Gift ideas for Boomer grandparents that keep giving

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You won’t find these gifts at the mall, at any store, or on Amazon.com, but you will find them within your heirloom collection for years, perhaps generations to come. Initially, your gifts won’t empty your wallet or drain your bank account, but they will become permanent fixtures in your grandchildren’s lives. Nor will you find these ideas and items quickly convert from treasure to junk, relegated to the irrelevant, outdated junk pile a few months after being unwrapped; instead, you will experience its continued presence within family traditions over time.

The essence of this type of gift lies in the presentation of elements and ideas from within oneself, one’s experiences, one’s values. As such, these gifts are nearly limitless in the positive, even transformative effect they can have on the recipients, your grandchildren.

Grandpa Bill spent nearly two decades of his young life in the West, where he became an avid hunter and fisherman. Of course, he was caught up in all the western mystique, amassing enough sports paraphernalia to pique any kid’s interest. In particular, Grandpa was proud of his collection of Western belt buckles that he occasionally paraded on to admire their unique robustness. When he began to share the stories of his hunting and fishing expeditions with his grandson, he wondered how Zach would react to receiving the buckles as a “special” Christmas present. The rest of history is history. It was impossible to determine who received the bigger gift, grandfather or Zach, when the grandson opened the package. In fact, the luminous expression on Zach’s face as he opened his treasures paled in comparison to hearing Zach say that, of all the gifts he received this year, “… belt buckles were my favorite.” Oh, and let’s not forget the time Zach and Grandpa spent on the Web together researching the colorful history behind each buckle. In fact, when Zach returned home, he announced that he planned to use some of his Christmas money to buy a small safe to store his newly received treasures.

Grandma Ethel has retired and lives on a steady income. It can hardly participate in or compete with the material fuss that every holiday brings. But he has an incredibly rich childhood past whose memories he wanted to pass on to his only granddaughter Emily, for whom he provides after-school daycare. On Christmas morning, amid all the traditional decorations on little girl gifts, Emily found inside her sock a ticket for a Mystery Tour field trip. Grandma had included a walk / walk map of the historic sites that she and Emily would visit on their full day excursion. Of course, it included a lunch stop at Emily’s favorite iced coffee! On the day of the excursion, Emily borrowed a family digital camera and took photos every place along the way. By the end of the day, she had gathered pictures of the old chicken farm, the waterfall where Grandma used to swim, and the orchards where Grandma, as a child, picked apples, strawberries, and pumpkins. A week later, Emily and Grandma sat down together and created a digital photo album, with script and music. And that’s not the end of the story! The following week, when Emily returned to school, her Mystery Tour Field Trip was the Christmas present she decided to present and share with her classmates.

Early in their marriage, the Ryans were fortunate to meet a young investor who turned them into the power of compound interest and the potential of the stock market as an income generator / builder. On the advice and under the aegis of their financial mentor, they started small, investing in a modest portfolio of unglamorous but reliable first-class stocks. Throughout their marriage they had fun watching what started as a small nest of savings turned into a respectable retirement fund. If only they could instill their successful financial strategies and instincts in their grandchildren. But how could the dull and boring concept of deferring immediate satisfaction for long-term results compete with the raucous sensual bombardment here and now of television commercials, shopping mall frenzy, and peer pressure, all doing it. signs to buy more trash? They had an idea! Earlier in the year, they bought shares of two stocks in companies whose products target the early adolescent market. During the year, they monitored the progress of the stocks, recording their ups and downs in a simple spreadsheet. When the grandchildren opened their Christmas cards, they found a summary of the results of their actions so far, with a simple gift explanation. A few days later, Grandpa bookmarked and shared some places where the grandchildren could go to experiment with various compound interest formula scenarios.

Probably the most empowering gift of all is the one the Martins gave their grandchildren several years ago. Since the children understood the concept of Santa Claus and Christmas and gifts, the grandparents began a tradition in which, each year at the beginning of December, the children chose from their daily newspaper which featured an anonymous child in need. whose Christmas promised to be naked without the generosity of a secret benefactor. Then, with a portion of the money each grandchild had saved during the year, Ryan’s grandparents went to purchase appropriate clothing and toys for their chosen needy children. It became a long-awaited ritual for both grandparents and children that, even during high school, grandchildren insisted on continuing the tradition, and it is very difficult to determine who enjoys their annual day together more: grandparents or grandparents. grandchildren.

Yes, we, the Boomer generation who became the model for rampant consumerism, can reverse this ‘give me’ culture that permeates our society. In fact, we can face and be confused with the addiction to spending and buying. Grandparents are finding and giving sustainable gifts that continue to give, treasures that will yield a substantial long-term return on our investment for and in our grandchildren. Such intangible gifts of ‘pebbles that cause ripples in the water’ included the stuff from which future family traditions and values ​​are made.

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