Clutter Free Gifts for Grandparents

In all honesty I would nix the gift card to a place they take the kids. How about tickets to a show and dinner. A night out just for them. How about a
weekend away.

What about a plate or coffee mug that the kids decorate? Gift subscription to fruit of the month, Cheryl's cookies? Poinsetta? Stamps to pay their bills? Gas cards? Grocery store gift cards? Magazine subscriptions???

Digital photo frame w/preloaded pics of your kids. Or, they have mini digital photo frames for key chains.

Family membership to a museum.

My dad doesnt do computers so we bought him an email machine. It hooks to his phone and he can type a letter and send. It recieves emails back. He loves it. It cost about $100, and we also pay his phone bill to have a house phone for it. Whats really funny is, now and then he will like one of our emails or funny stories we tell about the kids and will call and ask if we can print it out and mail it to him so he can read it over and over and share it with friends. So, yes we send him the paper copy to clutter up his house. We do a lot of restuarant, gas, grocery store gift cards for him. And always send a photo of the kids and grand kids. He lives 3 hours away so when we do go visit it is to do yard work, and buying flowers and bushes is a big hit with him. We clean his house too, and usually can sneak in a new set of towels and sheets and toss what is really really bad and it doesnt upset him. New dog leashes for his 2 little dogs are good when we see him using ropes instead. And dog toys and throw away the icky ones that are dangerous to the pups and he doesnt realize.

Custom Stepping stones for their yard.

Gift cards to the Movies, book store, restaurant.

A Roku Box.

Take your calendar with you on Christmas day and sit down and schedule a years worth of visits.. Promise to bring food. all go to a movies, go camping.. whatever. Time is the best gift..

maybe a gift card to a dinner theater, i went to one a couple months ago (i loved it!) but i noticed that 90% were gray hairs :) it was sweet. my grandparents are in their 80's and the last few years have been starting to get rid of all their "clutter", i think they feel since they have over 60 years of junk accumulated, they'd like to downsize before we have to do it. some kind of gift card would be nice but i'm not sure about something with the kids...depending on the family, that might send the message, "hey, watch our kids for a day!", plus older people get worn out by that kind of stuff. something nice and relaxing for the two of them might be better. good luck!

We also do a calender, we fill out all the important dates (birthdays, etc.). The kids decorate it all up with stickers. It's a gift you can get them every year.

A service (car wash, detail, gift certif. for dry cleaners, house cleaners, oil changes, lawn care), tickets for an event (concerts, movies, B&B's, dinner out), or gift card for home improvement places, restaurants, gasoline, groceries, baking supply shop, etc. based on what they like to do, where they like to go!

You can go on a site like Shutterfly and custom-make photo books, calenders, etc. with pictures of the kids. Or like you mentioned, gift cards to places they can go to with the kids that would be fun, like the movies or a paint-your-own-pottery studio. Or an annual family membership to the zoo or a museum. Or maybe sign them up for the Fruit-Of-The-Month club from Harry and David (we did that for my MIL last year and she really enjoyed it).

What about a custom calendar? My family is big on these...who doesn't love to see pics of family & everyone needs a calendar!!

We've done calendars with the kids' pictures, given them movie passes, and gift cards to their favorite restaurants and stores. I wouldn't give them a gc to a place they could take the grand kids. Then the present isn't really for them, it's for the grand kids.

A nice Christmas ornament, perhaps engraved with a special quote, grandkids' names.... Some thing they can put away for the rest of the year and pull out each Christmas.

Things that make old people comfortable is the best bet. Some soft throws for the couch, soft jammies. Hard candies to suck on, maybe include a beautiful candy dish. Heating pads, heating blankets... stuff they can really use.

The last few years we have been getting the daily paper for both sets of grands. They would buy it anyway and so it's not additional clutter at least. We also added my parents to our cell phone. It only cost about $10 a month and we have the benefit of knowing they will be reachable. My mom uses it to call relatives so they don't have huge long distance bills. We also do the calenders so they do have something to open. Instead of doing the more expensive ones, I usually get the $1 ones from Michaels, AC Moore or that kind of craft store and then print out pictures from the year. It ends up costing about $3 or $4 and I make them for all the brothers and sisters too.

What about tickets to a show, sporting event, or other event they might want to go to?

Digital picture frame. Each Christmas you can update the memory card for the frame with pictures of the kids from the past year.

we have started just giving the grandparents photos every year. a nice family photo in a frame, or a little scrapbook with photos from the year. they love it and it is cheap (we go to Target with the $3.99 a sheet coupon) and easy.

For us: for my Mom/my kid's Grandma, we like to get her things that she otherwise would not do for herself or cannot:
1) getting her car detailed for her
2) Window washers
3) Pedicure
4) Hair Salon gift cert
5) Anything related to her hobbies
6) gift cert to a nice restaurant etc.

The point being, instead of "stuff" for gifts, getting something USEFUL, and that you know they will use.
Therefore, it is not a waste nor a clutter type gift.

And NO, I would not get them a gift card to a place to take the kids.
I mean, the gift should be FOR them, not the kids.

Other cute ideas are:
www.kodak gallery.com
They have awesome photo gifts. I got my Mom one year, a t-shirt with my kid's photo on it. She likes it and wears it.

Every year I make a Hoska, Czech Christmas bread, and Grt Grandma Sue's donuts for dad. He loves them and looks forward to his Hoska.

I like all these ideas, especially those for services for the grandparents and their home! Another suggestion: If they are healthy eaters, try a fruit or vegetable of the month club. You can do a three- or six-month "subscription" if you aren't sure a full year of food would work for them. Harry and David has lots of variations of these, and you can get a smaller option for two people, so they are not receiving loads of fruit each month that they end up throwing out or giving away. I'm getting my brother this for Christmas!

There are two that I've done that met with success. One was a digital photo frame loaded with pictures of the grand kids. (You may also need to show them how it works and make sure they know how not to delete the pictures.) You can reload the frame from time to time so that they always have some current grand baby pictures.

The other was a calendar featuring the grand kids. Take pictures from this past year to almost any photo stand and they can help you build them into a calendar. Or you can build the calendar yourself - takes a lot more time, but then is completely personal. Both grandmas still have theirs on the wall even though it's now two years old. I made one for myself, too, and when the year was done I cut it apart and slipped the picture pages into page protectors - instant scrapbook.

Every year our relatives look forward to the photo book we do with shutter fly. Both grandmas get one, plus we save one for ourselves. It's a great way to remember the year.

For the past 4 years, I've given my in-laws a tear-away calendar. They're the 'useless-trivia' type and have said that they really like the Uncle John's Toilet calendar. It has all sorts of useless tid-bits. But the key to them enjoying the gift is that I put "Ryan's Birthday" on Ryan's birthday. Also, since MIL is forgetful about sending cards, but WANTS to send cards, I write "1 Week Till Ryan's Birthday" the week before his bday. I do this "1 week before" thing for Easter, Valentines, birthdays, anniversaries (even their own anniv so BIL and MIL don't forget gifts), etc. I think just about everyone is impressed that MIL finally sends cards on time.

I did the same thing for my Dad (I've been buying him Jeopardy calendars for the past ten years. It's our traditional go-to-gift for Dad.) Last year was the first year I put EVERYONE's bday on it (cousins, uncles, etc), plus the "1 week till..." message. He said he LOVES the "1 week till" message.

Everyone's different, but if I had to get a different gift, It'd be a travel mug or glass or something with their grandson's photo on it from snapfish. I'd try to get one picture that has both grandkids on it - one picture gift is less clutter than two!