Christmas Gifts for Grandkids That Last

Most Christmas toys are forgotten by Valentine's Day, and grandparents know it better than anyone. The Christmas gifts for grandkids that last are the ones tied to you: something they keep, something you do together, or something that grows a little every year. Here are 12 ideas that work from toddlers to teenagers. Our top pick is a song about them from you, because it will still play long after the batteries in everything else have died.

Listen to a real Songbond song

This one was made for another family. Yours would carry your grandchild's name and your stories.

12 Christmas gifts for grandkids that last

1. A song about them, from you ($39.90). You share their name, the nickname only you use and the things you do together, and Songbond turns it into an original song, ready within 24 hours. A toy gets outgrown. A song about pancake Saturdays at Grandpa's gets played at 8 and again at 28.
2. A name ornament, every year. One new ornament each Christmas with their name and the year on it. By the time they leave home they have a whole box for their own first tree. Usually $10 to $25 each.
3. A recording of you reading their favorite book. Recordable storybooks cost $20 to $40, or you can record yourself on a phone and send the file with the book. Long after they can read on their own, they will want your voice.
4. An heirloom wooden toy. A wooden train set, a dollhouse or a rocking horse built to be handed down. Expect $80 to $250 for one that will survive three generations of small hands.
5. A baking kit with your recipe card. A child-size apron, real measuring cups and the recipe for the cookies you make every December, written out by hand. About $30 to $60, plus an afternoon in your kitchen.
6. A day with you, planned on paper. A homemade ticket for one outing in the new year: ice skating, the zoo, a pancake breakfast, a matinee. Children remember the day far longer than the present.
7. The start of a collection. Coins, stamps, rocks, shells or model cars. Give a proper album or display box and the first few pieces, then add one each visit. $20 to $50 to start.
8. A handmade blanket or quilt. If you knit or sew, this is the one they take to college. If you do not, a local quilter can make one for $150 to $400.
9. A framed family tree. Their name at the bottom, yours above it, and the names they only know from stories higher up. Usually $30 to $80 printed and framed.
10. A jar of 52 notes. One folded note for each week of the year: a memory, a joke, a thing you love about them. It costs nothing and takes one evening.
11. A first real tool. For an older grandchild, a pocketknife, a small toolbox or a good flashlight, with a lesson on how to use it safely. $25 to $60.
12. A letter to open at 18. Write down who they are this Christmas, what they love and what they said that made you laugh. Seal it, and write the age on the envelope.

How to choose for each grandchild

Age matters more than budget. A three-year-old will not care about a family tree, and a fifteen-year-old will not want a rocking horse. Think about who they are this year and who they will be in ten.

• If they are under five: the wooden toy, the recorded book or the first name ornament.
• If they are in grade school: the collection, the baking kit or a day out with you.
• If they are teenagers: the first real tool, the letter to open at 18 or the song.

Turn one gift into a Christmas tradition

The gifts grandkids talk about as adults are usually the ones that came every year. The same ornament box, the same Christmas Eve pajamas, the same note tucked inside the card. Pick one small thing you can repeat for as long as you are able, and give it at the same moment each year, before the big presents. Write the date and one line about them on the tag. Twenty years from now, that pile of tags is a record of their childhood in your handwriting.

Make a song for your grandchild

Create a song for your grandchild with their name and the things you do together. It is ready within 24 hours, and express delivery gets it to you in about an hour, so there is no shipping date to worry about.

Also in the Journal: a personalized song as a Christmas gift and songs for Grandparents Day.