MIL & Grandparent Gift Ideas

I’ve been asked to post about some of the Christmas gifts I’ve made in the past for my Mother-In-Law and Grandparents. I really believe that Christmas gifts should come from the heart and be homemade, when possible. I also LOVE a poem or story to go with each gift. I feel like it sets the tone and makes the gift more meaningful. Here are the ones I can remember:

12 Days of Christmas for Grandparents – I did this for all of the grandparents one year and it turned out amazing! I boxed it all up in one box and shipped it to each grandparent.

There’s a poem for each day that corresponds with the gifts. I’ve done all the work for you, and made each poem into a “tag” to attach to the front each wrapped gift.

Feel free to tweak the poems to accommodate the gifts you want to give. Here’s the intro poem:

The 12 days of Christmas is the song that I sing
and in this sack 12 presents I bring.
December the 13th is when you may start.
Unwrap one a day with love from my heart.
Having you as grandparents is a dream come true,
This is my way of wishing Merry Christmas to you!

Shutterfly Photo Book. I’ve made about 6 of these photo books and I’m completely addicted to them! You can make them in several different sizes and you get to pick out the pages, font, etc. Simply upload your digital pictures, put them in order first, and then press “Make my book”. I scrapbooked an entire YEAR in 8 hours. I’ve also made a separate book for each vacation.

This year I got all of my parents’ slides got them converted into digital pictures. I then made a Photo Book of my childhood using the digital pictures. This is so special to me because I didn’t have any actual pictures of myself as a child, but now I have an entire album. 😉 This would make a great gift!

If you’re not into digital scrapbooking, make a 6×6 album for your grandparents or great-grandparents. I’ve blogged about this before on Tip Junkie. Here’s a poem you can make as the cover page:

Grandparents

Few can bring the warmth
We can find in their embrace,
And little more is needed to bring love
Than the smile on their face.

They’ve a supply of precious stories,
Yet they’ve time to wipe a tear,
Or give us reasons to make us laugh,
They grow more precious through the years.

I believe that God sent us
Grandparents As our legacy from above,
To share the moments of our life,
As extra measures of His love.

Calendar Quilts from Art to Heart. I did these with 12 friends and they turned out so great. We each made 12 of one month and then swapped. It was great because we ended up with one for each month with 1/3 of the work and expense.

As a gift you could do only 4, one for each season. I’ve also done September (school house) for a teacher as a gift for Christmas.

I’ve blogged about this ‘Christmas Cheer’ advent calendar recently. If you’re looking for a WOW homemade present – this is it. Although you might want to plan on starting this in July – it’s s whopper of a project and you’re going to want to make one for yourself as well. 😉

Some of My Greatest Blessings call me Grandma Board

Anything monogrammed!

Great-Grandparent Gift Ideas:

Address Stamp w/ picture. My grandparents mail a birthday card to EVERYONE in the family and it’s got to be taxing on their hands. So I decided to make them their own address stamp to save them time and energy.

When I did this for my great-grandparents, I ordered it from Stamp’n Up. But I couldn’t find it as an option. But here’s another company that does it and you can order them online.

I recently posted about this too, the Hand print and foot print reindeer. You can make these cute pillows, place mats, or to the front of a big card.

These Mod Magnets are so cute and you can personalize them with your kiddos pictures.

Our great-grandparents love to play games. However, my grandfather has had several strokes and so I wanted to find him a game he could play by himself or with my grandma. I got them 20Q and they loved it!!

Any kind of personalized or homemade ornaments make a great gift. You can even attach them to the front of the gift underneath the bow.

What are your favorite gifts you’ve given to your In Laws or Grandparents?