Gifts for Parents’ Day
Parents’ Day is Sunday, July 24. Are you ready? Parents’ Day is a relatively new holiday, established in 1994 by the Clinton Administration to honor the work mothers and fathers have done to raise their children. Even if you’re not in the habit (yet!) of observing Parents’ Day, it’s a chance to do something special for your folks, especially if you’re not able to spend time with them as often as you’d like. Here are some thoughtful off-the-shelf and homemade gift ideas for Parents’ Day.
Shopping suggestions for Parents’ Day
The Fitbit Zip is a clip-on fitness tracker that can encourage Mom and Dad to get moving. Unlike the Fitbit Flex, which only shows your step count on mobile apps and online, the Zip shows your stats when you tap its screen.
Give your folks the gift of a little help around the house. If Instacart or another grocery service delivers in your parents’ area, you can give them a gift certificate to let someone else handle their grocery shopping for them. Another good gift certificate idea: lawn care during the summer heat or snow removal this winter.
Is Mom or Dad always losing track of their glasses? A classic librarian chain or a hard-to-miss decorative eyeglasses stand can make their eyewear easier to find.
Voracious readers would probably love a Kindle and a subscription to Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited ebook and audiobook service.
Speaking of subscriptions, consider a modern take on the gift of the month club. Glamour gals and guys might enjoy a fresh box of high-end grooming and cosmetic samples from Birchbox. NatureBox keeps snack time interesting and healthy. A year’s subscription to Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime will give movie and TV fans plenty to watch and talk about.
You don’t have to spend money to give your folks a great gift, especially if they already “have everything.” The best low- and no-cost gifts focus on positive memories and family ties.
Create a scrapbook
Ask each of family member to contribute a page about your parents for a memory book. They can share special memories, funny stories, recipes, poems, drawings, photos, whatever they think would delight your parents. Put all the pages together and present the finished book to your parents.
Make a mini-movie
This one’s fun if your parents have grandkids. Give each grandchild 30 seconds or so to tell a story, sing a song, do a dance, or perform a puppet show on camera. Edit all the clips together into a single video with titles and names and share it via Dropbox with your parents and all the kids.
Use favorite memories to make art
Were your parents avid travelers? Buy an inexpensive map of their state, the US or the world, mark their favorite destinations with flags and add photos from their trips to make a wall hanging. Craft-store or homemade shadow boxes are great for holding special items that would otherwise be stuck in a drawer – costume jewelry, fishing lures, needlework samplers, or scouting medals and merit badges.
Want more ideas? Our blog has gift suggestions for just about every occasion.
Casey Kelly-Barton
Casey Kelly-Barton is an Austin-based freelance writer whose childhood was made awesome by her grandmothers, great-grandmother, great-aunts and -uncles, and their friends.