It's become increasingly difficult to find good gifts to get my parents. Between 4 kids they don't travel, they don't really go out unless its with friends for visits and they mostly stay home. At home they pretty much have everything they need from electronics to clothes and things. Myself and my brothers have no clue what to get our parents since they have no real hobbies. My mom enjoys baking and cooking but we renovated our house in 2003 and she has a giant kitchen with just about every gadget possible, and we've already exhausted the knife sets / appliances / kitchen gizmos. My dad is very simple, he doesn't like technology, he watches tv with my mom, movies and that's about it. It's really difficult to buy for them, when we ask what they want, they just say tell us to "finish school, help clean the house and be good" which we already do. TLDR, what do you get for your parents when they already basically have everything. Vacations are out of the question.
A hamper of nice food & drink? That's often what we buy elderly relatives (not calling your parents elderly but anyway) who don't 'need' anything...
A they into what I supposed would be called the good old days? My father has always admired the Supermarine Spitfire, so I tracked down a large model of one for his office. For your mother, why not think about jewellery? It's a bit of a cop out, but who doesn't like shiny things? Cheers Enterobsidian
Thanks for the suggestions, though I doubt we'll take either route. 1. We've done the whole dinner at a fancy restaurant and most of the time the gift cards just sit on a shelf and don't get used. 2. The amount of jewelry my mother already has is more than she'll ever need. She has a lot of god children so she's received all sorts of gifts from baptisms and such, plus my dad usually gets her jewelry. We wanted to do a Niagara Falls wine tour BUT my mother doesn't really drink, so even though my father would love it, she would just go because he would enjoy it. It's rather difficult trying to find anything.
Do they drink? Maybe some wine? Does your father like aftershave? Fishing? Football? My mother adores candles or anything that smells nice. And books. Candles and books keep her happy
My brother is kinda the same, everything we can afford he already has so what I did was get a lot of old phots, drawings etc and make a big picture/collage out of the and getting it glass framed. It show a bit of thought and I'm sure with 4 children there are a lot of old photos about which they have forgotten about or never look at anymore. It is really something that at christmas says 'Family'. Also you made it yourself which is something money can't buy and they will have a true emotional connection with it. When they see it on their wall they will always see something that makes them smile. The trick is to get the really heart-wretching stuff along with the photos that make you laugh. Good luck! That's my sensible suggestion. My other suggestion - coke and hookers - never fails.
You said your mum enjoys baking. If she likes making cakes is she good at decorating them? Would she perhaps like to go on a cake decorating course or class to learn things like creating sugar paste flowers, lace piping etc at a semi-professional level? A quick google shows a few placing running them in your area. If you dad likes wine (your idea re the wine tour) how about signing him up to a wine tasting club membership if you think he might actually go and enjoy it too?
Again, great ideas but we've done them. We did the whole digital picture frame thing for both my parents and they both liked it, mother even cried. As for baking, my mom has been baking / cooking since she was 12 and for a few years she was helping a family friend out at a bakery so she worked there and she helped make wedding cakes and the fancy fondant cakes that you see on tv. Many people have questioned why she never decided to go into baking / cooking professionally actually. My dad probably wouldn't go without my mom to a wine thing, and my mom would only go because my dad would want to, so it's kind of a 1 sided deal. We were thinking maybe a video camera but we already know we'll use it more than them, and they might record birthdays and stuff but they'll never re-watch them in the future. Anything sports related my mom won't go to, and my dad wouldn't go unless we go with him, so if we get baseball or hockey tickets its normally for fathers day or his birthday, plus with there being no hockey this season there isn't much choice there. As for candles, my mother has a love for them also, and I have no clue what her taste in books are so ebook reader and more candles just seem like a cop out. The one thing my mom says she wants is a family portrait, but she already has a gift voucher for one, we just haven't booked it, so there's no point to us paying for it if she already has a free one so to speak. Myself and my brothers and sister are stumped. It's very difficult to buy anything for them.
Sounds like perhaps your parents don't want anything money can buy, maybe they'd like it more if you and your siblings booked the familiy portrait and you all went out together to do it. You can go for lunch/dinner after too. Parents tend to value doing things with their kids more than items I've found.
What about the garden? Do either of them enjoy gardening or sitting outside on warm evenings? So along that vein, a nice plant/ornamental tree or maybe updating their garden furniture, patio heater, bbq ... Do they like similar music? If so, maybe a joint present - tickets to a concert or gig with an overnight stay? Does your father make his own wine or would he be interested in doing that? Does your mum like patchwork quilts? Maybe a new one for the bedroom? Very "American" I know Maybe a french patisserie cook book? Most people who enjoy cooking love new cookery books (I have around 80!) It should be easy enough to check if she has them. A few good examples from Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Paris-Boulangerie-Patisserie-Linda-Dannenberg/dp/0517592215 http://www.amazon.com/Plating-Gold-...F8&qid=1355133267&sr=1-13&keywords=Patisserie http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Baker...qid=1355133516&sr=1-1&keywords=Bouchon+Bakery As Cabe6403 suggested, get the family portrait done or maybe individual/group photos of all you kids and buy a beautiful silver frame/multi part frame to have them set in? Does their TV need replacing? Beginning to grasp at straws here
Home-brewing Cheesecake! A nice little hobby to get into - not massively expensive to get started, and you can drink the results!
We have a small tomato garden, when we renovated in 2003 we did all the landscaping / gazibo / new furniture. We wanted to get a firepit for our backyard but we have no where suitable to place it so that's on the maybe list. My parents aren't avid music fans, short of the radio they don't buy cd's or anything. My dad doesn't make his own wine, in the past he used to make it with either his or my moms dad, or he'll go make it with my moms uncle. My mom doesn't do quilts, and my mom buys cookbooks anytime she goes to any sort of kitchen store. We replaced a tv and surround system last year, we've gotten them a laptop, a new camera. We were thinking of a family dinner or maybe a night or two in Niagara, cost depending though. Clothing wise, my dad is the kinda person who wears what he has, if you buy him something new, it'll sit in his closet for a long time before he bothers to wear it, because "its new", and my mom goes clothes shopping fairly often so she doesn't really need more. I'll have to talk to the siblings but at this point its looking like an evening or night out on us. Appreciate all the suggestions though. Edit: +rep for the suggestions!
Just do a trip for each of them, wine for your dad and your mum has to tag along then a spa day for your mum and your dad had to tag along - full massage job, none of this just a quick face cream and a sauna crap.
My mom has no interest in spa's. My sister who is 15 has begged my mom to go on a spa retreat and my mom has never had an interest in it. Think the only solution is a family outing at this point. Time to go scout online to see if there are good overnight packages with something interesting to do. 2 years ago we went to Niagara overnight and my parents loved it just because we were all together, and we just did family things, walked around, went to the casino, went bowling and shopping and it was a lot of fun, but we just want to find something a bit different to make it more special. It's more our fault (the kids) because my oldest brother has been working since 17, I started working from 15-20 and the first year I got a job was the first year we all started buying gifts for everyone. Prior to that it was my parents bought everything for us and each other. Since there's 4 of us (3 that worked), we were always able to get a big gift by splitting the cost so we've covered all the major gifts throughout the years for birthdays, Christmas, mothers day and fathers day. The only practical gifts are the ones that we actually can't afford, such as a 4th car as there are 5 people sharing 3 cares, so my mom and brother are constantly acting as taxi drivers, but financially we can't afford another car, nor would my parents be able to afford the insurance and gas.
How about a weekend away as a family, get a house out somewhere remote where you can get all the family, extended family together for a nice relaxing time. Walks in woods, meals, bbqs in the summer or something? Do you all get together very often? Visit a place where you all went as a holiday when you were young to rekindle some memories, take photos of the same places and poses as you did when you were kids? Sounds like a tough nut to crack though!
I was thinking of the photo pose thing also, I'll have to go through some photo books to see if there any to re-emulate.
I have the exact same situation. Here's what I'm getting/have got: Electronic eye massager kit (look on Amazon) Photoframes/photobooks/personal calendars (from Vistaprint or snapfish) massage chairs hamper full of freshly prepared fruits. The trick is to prepare the fruits, not just throw them in Hot air balloon trip Short video of photos over the years At your parents stage of life when they're lucky to have all they need, you just need to show them you care and love them. The monetary value of the presents is irrelevant, just create something that needs a little more time than money.
Yea, we've realized that, we love doing family things but with 6 of us, both parents working, the oldest son who is 25 working full time, the other brother who is 23 in teachers college, me in university and my sister in high school we don't really get time together to really go out and do anything, but we always have dinner together. We've done slideshows and my mom always loves them, we got her a camera last year and she takes pictures of literally anything and everything, it's actually gotten to the point where she basically always has it on her purse "just in case". Might try and do a picture collage and get it framed or something, I'll have to talk to the siblings.
