What can I buy my 82 year old Gran?

[elsmommy]

Shes previously told me she can't eat chocolate because it gives her stomach cramps.
She doesn't like ornaments cos its more to dust around.
I wouldn't have a clue what size clothes to buy!!
I got flowers last year and she told my dad that she'd got enough in the garden without having them in the house

Shes a very difficult woman

how about you pay for you and her to go out for dinner one day?

i have a gran like that. we usually buy her a hamper full of groceries, puzzle books and little bits & bobs. there's usually something she likes in it
what about a magazine subscription?

Nice crabtree smellies? Boring but old ladies still like to pamper themselves sometimes!

I like the magazine subscription idea.

She can't really get around very well and I don't drive so I couldn't really take her out.

If anyone buys her smellies me or my mom ends up with them for christmas

My gran is 90 and she always wants roc anti wrinkle cream!! She has more wrinkles then scrunched up paper, but she thinks its great stuff!!!

But i would suggest bringing her to dinner/lunch.

foot spa, home visit beutian to give pedicre/manicure,proffesional family photograph.

for my grans birthday i arranged for all the family to meet including great gran children as there had been rifs for years, took some doing but my nan said it was the best thing to see her family together.

How about a lovely old lady purse from berkertex in littlewoods, always worked with my grans! P.s remember the 50p in it for good luck!

audio books

electric blanket

dressing gown

cordless telephone

my gran turned 84 last week.......with 36 grandchildren all buying presents it gets increasingly hard to find ANYTHING to buy her!!

so i bought some nice hankies (which she absolutely loved) and a Battenburg cake so we could have a slice and a cup of tea.

she really appreciated them both........and the chance to tell me loads of stories about when she was little etc.

My gran passed away last year - but for my Grandad it's just Worther Originals, Shortcake or pictures 'drawn' by the boys (18 months and 4 3/4yrs).

Have to confess I misread the title of this thread and though it said

"where can I buy an 82yr old Gran".........was going to suggest trying the nursing homes

How about music from when she was young or a newspaper from the day she was born. You used to be able to get videos of certain years, with news footage music cinema clips etc. For my grandparents wedding anniversary we booked a meal invited the whole family and hired a group like the beverly sisters, it made my grandfather weep. Its a lovely memory.

I bought my 90 yr old Granny an audio book and some hand made turkish delight from Greenwich market that tastes just like the turkish delight my Grandpa used to buy from a Turkish man in Cork (I think). He used to order huge batches of it to be sent up to Dublin because he and Granny liked it so much.

Elsmommy,

Since you like the idea of a magazine subscription, Yours magazine is very popular with my 72 year old mum.

How about one of those padded lap trays. My hubbys great grandma loved hers and uses it all the time.

Make her up a pocket size photo album - mine loves to look through hers & can carry it around.

i second the photo album idea. my nan is 86 and sounds exactly like the awkward oldies mentioned here. i always buy flowers becuse i am so far away - i can ring a local florist and get her something made up and delivered. but i know in my heart that thats a bit shitty - even though its expensive.

one christmas i made up a photo album - ibought a massive one. i got all my old phtotos out of their dusty places. and i put them in. under each photo i put a year and a funny comment, like a picture of myslf in hospital just after having my first in 1989, with the inscription " look at that nose" as it was when i was thin and had my fathers nose - which my jowles cover now! but my nan had a great sense of humour. she gets it out and flicks through and has added some of cousing and uncles at the back. she likes showing small great granchildren who perhaps have never met me or my chilren.

i also buy puzzle books - crosswords. and am watching this thread with interest for some good ideas. i think the hamper idea is a good idea. i might do that, now i will be looking out for a nice wicker bow at a car boot.

not bow - basket*

Why do people assume that because you're 82 you want an electric blanket? Pfft I'm going to ask for a motorbike or a bungee jump or something for my 80th... if I remember lol.

I had the same problem for dh's Grandma 2 weeks ago, she was also 82.

In the end I got her a lovely scented almost paper like flower from M&S and then we put a little made up voucher in her card saying we would take her out for a meal or a trip somewhere. So we took her for a meal last week and she loved it.

That was a reccomendation from MN

Can she write still without pain{I only ask as my nan cant but my 91 yr old gran can}...If so maybe notelets,envelopes and stamps?
Or scatch cards?My gran loves having them as its a treat for her and also keeps her happy by writing her thank you notes..{and there i was looking forward in stopping doing thank you notes once my children were old enough...
[blush}lol

minnie I love your gran !

My mother is also 82. In the last few years my brother and I have given her BBC videos (especially dramas and series about landscapes); dressing gowns/slippers; posh lunches; potted orchids; a digital radio; an old-fashioned phone with a nice, loud ring and a trip to the theatre.

I would like an electric blanket and my mum loved hers nothing to do with age except she might have had one for years and could do with a new one, I was going to put hot water bottle but thought electric balnket was more generous ..I thought all women used hot water bottles between September and the end of June..