Seniors are usually focused on de-cluttering their homes, rather than collecting belongings that will gather dust and eventually land up in a charity shop. So You’ve Earned It set out to find great suggestions for meaningful Christmas gifts for our beloved precious seniors across a range of prices. So, if you are looking for something special for a spouse, a grandparent, or senior relative or friend, take a look…
1 – An annual subscription to your local Botanical garden. Many do have pensioner days, but it is nice to be free to visit whenever it suits. With an annual membership, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you are also donating to a worthwhile charity.
2 – A monthly delivery of a flower bouquet. If you live far away it would be nice to arrange a bouquet of flowers to be delivered each month of the year to your beloved senior. This can be organised through any of the international florists. A friend of mine receives one each month like clockwork from her sister in the UK and I admire them with envy!
3 – Make a personalised calendar with your own pictures. There are several online services that will do the printing and you still have time to do it for this Christmas. You can either make a calendar that has a picture for each month, or have one picture at the top and hang the calendar below. A birthday calendar where the elderly can have a reminder of the birthdays of each of their grandchildren or great grandchildren is also a great idea. Just Google ‘personalised calendars’ to find out more.
4 – Coasters to put under wet glasses or hot mugs are something that the elderly still use. Be creative, take a beautiful picture of the children/grandchildren and have it printed onto coasters. Again, just Google ‘personalised coasters’.
5 – A fridge magnet photo frame complete with pictures of the grandchildren or great grandchildren. If your beloved senior already has masses of photos scattered round the house, get the children to fill the frame with their own art work. Frames are available at most online shops and retail stores.
6 – If you are gifting to a senior who has an iPad or Notepad and she/he likes to contact family over Skype and likes to receive photos of the grandchildren, why not consider putting voice operated software onto the device and encourage them to talk about their past and their childhood – you will then have a record of their memoirs for when they are no longer around to regale you with stories of yesteryear.
7 – How about a Creative Writing course so your precious senior can record their memoirs? These are available online – some suggestions we found when Googling were: SA Writers College, The Writing Studio, and Writers Write.
8 – A membership to a gym that holds classes for seniors. The Sports Science Institute in Cape Town has a daily Hydrocise class (pool exercises) that is well attended, very social, and 80th and 90th birthdays are celebrated pool-side on a regular basis.
9 – Get the grandchildren involved in decorating a box for keepsakes. As we age, we have precious items that we have kept forever because of the memories they contain. A personalised, decorated box to store these in one place is a thoughtful gift. If there are no keepsakes needing to be stored, perhaps the box can be used to store the TV and DSTV remotes so they are easy to find at the start of each day.
10 – A donation to your relative or friend’s favour charity. For those people you know who really don’t need or want anything, a donation to their favorite charity, made in their name, is a thoughtful gift.
If this article was beneficial, consider the following:
https://youve-earned-it.co.za/lifestyle/budget-and-take-the-stress-out-of-christmas/
https://youve-earned-it.co.za/lifestyle/christmas-time-reach-lonely-seniors/