For the gran who says “don’t you dare buy me anything”, and the grandad who already has six jumpers. Honest ideas at every budget, including plenty you can make yourself.
By the time most people are grandparents, they’ve got what they need. The cupboards are full. The drawers are full of last year’s bath sets. And they really do mean it when they say they don’t want anything.
What they usually want is harder to wrap. Time with the family. To feel useful and listened to. To know the things that mattered to them won’t be forgotten.
So the best gifts for grandparents tend to be about people, not things. Here are the ideas we’d point a friend towards, starting with the ones that cost very little.
A mix of things you can make, things you can book, and things we make ourselves. We’ve been honest about which is which.
A calendar with a day out, a lunch or a visit already booked in for every month of next year. Costs almost nothing. Means a great deal.
Borrow the shoebox, scan the best ones, and give them back in a printed photo book with names and dates written in. Ask them to help with the captions.
Load it with family photos and set it up so everyone can send new ones. The key is doing the setup for them, so it just works.
Type up Gran’s recipes, the scones, the soup, the Christmas trifle, with a photo of each one. Give a copy to every branch of the family.
Ask each grandchild to write, draw or record a short message about their favourite memory with them. Keep them together in one box.
A day out to the town they grew up in, the street they lived on, or the place they went on holiday as a child. Take a camera and let them talk.
Sit with them and map out the family as far back as they can remember, then have it printed and framed. The conversation is half the gift.
A book of questions about their life, for them to fill in at their own pace. Ours is coming soon, and there are others out there too.
A relaxed, guided conversation about their life, filmed properly and edited into a keepsake the whole family will watch. This is what we do.
One of the simplest gifts costs nothing at all. After dinner, when everyone’s full and nobody wants to move, pass round a few questions. “What was Christmas like when you were small?” “What was your first wage, and what did you spend it on?” “How did you know Grandad was the one?”
You’ll be amazed what comes out. Stories even your mum has never heard.
We’ve made a free set of 12 printable question cards for exactly this. Download them here, or read our full list of questions to ask your grandparents.
If you want to give them something that lasts, this is what we make. A gift voucher means they choose a date in the new year, when the rush is over, and we arrange everything with them gently.
Up to 60 minutes of guided conversation in our cosy Motherwell studio, edited into a 4K film in a keepsake box.
Up to 2 hours, filmed at the studio or at their home, with their photos woven through and two keepsake boxes.
A voucher by email within 24 hours, or a printed card posted free to hand over on the day. Valid for 12 months.
We can send each person their own payment link for their share. Klarna is available too.
Almost everyone is. We meet them first, the questions are gentle, and within minutes it feels like a chat on the sofa.
A voucher can go towards any film. They just pay the difference.
When Kat sat down with her mum Tina in our studio, she asked questions she’d never quite found the moment for. Some were simple. Her favourite Christmas. A concert she’d never forgotten. Others went deeper.
There were tears, and there was a lot of laughter. And now Kat has her mum, telling her own story, in her own words.
Watch real family stories
from £1,200
If there’s a 70th, 80th or golden wedding coming up, Christmas is a lovely time to start planning one together. We film their story, gather messages from the whole family, and finish it in time for the day. The cost can be split across the family.
£34
Hardback books of questions for Gran, Grandad, Mum or Dad to fill in at their own pace, with a QR code so they can record their favourite answers out loud. Our first print run is on its way. Join the waiting list to hear first.
Not every family can be round the same table. If your grandparents live at the other end of the country, or you’re the one who’s moved away, the best gifts are the ones that keep you in touch through the year.
If you’re stuck, ask yourself one question: what would you miss most if you could never ask them again? If the answer is their stories, their voice, the way they laugh at their own jokes, then give them a reason to share it.
If money’s tight, the free ideas above are every bit as meaningful. A calendar full of visits and an afternoon with the question cards will mean more than anything in a gift set. And if you’d like the whole thing captured properly, for the family to keep, that’s where we come in.
More gift guides: gifts for parents who have everything, experience gifts for grandparents, keepsake gifts for the family and what a life story film costs.
Email vouchers are sent within 24 hours. Printed cards need ordering by Friday 11 December for Christmas.