Christmas Gifts for Grandparents Who Have Everything

Grandparents who have everything are often trying to give things away, not collect more. The right Christmas gift for them adds no clutter: it saves their memories, gives them your time or makes a chore disappear. These 12 ideas were chosen with a small house and a full closet in mind. Our top pick is a song about their life together, because it takes no shelf space and gets played for years.

Hear a real song from Songbond

This one was made for another family. Yours would carry their names and your stories.

12 Christmas gifts for grandparents who have everything

1. A song about their life ($39.90). Songbond turns their story, from the first dance to the grandkids' names, into an original song, ready within 24 hours. If they like something to hold, add the printed keepsake plaque of the song.
2. Their slides and home movies, digitized. Gather the boxes of slides and old tapes and have them converted so the whole family can watch. Usually $60 to $250, depending on how much there is.
3. A year of weekly questions. Each week they answer one question about their life, by email or on paper, and at the end the answers become a printed book. About $100 for the year.
4. A family tree, researched. A genealogy subscription or a pair of DNA kits, with you sitting beside them to fill in the branches. Usually $60 to $150.
5. A donation in their names. To their church, their town library or the cause they talk about most. Ask the charity to send them a card.
6. A professional house cleaning. Book it for the week before the family arrives, or the week after everyone leaves. Usually $100 to $250.
7. Dinner at their regular place. The restaurant they have been going to for years, prepaid, with a note to the staff. About $60 to $150.
8. Matinee theater tickets. An afternoon show means no driving home in the dark. About $50 to $150 each.
9. A box of good things to eat. Pecans from a farm, real maple syrup, dark chocolate. It gets eaten and enjoyed, not stored. Usually $40 to $90.
10. A monthly visit, on the calendar. Pick a date for each month of next year and write them all on their kitchen calendar before you leave on Christmas Day.
11. Dinner cooked by the grandkids. The grandchildren plan, shop and cook a meal in their kitchen, then clean up. The cleanup is the real present.
12. Seasonal flowers, four times a year. A fresh bunch in spring, summer, fall and winter. They fill the house for a week and then they are gone. Usually $40 to $80 per delivery.

How to choose when they need nothing

Ask a better question than "What do you want?" Ask what they miss, what they worry about losing, and what takes them too long now. The answers point straight to a gift.

• If they miss the old days: the slides, the weekly questions or the song.
• If they worry about the house: the cleaning, the grandkids' dinner or the monthly visit.
• If they love an outing: the matinee or dinner at their regular place.

Offer to take something away

Many grandparents at this stage are quietly clearing out, not stocking up. Pair your gift with an offer to help them sort one closet, one drawer of photos or one box in the garage. Bring labels and a marker. Ask who each thing should go to and write it down, because those notes will matter later. You leave with a full car, and they get a lighter house and an afternoon of stories about where everything came from.

Give them a song instead of another thing

Make a song about your grandparents' life. It is ready within 24 hours, and express delivery gets it to you in about an hour. There is nothing to ship and no cutoff date.

Also in the Journal: songs for a golden anniversary and a personalized song as a Christmas gift.