Gift ideas for grandparents who have everything
Ask a grandparent what they'd like this year and you'll probably hear "Oh, I don't need a thing." They mean it. After 70 or 80 years, the cupboards are full and the shelves are full, and another scarf won't change much.
What many grandparents would love is harder to wrap. They'd like the family to sit still for an hour and listen. They'd like to know the names and stories they carry won't be forgotten. The gifts below all start there, and most of them cost very little.
An afternoon with a recorder running
Pick a quiet afternoon, bring a phone, and ask about the house they grew up in. Then ask about their parents' work, the oldest relative they remember and the story the family always tells. The Library of Congress suggests asking first whether you may record, and says a smartphone or a digital recorder will do the job.
To make it a gift you can unwrap, write the date on a card along with three or four questions you'd love answered, and tuck it into an envelope. Afterward, give your grandparent a copy of the recording. Grandchildren make wonderful interviewers. Older people often tell a grandchild things they've never told anyone else.
Our free guide, The Family Story Starter, has 24 questions to bring along, with room to write the answers.
Their own page from the 1950 census
If your grandparent was alive in April 1950, they're very likely on a census page in the handwriting of the person who came to the door. The National Archives released the 1950 census in 2022, and it's free to search at 1950census.archives.gov.
The site suggests searching for the head of the household, which in 1950 was often your grandparent's father, with the state and county if you know them. Once you find the page, you'll see the address and everyone at home that day, with their ages, birthplaces and jobs. Print it and slip it into a simple frame, and you may get an hour of stories about the neighbors listed on the same sheet.
The photo box, sorted together
Most grandparents have a box of photographs somewhere, and they're often the last person who can name everyone in it. A good photo-safe album and an afternoon of sorting make a lovely gift for both of you.
Write the names on the back as you go. The Library of Congress recommends a soft graphite pencil, on the back and near the edge, and warns against sticky notes, tape and old "magnetic" albums with sticky pages. Use full names rather than "Mom" or "Aunt Rose," and add a place and a year, even if it's a guess with a question mark.
The family recipes, in their own handwriting
A recipe card in a grandmother's hand can mean as much to a family as any photograph. Scan or photograph the cards, ask who taught them each dish, and gather the pages into a small book for every grandchild. If the recipes were never written down, cook together and write as you go.
Small family papers like these matter more than you'd think. In our sample book about the fictional Doe family, the family Bible is the only record that gives the year Lucy Doe died. It gives the year and nothing more, and without it the family wouldn't have even that.
Their family's story, in a book
For a grandparent who's always wondered where the family came from, a family history book may be the gift they talk about for years. At Root & Quill we research a family in the original records, such as parish registers, census pages and passenger lists, and write what we find into a hardcover book with every fact cited to its source.
The Ancestor Portrait, the story of one ancestor or couple, starts at $450. The Family Heritage Book, which traces one or two lines back four generations, starts at $1,500, and the three-volume Heirloom Collection starts at $2,800. You can see how the pages look on our Sample Pages, and the details are on Books & Pricing.
A book takes about 4 to 6 weeks of research and writing, and about 7 to 10 weeks in all once the draft review, design and printing are done. For the finished book to be under the tree this Christmas, we'd need to talk by 30 October.
After that date, the gift is our printable gift certificate, with your own message on it. Your grandparent has their own free 30-minute call when they're ready, and the research starts in the new year. You can pay in full or half now and the rest during the project, and every invoice comes to you, never to them. The certificate has no expiration date, so nobody has to hurry.
The gift underneath all of these
Every idea here comes down to the same thing, which is time spent asking and listening. A grandparent who's asked about their childhood feels known, and the family ends up with something it can keep.
What's the one question you'd most like to ask your grandmother or grandfather? We'd love to hear it.
If a family history book sounds like the right gift, a free 30-minute call is an easy way to start. Tell us what you know about the family, and we'll suggest the book that fits.
