Ruby Wedding Anniversary Present - Ideas please!

[crystaltips]

My parents are celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary this year. I am wanting to buy them a present to mark the occasion - in this day and age it's no mean feat! I am looking at my own marriage with envy and trepidation for the next 30 years !!
Do any of you have any bright ideas please?

We gave my parents rose trees (ornamental bushes on a 6ft ish trunk - very non-technical terms here) and they received lots of other plants - anything red really, plus there is a particular rose variety called ruby wedding.

I sent my parents a case of very good red wine! Obviously it's not something they can keep (but they are the first to admit that they really do not want any more posessions!) but they really enjoyed it.

I bought my parents a really big ruby-red vase in a modern design - like a giant tumbler really - from John Lewis. I guessed they'd get lots of flowers to mark the occasion and they seemed really pleased with it and still use it. I think anything in red glass would be pretty nice anyway!

A ruby red picture frame with a portrait of all their grandchildren in it.

Yes, we had the same problem last year. In the end we gave them some money so that they could treat themselves to a shortbreak somewhere. Most travel companies do vouchers for this sort of thing and some travel agents do them as well. Which is what I wanted to buy, but my dh could not decide, which is why they got the cash!

How about a ride in a helicopter, (I was fortunate enough to do that for my 6th wedding anniversary) or just a meal out maybe with some friends who may have been at their wedding? Or a night at the hotel they stayed in after they were married? Sometimes an experience is better than a present. I suppose it depends on what your parents are like and how much cash you have to spend.

Let us know how you get on.

Like Lindy's mine are all possessioned-out after 40 years together, so we took ours out to dinner (with my sis and partner) and then good seats to see Kiss Me Kate. As they live a long way from us, we all treasure our meet-ups (until the tensions start to surface ). It was a great evening. We couldn't give them anything "red" (a nice idea I think) as my mum has an animus against the colour and won't have it in the house...
Many congratulations to them, Crystaltips!

Could you hunt out a favourite wedding photo that your parents own or, even better, ask relatives who were guests at the wedding to hunt out one of theirs? Your parents may not have ever seen the picture before. Then get the photo blown up and framed.

Another thought... For my parent's 40th wedding anniversary, my eldest sister asked all the family for favourite stories or pictures. She then collated them all into a book and presented it to them at the surprise party she organised. It was a fab occasion, especially as she tracked down people who had been at their wedding, my dad's old colleagues as he had retired 2 years earlier andvarious relatives who we hadn't seen for years. The book was the starting point for many "Do you remember..." type conversations and lots of laughter.