Made by small hands
- Handprints. Pressed in paint on a tea towel, a mug from a paint-your-own pottery café, or a card for a frame. A baby’s handprint needs two adults and a wet wipe, and is worth it.
- A drawing, framed. Ask your child to draw Grandma and Grandpa, and write underneath exactly what they say about it.
- A salt-dough ornament. Flour, salt and water, a cookie cutter, the grandchild’s name and the year scratched in before it bakes.
- Something baked together. Cookies in a tin with a recipe card in your child’s handwriting, or yours, written down as they tell it.
Pictures of the two of them
- A calendar. A photo of grandchild and grandparent for every month, with the family’s birthdays already marked.
- A photo book of the year’s visits. Short captions in the grandchild’s words make it theirs.
- One good print, framed. The best picture of the two of them, for the shelf where visitors see it.
Their voice
- A recorded message or song. A short video of your child saying what they love about Grandma, or singing the song she taught them.
- A Grandma interview. Ask your child: How old is Grandma? What does she cook best? What is she good at? Write the answers down word for word and frame them. The funnier, the better.
- Letters for the year. Twelve envelopes, stamped and addressed, so a drawing goes to Grandma every month.
A book they can read together
Grandparents read to grandchildren. A book where the grandchild is the hero and Grandma or Grandpa is in the story too gives them one that is about the two of them.
Time, not things
- An invitation. Your child invites Grandma to something with a date already set: a school play, the park, the zoo, a pancake breakfast.
- A day out for everyone. Pantomime or cinema tickets for grandparents and grandchildren together.
- A standing date. A card promising a video call every Sunday at five, signed with a scribble.
When they live far away
Send it straight to them. Most of the ideas above travel well in an envelope, and our books ship free to the US, the UK and Ireland, and to Canada, Australia and New Zealand at cost. Then open the parcel together on a video call, so they see your child’s face when they find themselves in it.