Present for my young 86 year old Dad?

[BarbaraVineFan]

I am really stuck this year on what to buy my old dad. He is still pretty active, so would be offended by typical 'old person' presents like heated throws etc. He likes history, but already has a subscription to History magazine. He is a fan of coffee and of marmalade, but I have gifted him subscriptions to those in the two previous years! Looking to spend £50-80 ish. Any ideas gratefully appreciated!

What a shame that Past Times went bust. It would have been the perfect place to browse for a present for your Dad.

Handmade walking stick for his tours?

Heated throws are popular for every age!
What about a clay pigeon shooting experience?
A wildife camera for the garden?
An Ancestry DNA kit?

What about a shepherd's crook for walking

Right so that rules out local history books then

How about an Ancestry Test?

Does he like Family History? - how about a subscription to an online site like 'Find my past' or similar where he can look at census' and find records of family members going back. It sometimes says where people worked at the time etc - they also have newspaper records of local papers going back too.

I have a Mum of a similar age who also loves history.

However, I am guessing that more than any of his interests, what your Dad would love doing most is something with you. Can you book some tickets for something that aligns with his interests that you can do together along with a nice lunch. If is a special day trip you could just mock up some tickets for it.

A weather station that will tell him the temperature inside/ outside plus the humidity

Gifted my 85 year old mum a zookeeper for the day last year. She loved it.

Yes I bought my elderly parents a digital barometer as a last ditch ‘don’t know what to buy’ present and they use it and refer to it every day.

Another colleague had a surprise hit with one of those bird boxes with a digital camera inside. When they had fledglings in the box it was a delight and an obsession for them watching every day on the tv.

I've got my DM a vinyl record player (£35 ish) from Amazon and a few records from my local charity shop. She suggested this herself after I got DH one in the summer. She quite liked the nostalgia of vinyl and the idea of hunting out interesting ones in charity shops!

The weather station suggestion is a great one; I gifted this to an uncle one year and he's still raving about it. I'd also add:
Book on archaeoastronomy
Telescope
Ticket to event at local planetarium
Tutor-led foraging course

Lovely thanks!
I should say I have also got him (for a birthday) a Times front page from his date of birth made into a jigsaw puzzle, and murder mystery solving books (he's a mystery fan too).

Are you my long lost sister???

It is hard to buy for my dad when the books on his subject are ones he has written!

National trust membership if he likes to walk around

I've bought my dad, only slightly younger, a vintage book.

A day out at a relevant archive with lunch.

I was given a newspaper from the day I was born for my 50th. It was a nice thought but the events of that year meant nothing to me.

It would have been more meaningful to have had a newspaper from the day that I turned 18. I could have looked back and reminisced.