For some of you, your elderly family members are in a nursing home and are limited in their space allowable for gifts and personal items.  For others, your aging loved ones seem to have everything already.  This is a common struggle for this time of year because we love our grandparents and parents so much and desire to give them a wonderful gift that truly shows how much we care for them, but sometimes the smallest gesture is all they’ve ever wanted from you.

My go-to gift for aging family members year after year is a photo calendar.  I gather the best digital photos from the previous year and load them into a website like www.shutterfly.com or www.snapfish.com and create a calendar.  You can even add family members’ birthdays into the calendar.  It worked perfectly every year except for the year when my cousins all had the same idea and grandma ended up with family calendars for each room of the house.

Here are some other ideas:

Some of the best gifts come in small packages of everyday items.  Find out what your loved one uses and enjoys on a regular basis and create a Christmas care package for them.  Fill it with their favorite creams, tissues, baked goods and favorite beverages.

If you’d like to give them a gift that will strengthen them mentally or physically, go with a simple exercise machine for them to use while seated or a pack of memory games and puzzles.  Now, I don’t know if downloading the app Words With Friends on to their phone would work, but some crossword puzzles or Sudoku could be fun and very beneficial for them.

Another great idea is making a donation in their name to a charitable organization that you know they would be passionate about or a local nonprofit business that they may have been involved in.

Thank you for reading and please share your great elderly gift ideas with us.  We’d love to hear them!