Cherished Personalized Gifts for Grandparents
Why, in their day, our grandparents invented the machinery we use today to give each other personalized gifts. Once they did, they got replaced by that machinery and had to go sell hardware and insurance without benefits.
So what is a good personalized gift for grandparents? They don’t want video games like people who don’t have to work; they don’t need dishes or linens with their initials on them (see above).
Parents are hard enough to shop for. What can be given in earnest to their parents, who still call the store by the name it had before Macy’s bought it?
Fortunately, there are still a few great personalized gifts for grandparents out there. Read on.
Gift #1,2,3
1. Great-Grandchildren
Everyone likes other people’s babies. And not everyone ever gets the chance to say that they’re a great-grandparent. So if you’re in a position to have an infant of your own and show it to your grandparents, you could have a blockbuster on your hands (or in your arms, as the case may be).
Now, an important aspect of “giving” your grandparents a great-grandchild is remembering to take it with you when you leave the party. Studies show that broadly speaking, grandparents aren’t interested in receiving other people’s babies on a permanent, in-home basis. It’s about the visits. In general, assume they will be delighted to “have” a great-grandchild in the same way that they have you, their grandchild: remotely.
Of course, every family is different. Just know your audience and use your best judgment.
2. Carefully Selected Gift Certificates
Many of our older folk delight in routine the way we all do when we’re tiny children. For most of us, the meat of our lives–late adolescence through retirement, usually–is an uninterrupted stream of interruptions. If we make it through the chaos to a fortified position in our twilight years, it seems that gently rhythmic is the understandably preferred type of progression of our days.
Thus, it shouldn’t be too difficult to detect a favorite cafe or stationery store by your grandparents’ frequent visits to it. Clearly, the prices aren’t high enough to stop the visits, but they’re still probably worth complaining about. A gift card to such an establishment is a perfect personalized gift for grandparents to both assuage a bit of the financial worry that has inevitably followed them into their carefree years and give them an opportunity to brag about you.
“Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Greene, that gift card has quite a sum in its balance!”
“Thanks,” they’ll smile, glancing at each other. “One of our grandkids gave it to us.”
3. Humor
All over the known universe, landfills overflow with plaques and t-shirts that have bad jokes etched or sewn into them. “It’s not drinking alone if the kids are home!” Thanks, white elephant Christmas party.
This is one of the reasons the payoff is so dramatic when a grandparent and grandchild make each other laugh genuinely. It’s like understanding your first joke in the foreign language you’ve been studying. Something that causes surprised, physical laughter is one of the best (and most personal) personalized gifts for grandparents.
Now, you may have to liberalize your definition of laughter for this, which is alright. An unmistakable glint in the eye counts. This grandpa sign will undoubtedly do the job in certain well-connected families.
Alternatively, irony is frequently a source of good fun. If you have the light-hearted relatives for it, try giving this stylish coolest-grandpa shirt to someone who will be at the party and can be relied upon to say nothing about it until one or the other grandparent notices.
Give a Unique Gift to Your Grandparents
Or you could give them something really good.
What’s better than a baby mixed with a gift card and jokes? Custom songs that are about us.
Imagine the feeling of connection to the universe that Frankie Valli’s Sherry must have felt when she heard her song for the first time. Or the vindication that the boy named Sue experienced when Johnny Cash put his hitherto unsung story to music.
Songs are the perfect personalized gift for grandparents. Why, if you could write songs, you could create one with just the right balance of sentimentality and humor to touch and delight not only your grandparents but the rest of the family when they hear it.
Even better, if you found someone who could write and record such a song for you, getting the rest of the family in on it could cut your cost.
You could play the song for your grandparents by operating a machine that handles CDs or MP3s for them. You could even pick up a simple CD player from the Rite Aid, teach them how to use it, and send them home with the disc and a new, confidence-building electronic.
Or, if you wanted to really go for it this year, you could even hire the song’s composer to come to your party, play a full, ten-song set, lead a toast, and charm perhaps literally everyone who’s there.
You could still bring the baby if you don’t feed it any alcohol. And you could hide your carefully selected gift card in the babe’s bib pocket so that your grandparents discover it when they hold the little squirt.
But seriously, think about the song idea. At Tall Tribute, we work collaboratively with our customers to make each piece we compose perfect. Loving family members explain why they want such a personalized gift for their grandparents and what a proper song about them should include.
More than 100 people have already been honored with such odes. One daughter, named Cindy, gave this feedback on a song written for her parents: “Best gift I’ve ever given them! The personal details were more than I expected and the song was the highlight of their anniversary.”
Click right here to hear some of Tall Tribute’s greatest hits and here to request a sample of what your song might be!