Gifts for the Seniors in Our Life

Why does it seem that gifts for grandparents and other seniors in our lives are always last on our "completed check gift list"? Why do we make gift giving to someone above our generation so difficult... it is not.

Al least not anymore... since I talked with a senior (my best friend's grandmother) to discuss this dilemma.

Her solution to the dreaded senior gift giving... photo treasures... whether it be of grandkids or from her era... and gift cards.

She regaled me with tales about her friends being on the receiving end of some of the worst gifts ever, and the subsequent white elephant gift exchange social help at their local senior citizen community center. Some of the gifts were downright awful, that rather than exchange them with each other, they were simply tossed in the small trash bins around the community center.

My friend's grandmother went on to confide in me that one of the gifts ...the ugliest sweater ever crocheted, would be "regifted" to another senior's not so friendly daughter in law the next Christmas.

She tells me that when space is finite as well as a person's time on this earth... let that person be able to choose what is best. Gift cards work best that way. They are not being impersonal but practical and that is what most seniors wish for as gifts from family and friends.

Consequently, when my grandmother's birthday rolled around this year, I purchased a gift card for her from her favorite used book store. She has friends there and she enjoys going in there to peruse the shelves for the newest romance novels... she has a list of all the ones she has read. Did she like the gift... she told me she loved it. I am inclined to believe her as she used up her gift card the next day and the sweater my sister purchased for her is still wrapped and boxed cramped up in the top of the closet, along with my gift to her the year before. Gift cards from now on as I really do not wish for all those gifts to come toppling down onto my grandmother one day.