Elderly comfortably off parents - tell me your successful gifts (or cunning ideas)

[Sadik]

Obviously before someone makes this point elderly people are all different and have different tastes. BUT the combination of older people often not wanting to accumulate more 'stuff', limitations around what they can do (making tickets to events / days out trickier) and maybe a preference for familiar food/drink items (ie not 'fancy' options) is a bit of a killer. Given that I figured maybe we could swap ideas around successful gifts that have actually hit the spot.

My really surprising hit last year for my elderly dad's birthday was a subscription to Spotify. He uses it all the time and (apart from the advantage of endless new music) it's much easier for him than managing CDs or LPs as he has limited sight.

Obviously that's solved birthdays ongoing (as I can renew it) but it has on the downside meant that I can't go for my usual default present of a couple of new CDs ... I can resort to Kindle books & a box of chocs but it's not very exciting

Mine love their Alexa

Gardening gloves
Socks
Nice soaps
Skincare
Voucher for a meal out
Magazine subscription

I should say to me 'elderly' is definitely mid-late 80s plus - I can manage presents for my active 60 something friends!

Ring doorbell is definitely along the right kind of lines for my dad, though not that specifically as we live in the kind of place where no-one locks their doors, and anyone visiting will just come round the back & shout.

Gig or similar would be absolutely ideal, but everything local is still in reduced post-covid mode (I imagine due to finances) and I've been trawling & can't find anything I think he'd like.

Another one that might suit other people is aerial drone pictures of house / garden / locality. Unfortunately I know dad likes them cos I found someone to do a drone roof survey for him to look at some wind damage & they took lots of extra pics thrown in for free!

@newroundhere the Oldie might be a thought. Silly question, but does it have a political tone? Dad's very quite left-wing, and just wanted to check it's not going to raise his blood pressure too much.

Thinking of magazines - I'm also wondering if there's a music title that might suit / give him new ideas to look for (he particularly likes jazz, but listens to a real range of music).

I recently got my parents a Chinese meal for 2 delivered to their place.
They loved it!

Cook sell ceramic dishes you can decant their ready meals into if you have people round. My elderly parents often have another couple round and get a Cook ready meal so I've bought them a dish for the four-person ready meals. Might get them a gift voucher too so they can choose food to put in it!

As a family, we buy gifts of £15 or less as 'we've all got enough crap already'.
So I bake biscuits & mince pies, my stepmother makes fantastic jam, all much appreciated.
John Lewis are doing some brilliant tree decorations so I'm considering buying everyone some of them!
We spend more on birthdays but they tend towards vouchers so they can get what they want when they want.

Last Christmas I got my parents a pair of binoculars to share, wasn't sure how that would go down but they both love it and use them all the time. They take them out on walks and away on holiday, my dad even enjoys sitting in the garden looking at planes going over with them!

I’ve had a few things go over really well in the past few years - a couple that others have said - Oldie magazine subscription (they are Centre right politically but I’m not sure which way the content leans - I’ve not really read it! But they do really like it). A weather station and a night garden camera.

other things recently were:
tickets to a recording of Sorry I Haven’t a clue
a recipe book made up of mums best loved recipes with commentary from family members
a subscription to Storyworth for each of them - they loved doing it over the year and the resulting books were lovely
BUT if I could afford it I’d love to get a company like this to work with them on a memoir-style book: https://www.locketbooks.co.uk/

my mum has also loved the make boxes we’ve got her: https://makebox.co/. As she is crafty and it’s an easy way to try a new craft/skill/technique and also my sister has bought her meal kit boxes

book subscriptions too!

Now that I have reached my sixties, I finally (sic) understand what my parents meant when they said they have everything they need and were very happy to not exchange gifts.

We do get the family together for events like birthdays and at some point over major holidays (live quite spread out).

The first realisation dawned when clearing out DMiL's house. She had once told me that she loved perfume so I had encouraged DH to gift her perfume. We found drawers full of unopened bottles of perfume. So sad.

Love this idea! Thank you! My MIL is notoriously difficult to buy for and this would be perfect for her.

someone might have suggested it already, but a gin subscription? I bought a 6-month one for a relative once and they really enjoyed it. Some of them can be pricey but the Little Gin Box one is £10 a month including P & P, and you can have it for as long as you want. Delivered every month and it’s a nice surprise, a different one to try each time.

For keen readers: a subscription to Slightly Foxed. It’s a very nicely-produced literary magazine. £48 a year.

Or a gift subscription to the London Review of Books - or New York Review of Books?

Thanks @Halsall, I didn't know about little gin box - it looks great! Think Ill ask for a subscription for my xmas present, not too extravagant at only a tenner. Three or six months then another one for my birthday, perfect.

That is a brilliant idea. Was it particularly expensive, if you don't mind me asking?

My Nan is 96 lost 75% of her sight during the 2nd lockdown and I brought her an Alexa dot. She uses it all the time and is often listening to classic FM or audible when I pop in.

I also brought her some nice hotter slippers one year and they went down well too

bumping, just in case anyone missed and to enable further suggestions 😊

Fab thread

@whatausername I can’t remember the exact price, it was pre-pandemic but I don’t think it was a lot. Something like £100-150 for an 90 minutes.

@Halsall thanks, they are great subscriptions in your post.

My most successful items are a photo desk calendar with photos of the grandchildren each month and a homemade Christmas cake. Things that involve a bit of effort but not too costly. I now do these every year for my dad alongside a couple of other little things like some posh coffee or chocolates.

@Sadik no, I don't think it's particularly political (although I haven't read it...) - my Dad isnt left wing but currently detests the tories and hasn't complained about it!

My other contribution is to suggest buying any Dickens lovers membership of the Dickens Fellowship - it’s under £40 annually for one person for the top subscription level, which includes a print version of their magazine The Dickensian (more of a quite chunky little book full of very interesting articles) - and all memberships include unlimited free visits to the Dickens Museum in London, which is a very nice place to visit (with a cafe!). A lovely gift for literature lovers.

@uhtredbebbanburg that's great, thank you.

Apologies I haven't read the thread but this was a great success with my folks, who'd had one years ago when they were all the rage:

A teasmade for the bedroom. I hadn't realised it had become a bit of a chore for them to go downstairs to make a tray of tea and bring it back up to enjoy with breakfast tv and the online papers. So now they bring the tray up at night with clean mugs and a flask of cold milk - revolutionary.

Guess it would work with a coffee maker too.

My dad has a teasmade Shauna and loves it, so I'd definitely second that one.

OMG...this is just beautiful....brought a tear to my eye.