY
Afternoon teas
Lunches out
Visits to friends and relatives.

Plus a photo book is a great idea.

nannewnannew I thought that but actually wouldn’t that be a bit sad - wont she think “isn’t this what families do anyway? I had to get to 80 for them to think of this”
?? ?

Yes you’re probably right, but if her family are like mine it never actually happens! So a promise of help might spur them on. 🤞

[quote SkepticalCat]You can get personalised "nice tissues".

www.etsy.com/uk/listing/737479409/wedding-favors-for-guests-personalized?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=nice+tissues&ref=sr_gallery-1-5&from_market_listing_grid_organic=1[/quote]
Hahahaha!!!!

Hilarious.

Ima gonna make a list of this shit and leave it with my living will telling people never to buy it for me!

nannew yes I get it

At 80 she probably has acquired all her wordly possessions anyway.
Get something to do with memories or comfort in day to day life. And not 80 lots fgs.

40 different small chocolates that she loves.
Mixed bunch of 40 flowers ( in a vase she can keep or give back to you if she doesn't want it).
Bless you OP you are so thoughtful to try to find 80 gifts she'd like and I'm sure you know her and whether or not she'd be thrilled or not with so many.

You could do one of those photo books with 80 photos/memories? (eg Snapfish)?

I was about to suggest exactly what @deeplyambivalent said.

As someone in their 50s, “X0 small presents for X0 birthday” are truly terrible after maybe 30. I have accumulated far too much “stuff”. I’d far rather have a small amount of quality than a high quantity. I’m helping my 80 year old DM downsize. The amount of unused jokey mugs/key rings etc she has is crazy, and one person can only wear a limited amount of socks, and she probably had enough scented soap to see her out.

She says her favourite present ever is a photo album we did of her DC and DGC for her last birthday.

My friend did this for me for my 50th. She's absolutely lovely and put so much thought into it and I was very touched.

It was also a spectacular pain in the arse and I wouldn't ever ever consider doing it for someone else. Sorry!

Just to be a spoilsport - when I did a litter pick at a local beach the WORST things were those plastic birthday balloons, the strings are indestructible and were knotted round trash, seaweed, sea creatures, etc etc
Someone suggested 80 balloons - make sure they don't float away.

I'm going against the grain here, my beloved Aunt was 90 last year, we don't live close by so I posted a huge box with about 30 small gifts individually wrapped, maybe value of up to £10 each.
She loved it!!!!
Said unwrapping each one made her feel like a little girl all over again!

Totally agree with the 80 items being an awful idea. Don't do it OP. So many other wonderful things to do or give.

We took my mum away for her 80th to a posh hotel and all the family stayed over with her, she enjoyed it so much as everyone was together
I know she would have hated 80 presents idea, they want your time and experiences with loved ones not more “stuff” at this age!

@toomanyplants to be fair there's a huge difference between 30 and 80 presents. I probably enjoyed opening the first 20 of mine but then it was getting a little tiresome to say the same 'oh how lovely, thank you' or 'Ha ha yes I do like a nice mug'. That's why I already have 3564 of them ...

Forgot to say my mum is 80 but pre COVID , loved a wander round top shop and Zara, has a great sense of style and would not appreciate most of the stuff on this thread!

Agree that about 30 is the absolute limit for this kind of thing!
18 presents for an 18th - ok.
80 presents for an 80th - well you’ve read the thread OP.

I did 40 for my husbands 40th. Way more work than I thought it would be.

Volume of presents reaches a peak joy between 6-8 and then declines.

80 pictures/ memories is a lovely idea !

After reading the above post how about 8 presents, one for each decade?
Having said that I think I’d prefer one present or one activity/meal out etc than 60/70/80 presents.

@LoosingTheChristmasBattle

I did something similar for my mum but rather than 70 presents, I did 70 memories. I asked her friends and family to write down their favourite memories and put them all in envelopes, she had such a lovely time opening them all and re-living the memories, she still goes through the bundle now.

My mum will be 80 in July. I'm going to pinch this, it's the perfect gift for her!!! Especially this year as we can't have a party, this way her friends can be included in the day.

I keep thinking about what the total value will be of all these 80 presents and their wrapping, and what a really lovely single gift that amount could buy (that an 80 year old would never spend on herself).

I’m the same, 80 presents at say a fiver each would be £400.

No. You want to make Nan sit there and open 80 presents and have to find something nice to say about each one? It sounds like torture, not to mention she'll end up with 80 bits of junk she doesn't want.

Obviously I don’t know your nan but my mum similar age would hate this idea. Can you imagine the boredom and monotony of opening 80 presents and finding somewhere to put them all. A photo book with 80 pictures is a lovely idea from birth right through to the current year.