What are you getting your mum who has everything ?

[mrshouse]

Ok my Dad is unusually easy to buy for as he has hobbies and interests coming out of his ears and a christmas list longer than the DCs but my mum is impossible. She is in her 70's, has pretty much everything she needs and isn't particularly into pampering. I have done no end of DD orientated presents eg framed pictures, digital photo frame to look at unframed pics etc but think this is wearing a bit thin.

I'm all out of ideas now though and hoping to steal someone else's!

my mum usually wants the good food guide or an aa hotel guide or gardens guide/ days out guide
the sort of thing that gets updated every year

I bought Mum an iPod for her birthday last month.

Other presents that have gone down well are things like vouchers for cookery classes, or a meal in a restaurant. Or tickets to a show.

Nothing that sits around getting dusty.

We only have MIL to buy for. She is also in her 70's. She has mentioned an interest in something to keep her brain active so we are getting her a DS with Brain Training or Professor Layton game as she has seen the advert and thought it looked good. No idea if she'll get on with it thou.

They have a pic on tyhewall, standard size print, from their 40th alst year adn I have requested a copy for my wall except really it is to make into a canvas print for them.

I wasdevoid of other ideas, this seemed best

Wedgewood do a collcetion of vintage syle teacups, 6 different designs, you buy one at a time and they come in a gorgeous box.

I bought my mum one last christamas and am gettting her another tis christmas. She likes stuff like that, you know 'nice' china.

(actually they are rather lovely)

My mum is the same, really hard to buy for. She's very well off so buys herself everything she needs.

I always get her and my dad a calendar made up with that year's pictures of my ds, it's a bit of a tradition for me now. I've also got them another copy of the Time Out Movie guide. Their old one is a bit battered and out of date, and they're always complaining they don't know anything about any of the films on Sky movies.

I'm also going to splash out on a new dualit toaster for them. It's a bit ott but this year they have been brilliant to me, and their old toaster is crap (funny how with all their money they've never bought a proper one, theirs was a tenner in Woolies about a million years ago!) so I'm going to get them a lovely shiney chrome one.

either these www.firebox.com/product/2187/Index-Chopping-Boards
or this
www.firebox.com/product/2439/Power-Plant-Growing-Machine?via=cat

also like this
www.firebox.com/product/1077/Civet-Coffee-Kopi-Luwak?via=cat

I'm getting my Mum a photo calendar. She has moved abroad so wont see DS as much as she used to, has everything she wants, drastically downsized everything when she left and I cant even get theatre tickets now she is abroad. I'm leaving the calendar till after Christmas (will fly out to see her mid January so I can include some Christmas photos

My mum is impossible to please, so I've given up trying. Though she does like jewellery, so I was thinking of getting her a necklace with a tiny cup of tea from somewhere like Etsy (she likes cups of tea). Also really like these things you can get made from your child's fingerprints or drawings.

Thanks everyone! This has given me some ideas. Think tickets to something she may enjoy will be tomorrow's pursuit (as long as not too frivolous, crowded or noisy!!!!)

Anymore ?

My Mum is in her 70s. I bought her a steamer last year because I was getting a bit worried about her either forgetting about the pans of water or hurting herself when draining them. Year before I bought her a slow cooker. This year, have got her tickets for the theatre + will look for a large hand bag she wants to use when travelling.

My MIL has everything. Apart from rollerskates...

Marking thread, as did the digi frame last year and have no clue apart from the photo calendar and nice smellies for this year....

Might do the Red subscription too, acksherly, as she mentioned she'd read it in the dentist's and thought it was "lovely" (and she usually reads Saga and the WI mag)

What about one of the Oxfam presents? Last year MIL had an acre of rainforest, this year we have bought her a package to train a teacher.

I am giving MIL some v luxurious sheets (which will come to about a quarter of our entire Xmas budget, including travel back to the UK as we live abroad and all the food/drink). She has incredibly sensitive skin and would never dream of spending money on upgrading her cheap polycotton sheets to something that I hope will be more comfortable. So we are giving sheets, and hoping that the real gift will be the ability to go to sleep without tossing and turning for hours every night first.

Another present that has gone down well with her was a set of new kitchen knives. If I really got stuck I'd give her Ryanair vouchers so she could travel to see her grandchildren, all of whom live abroad, whenever she wanted without having to plan it months in advance to get the cheapest fares (she still would, to make the vouchers last longer

We always enjoy splashing out on MIL as she is amazingly frugal and never spends anything on herself.

An Oxfam toilet for someone with no access to running water.

I second the calendar made out of personal photos from the last year. I did this a couple of years and then thought the idea was wearing thin last year and said I wouldn't be doing it again, but my mother expressed such dismay, I realised it was actually something useful and pleasureable for her (with the added bonus of being throw away-able at the end of the year if she secretly did not like the photos.)

Not sure I can do it again this year though as I am not sure I have enough photos.

We've bought a couple of 'experience days' as presents this year, 3 course meal with wine and champagne at a local posh hotel for my Mum and Dad and a Thames cruise/flight on the eye for pil.

Can I plug my mum's books here? They do make perfect gifts for older ladies.

Scuba Dancing is a frothy villagey romcom with a more mature heroine.

Murder Most Welcome is a quirky take on the Victorian murder.

Both are available on CD or large print if sight is an issue.

My mum also in her 70s and has all she wants really, I suggested expensive face cream a while back and this year she is taking me up on that.

I am making her and partner a patchwork quilt but that prob not ready for this xmas after all. Previously got her some jeans as she'd never had any and wanted a good fit (Levi's). And a rose bush a couple of times, that went down well.

I bought my mum a handbag and filled it with bits like lipstick, face cream, pretty tissues, nice pen, notebook, compact mirror, spectacle wipes, etc. She loved it, especially the contents. She did use it, too, as she had a habit of putting things away 'for best' and then forgetting about them!!

Got her theatre tickets last year. Think I'll do the same this year.

Try this site, they have loads of great different ideas, I keep going back to it as there is always something new to buy!

My mum loved this book. It's a funny and poignant recollection of growing up in the isolation of The Forest Of Dean in the early part of the 1900s. Mum's 76 and from rural north Devon and she readily identified with much that was written!

Note it used to be called just 'Child in/of? the Forest'.

here