@HImom what other gifts did they receive…maybe some good suggestions for others!
When my dad was that age he made it plain that he was no longer interested in receiving “things” for birthdays and holidays. A good substitute was a donation in his honor (and now his memory) to a Parkinson’s-related group since he suffered from that.
For my father’s 90th birthday, I arranged a fly-over of the house by a plane trailing a banner for the occasion (strictly limited number of letters), plus dinner for the extended family. On the one hand it was pricy, to be sure. On the other hand, the banner fly-over made an interesting element of a large family celebration. It did not go exactly as planned, but it was okay. If you might think of doing this, I recommend checking the nearest small airfield to make arrangements, rather than looking on the internet.
For the 90th birthdays of others, I have mainly been showing up for a celebration with a small gift of a type that I know they will like. (My mother did not reach her 90th birthday.)
Unique idea. For my grandmothers 75th birthday she told everyone they were not allowed to spend more than $7.50 ($9.00 for 90th).
Only criteria was the gift had to be wrapped really pretty with a unique bow. She got 50 beautifully wrapped gifts and she had so much fun seeing how unique veryone was with their $7.50. She got things like candied pecans, grandmothers brag book with pictures of grandchildren, interesting jams and jellies, flowers etc.
We went to a birthday party for an elderly friend. The family had identified a place where children’s gifts could be taken as a donation…New things only. We were asked to bring a wrapped toy, with a note why we chose it for this friend.
It was fun for her to open, and there were a ton of nice toys to donate.
Depending on the time of year…you could do things like back to school supplies or whatever.
They got a large, beautiful wooden gnome to go with many others they have in their collection throughout the yard, more candy, a book, a friend with a farm gave them LOTS of produce—avocados, papayas and bananas (they let guests at their party take some home). They had other gifts as well but I didn’t see what they were.
When DHs grandmother turned 90, we got her a very fancy tiara from a Prom catalog. It came in a beautiful velvet box and her grandchildren gave it to her as a group; she adored it and when she died at 97 she left a note to give me back the tiara so I wear it on her birthday
What a lovely thought—may buy my mom a tiara for a future event.
If you never saw it, google “big bang theory tiara” and watch it (its just a minute or two)
Yeah, I saw that episode. It was cute. Honestly, my mom probably isn’t the “tiara type,” but it is a sweet idea.
At that age, the best gift is a lovely card with a heartfelt note about why they have been important in your life. You can add another gift too if desired, but it is the card they will treasure.
Frozen casseroles. Always a hit no matter the age. Odd but so appreciated if they love your cooking.
I have often given a variety of cards with stamps and have been asked for a repeat as they can’t always get to the store to buy them.
Right now, they have a lovely assortment of forever stamps—lovely photos of natural lovely places in US, Love stamps with flowers, scratch and sniff popsicle stamps, eclipse stamps that change color (depending on the lighting), Scooby-Do and more! I just bought 4 different sheets of stamps because they’re all so attractive.
How about some type of photo book you create (even really simply) on one of the online photo sites? (Snapfish, Shutterfly) Just go through your phone and pick some photos of family events of their kids, grandkids, great-grandkids - and them of course! Now that we all have photos on our phones we are less likely to have photos printed out for viewing - a family book - maybe with one photo of each family member would be something they could page through over and over again.
My siblings and I are going to buy my mom either a laptop or a tablet. She just quit her job and thus will no longer have access to Facebook, Google, and email unless we get her internet and a computer.
My friend bought her parents a large iPad with all their books loaded on the kindle app. As big readers they absolute love being able to enlarge the fonts. They were worried it would be too complicated but my friend moved most apps to the second screen so it’s easy for them to find the kindle app on the main page