35 Best Gifts for Grandparents of 2024 | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Samantha Schoech

Samantha Schoech is a writer focusing on gifts. She spends her time finding things that combine quality, beauty, usefulness, and delight.

We’ve updated our guide with some great new picks including a smart bird feeder, a place to keep track of the grandkids’ growth, and the gift of a life story.

The greatest gift for most grandparents may be spending time with their grandkids, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t also appreciate a little something. After all, they do have interests beyond their immediate family. We’ve scoured our guides and polled our colleagues to find the very best things to delight grandparents, including a deluxe bird watching station for nature lovers, master classes for the eternally curious, comfort for gardeners, and snacks for the gourmands. And if the grandkids really are their favorite thing, we have gifts for that too.

Check out dozens of other gift possibilities for grandma and grandpa in our many gift guides including the best retirement gifts, gifts for frequent travelers, gifts under $50, and the best gifts for mom.

This bird feeder has a high-res camera with a wide viewing angle, includes an easy-to-fill seed bin, and offers options for local and cloud video storage.

If a bird visits a bird feeder and no one is there to see it, did it really happen? With the adorably modern Netvue Birdfy Feeder, our pick for best smart birdfeeder, the answer is yes. It not only sends a phone notification when an avian visitor drops by, it identifies the species. The 1080p videos and photos have a wide, 135-degree viewing angle, allowing admirers to watch a bird up close (even in the dark, thanks to the camera’s color night vision) via their phone screen. Video remains stored in 20-second clips for up to 30 days in the cloud for free; birders can also opt for local storage using a microSD card or upgrade to 30-second clips by subscribing to a Birdfy basic plan for $2 per month or $20 per year.

This lightweight pine growth chart fits together to stand about 6 feet and can be removed and rehung to mark decades, and maybe even generations, of measurements.

Is there a grandparent alive who doesn’t enjoy tracking the growth of their grandkids over the years? The pieces of this simple Family Growth Chart fit together like a puzzle and are made from lightweight 0.125-inch-thick wood in three color choices. It can be personalized with a family name for no extra charge. The best part is, unlike a door frame, it can be taken down and rehung if anyone moves or just needs to paint. It could even memorialize the growth spurts of multiple generations.

Upload your own photos to create these small, classic framed ornaments in silver wood.

A family photo ornament can easily become an annual offering. We like the mini, 2-by-3-inch vertical or horizontal ornaments from Framebridge, which come hung on an elegant blue velvet ribbon. Simply upload your photo of choice and Framebridge will create a timeless silver framed ornament. It even includes a built-in envelope in the back for storing notes, info, or stories about the photo. It arrives ready to give in a green gift box. Editor Signe Brewster has gifted her parents a photo of her daughter, now 3 years old, for the past four years. “When you have to think of a gift for the grandparents every single year, it’s so nice to have a tradition that grows with the kids,” she said.

This gift-worthy subscription service sends weekly prompts to the recipient so that they can write their own stories, which are then compiled along with personal photos or art into a hardcover book.

Everyone has a story to tell, and Storyworth helps bring them forth. In her ode to the service, Wirecutter’s social video manager Katie Quinn calls it “the best gift I ever gave my dad.” Each week, you can choose one from among hundreds of questions for Storyworth to email to your loved one. Prompts like “What’s the furthest you’ve ever traveled?” “Do you have any regrets in your life?” or “What is one of your fondest childhood memories?” are designed to get the memories and stories flowing. The answers are emailed to you as they come in and, at the end of the year, bound into a quality hardcover book, preserving a grandparent’s legacy, and lots of family stories, for future generations. “Watching my dad’s book come together filled me with the kind of joy that’s usually reserved for a parent witnessing their child take the stage for the first time. And it’s a gift that helped him achieve a true dream: writing a book,” says Katie.

This easy-to-set-up trail camera takes better images (including 4K video) and has a better warranty than all the cameras tested by our outdoors team.

Designed for hunters to track game, a trail camera is just as good for nature observers or anyone who wants to know what goes bump in the night. Our top pick, the Bushnell Core S No Glow 4K, takes high-quality day and night photos, with an impressive 0.2-second trigger speed and videos of up to 60 seconds. Our testers caught remarkable color photos of coyotes during the day and good black-and-whites of night-roaming deer. The camera holds up in heavy rain, snowstorms, and high winds, and it also comes with a two-year warranty. Just be sure to include six AA batteries with your gift.

Foster intergenerational strategy games with this kid-friendly, 15-by-15-inch chess set. The base of each piece is printed with a diagram of permissible moves, keeping players—young and old—honest.

For grandparents who want to start playing chess with young grandkids, The Chess Teacher is just the thing. In this set, each piece has its name and a helpful diagram printed on the base—for instance “bishop” with diagonal arrows—so players learn the moves as they play. The 15-by-15-inch set is also gently priced. So once the grandkids are ready to graduate to a more sophisticated set—we have some favorites—it won’t feel painful to store this one away for the next burgeoning chess champ.

Featuring the Japanese designer’s iconic accordion-like design, this affordable and lightweight bag expands to 19 by 15 inches and is made of 100% recycled polyester.

We’ve spotted many a chic grandma toting Issey Miyake’s Pleats Please bags. For a more-affordable version, consider the 19-inch-tall Me Issey Miyake Trunk Pleats Bag, which can expand like an accordion, from 1.5 inches to 15 inches wide when filled. The stripped-down, lightweight tote has no interior pockets, but it features the brand’s signature pleats and comes in 12 bright colors. It’s perfect for a trip to the art museum or sculpture park, or to pack in a carryall for impromptu shopping.

These decidedly non-AI-generated artworks are quick, accurate, and eminently charming. The house portraits are particularly successful.

Many grandparents spend a lifetime getting their house just so, providing multiple generations with a warm gathering place for holidays, family dinners, and more. Honor their hard work and those memories with a MyDaVinci Custom House Portrait. All you have to do is submit a high-res image of the house’s front to MyDaVinci, and then choose an artistic medium (such as watercolor, pencil sketch, or oil painting). In two to five business days, you’ll receive a quaint, artful, and accurate proof to review and the option to request revisions. Once you approve the artwork, the company will print it on your choice of semi-gloss paper or canvas and ship it off to you. We ordered a simple, 5-by-7-inch watercolor of a family cabin, and we got an instant heirloom that has elicited compliments from every visitor.

This waterproof carryall has a rubber bottom, suede-trimmed handles, and eight exterior pockets for organizing tools and other necessities.

If your grandparents are dedicated gardeners, they’ll appreciate this handy Gardener’s Puddle Proof Tote, for schlepping trowels and rakes when they’re weeding and planting. The cords on the canvas bag’s eight exterior pockets hold tools in place, and there’s a pocket inside the large interior compartment, perhaps to hold seeds, twine, or labels. The handles are trimmed with suede, so the bag is comfortable to carry, and the bottom is made of rubber to keep things dry.

With their unparalleled opacity, pigment, and gloss, these watercolors are the best we’ve found for all manner of amateur artists.

When they’re not helping out with the grandkids, grandparents have time to take up hobbies, particularly ones that require a little patience. Made by a 115-year-old sumi-ink manufacturer in Nara, Japan, the 36-color Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors deliver wonderfully saturated colors, and they’re easy for artists of varying skill levels to work with. The paints are more pigmented than traditional watercolors, so they even work well on dark paper. They come in larger and smaller sets as well.

The streaming service offers more than 850 full-length, pre-recorded performances at the Metropolitan Opera, featuring star singers of past and present, from Maria Callas to J’Nai Bridges.

If your grandparents are Maria Callas or Luciano Pavarotti stans, the Met Opera On Demand Gift Subscription delivers all of the thrills of epic arias in a live show—without intermission bathroom lines or having to peer over someone’s head. The streaming service offers more than 850 full-length performances, which are streamable on free apps for a range of smart TVs, tablets, and phones. Your grandparents can take in all-time greats as well as contemporary opera stars, including mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges (“the Beyoncé of Opera”), in a 2019 performance of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten. The archive also features classic telecasts and audio recordings dating back to 1935, including a spellbinding Callas in her only broadcast at the Met, in a 1956 performance of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. (The subscription does not include live-streaming for Live in HD performances, but they are typically made available three to six months after their cinema dates.)

With a classic crewneck, a soft feel, and a formfitting yet comfortable design, this well-priced sweater is the perfect entry point into the world of cashmere. Plus, it’s available in a wide variety of colors and sizes.

May be out of stock

Naadam’s The Original Cashmere Sweater is one of our picks for the best cashmere sweater because it offers a lot for the money—a soft and luxurious texture, a weave tight enough to keep out the wind, a classic shape that is neither too tight nor too boxy, and a huge range of colors and sizes (from XXS to XXL). And, unlike more expensive cashmere sweaters, this one doesn’t feel too precious to wear on a daily basis. Cashmere also offers a breathable, versatile warmth, and, unlike bulkier wool, it folds flat, so it’s ideal for a grandparent on the go.

This sturdy, rust-resistant garden kneeler-and-bench combo is extra wide for stability and extra cushy for comfort.

Gardeners needn’t be of a certain age to appreciate the comfort of this half-bench, half-kneeler. Turn the Deep Seat Garden Kneeler bench side down, and you have a padded knee protector with handles for balance and hoisting. Flip it over, and it’s a comfy seat for yard-work respites. The powder-coated steel frame is rust-resistant, so your gardening grandparent won’t have to worry if it is exposed to morning dew or an unexpected summer shower.

This straightforward tee is a great gift for a proud grandparent.

Whether grandparents have just one grandchild or a whole brood, the experience expands one’s love exponentially. And that’s exactly what this unembellished Aspen + Company Tee declares, sans sentimental fuss. The Aspen + Company Nana and Aspen + Company Grandpa options both come in six colors, with black or white printing and a customizable exponent. The soft, lightweight cotton-and-polyester-blend tee makes a great humble-brag gift for the grandparent who still works out or hits the pickleball courts regularly.

You can customize this large modern wall calendar with special dates and events, as well as with your own photos (which your gift recipient can later tear away and save).

Grandparents never tire of showing off their kids and grandkids. Make that even easier by giving them the Artifact Uprising Modern Wall Calendar. We like that this customizable calendar is made from 100% recycled paper fibers, and we also appreciate that the recipient can tear off the photos along perforated edges and keep them forever (unlike with many other calendars, which end up getting chucked or stored away). And we love this calendar’s particularly sleek design, which offers customizable birthday and event reminders, as well as ample space for jotting down appointments and other important dates.

These aluminum poles are durable, comfortable to hold, and quiet on the trail. They come in two sizes and are easy to adjust to different lengths.

This inspirational guide, which features 50 breathtaking routes in 30 different countries, can serve as daydream fodder for hikers of all kinds.

You don’t need to be conquering the Himalayas to find trekking poles useful. If the grandparents you love are living their best lives in the great outdoors or just going for walks in the park, help them get more out of it. Black Diamond Pursuit Trekking Poles—our favorites—have comfortable molded cork grips and four-season flex tips with removable baskets, and, with the flick of a lever, they can be easily adjusted. They come in two sizes, accommodating hikers from just under 5 feet to hikers topping 6-foot-5. Lonely Planet’s Epic Hikes of the World, which highlights 50 bucket-list routes in 30 countries, is the ultimate inspiration for staying active; if international travel isn’t in the cards, consider getting them Epic Hikes of the Americas.

These soft, absorbent flour-sack tea towels come in bright, colorful designs, and they’re delivered monthly with a subscription.

Arkansas artist Stacie Bloomfield embellishes these soft, absorbent tea towels with bright, flora-and-fauna screen prints. Give your grandparents a Gingiber Tea Towel Club Subscription, and this small, woman-owned business will send them a cotton flour-sack tea towel with an exclusive design every month. They will receive their first towel within seven days and then again once a month, until you cancel. Taxes and shipping are included in the price, and Gingiber can pause delivery temporarily if necessary. If the price per towel seems a little steep, think of them as paper towel replacements or, better yet, as usable art.

This book includes 12 fill-in letters that prompt kids to write keepsake notes to their grandparents. Seal them with the included stickers, and designate when they should be opened.

This gift takes a little more time and effort than others, but the end result is worth it for the real connection that Letters to My Grandparent can foster between grandparents and grandchildren. In this book of tear-out letters, the prompts guide you to write down memories and words of love. Seal the individual letters with the enclosed stickers, and then give them to your grandparents to open at a designated time (it can be right away, for example, or after they turn 80, totally up to you). And if you think your grandparents might want to return the favor, Letters to My Grandchild could make a nice companion gift.

This engaging and colorful pattern-creation game requires no reading or math, so it’s fun for a range of ages and cognition levels.

Qwirkle is a matching game that’s part strategy and part luck. While lots of games claim to be fun for the whole family, this one truly is. Staff writer Samantha Schoech’s family has been playing it since her kids were about 7; they are now 16, and Qwirkle still comes out on the regular. The concept is to use the Scrabble-like tiles to make runs of patterns or colors. Since it requires no math (except for keeping score) or spelling, little ones and anyone experiencing “slower processing” can play.

This can holds a half-gallon of water and comes with a removable rose accessory, which provides more watering options. It’s useful for hydrating houseplants and small outdoor gardens.

For the gardening grandparent, the Qilebi Watering Can is one of our favorites for keeping plants hydrated. It’s sleek and attractive, and it holds more water—a half-gallon in total—than many other models, so your green-thumbed grandparent can take care of more plants before having to refill it. The long spout can reach the soil of even big, bushy plants, and the removable rose accessory makes it easy to gently shower a whole collection of pots at once.

These felted-wool slippers are durable and supportive. They’re warm, but they breathe well, so your grandparents’ feet won’t get sweaty.

Due to normal physiological changes, your grandparents’ feet really do feel chillier as they age—and yours will too one day. But grandparents needn’t look schlumpy as they warm up their tootsies. The handsome Glerups Wool Slippers, our upgrade pick, are more house shoe than slipper, thanks to a smooth leather outsole and a felted-wool body. If your grandparent lives that indoor/outdoor life—puttering around the garden, walking the dog, getting the newspaper—they might appreciate the rubber-soled version instead. Both versions of the durable slippers have an open-heel design, so your grandparent can easily glide into them without too much bending or coaxing.

This ample gift box provides both sweet and salty sustenance, but the coffee cake takes the prize.

Zingerman’s is a beloved Ann Arbor, Michigan, grocery whose offerings appeal to Great Lakers and coast-huggers alike. The Weekender Gift Box (one of our favorite gift baskets) includes some of the company’s most popular items, such as sour cream coffee cake, peanut brittle, salami, and artisan bread. All of the contents have a relatively long shelf life, so if your grandparents don’t have company to help them devour it all, they won’t feel rushed to finish it off.

This collection of over 180 digestible lessons from industry-spanning celebrity talent is as edifying as it is entertaining.

For the scholarly grandparents on your list (or simply those who have exhausted all of the palatable films on Netflix), membership to MasterClass will prove to be an invaluable gift. The program offers virtual classes by famous instructors in nearly every category: physics, acting, writing, cooking, you name it. And these classes make an especially great gift when enjoyed together. Perhaps you and your grandparents can create a meal together with instruction from Yotam Ottolenghi, or maybe you can take a yoga class with Donna Farhi.

This streaming service shows loads of British television that’s hard to find elsewhere, from period dramas to gardening shows.

If the grandparent on your list likes to settle in for the evening with a riveting episode of Downton Abbey, surely they’d fancy the streaming service BritBox. It offers the largest collection of British programming, from Masterpiece Theatre gems to contemporary classics like Gardeners’ World, plus all of the best Jane Austen adaptations. Nature lovers will appreciate the soothing range of David Attenborough–narrated documentaries.

This flower delivery service is our favorite due to its stylish bouquets and easy ordering. You can choose from three sizes, and the company reliably delivers anywhere in the US.

A beautiful bouquet of flowers left at the doorstep is the perfect gift—especially for grandparents who have everything. Flowers look lovely anywhere they’re placed, they don’t require a ton of care, and they don’t add to clutter. For the highest-quality and most distinctive assortments, our favorite online flower delivery service is UrbanStems.

This tiny, palm-sized book packs in 50 prompts that encourage new writers to describe Grandma. While the fill-in-the-blank format is formulaic, it elicits genuine and sometimes unexpected answers from kids.

This tiny book packs in 50 prompts that encourage new writers to describe Grandpa. While the fill-in-the-blank format is formulaic, it elicits genuine and sometimes unexpected answers from kids.

The concept behind Knock Knock’s What I Love About books is simple: Each page has a prompt that a child fills in (including statements such as “I love how you always say __” and “You have taught me so much about __”). These prompts often elicit sweet, funny, or surprising answers from grandkids—ones they’ve never expressed before. The book is small, but there are 50 prompts to fill in; these prompts may be alternated among several kids or broken up into mini writing sessions for one child. (The series also includes books for moms and dads.) This idea comes to us courtesy of senior staff writer Rachel Cericola. And one Wirecutter-affiliated grandmother was so touched by her three grandchildren’s sentiments that she cried and told them it was the best gift she’d ever gotten.

Text digital photos to a proprietary number, and this service prints and mails glossy 4-by-6 prints to the person of your choice. Most helpful, though, is that it reminds you to text images—and make a connection—each month.

Here’s the truth: Even the most tech-savvy grandparent would prefer hard-copy photos over digital sends. If you’re much more diligent with texting, the photo-subscription service NanaGram can bridge that gap. Each month (or whichever time frame you choose), you’ll get a text reminder from a unique number that the service has assigned you. Reply back with a few photos—plans currently range in price—and the company prints and mails the pics to the address (or addresses) you have on file. Add other relatives’ digits to the account, and they can join, too. The glossy, high-quality 4-by-6 prints are ready for any fridge or frame. It’s more expensive than online photo prints, but the convenience and routine are key.

This digital frame stands out for its easy setup, vivid display, and pleasing design.

Photos of grandkids are always a great gift, and that’s especially true when grandparents live far away. We highly recommend the Aura Carver, one of the best digital frames we’ve tried, to upload unlimited photos for loved ones. It has a large, bright screen for easy viewing and an intuitive interface, and the software makes setting up the frame as a gift especially simple. You can pair the device to your account (via email or by scanning a QR code on the box) and invite family members to contribute photos, all before the recipient unwraps their gift.

This radio combines an eye-catching retro design with reliable performance, solid build quality, and superb value.

If your grandparents just can’t seem to get on board with Alexa, reject the robot revolution and give them something they’ll actually use: a handsome tabletop radio. Of all the models we tested, the Sangean WR-11SE stood out for its high-quality sound and great reception. Perhaps most helpful, though, is the easy, precise tuning, as a green LED above the dial signals when the tuner is locked on to a station’s strongest signal. Smartphone-savvy folks can tap the auxiliary analog audio input, too. The walnut finish has a particularly nostalgic feel.

One of the easiest weather stations to use and install, this model also offers affordable add-on modules to provide reliable and accurate overviews of local weather trends.

For grandparents who live somewhere with a microclimate or in a rural area where professionally monitored weather stations are scarce—or for those who are simply weather geeks—a personal weather station is an excellent choice. The easy-to-set-up Netatmo Weather Station is our favorite from testing. It has an intuitive mobile app and useful add-ons, such as rain and wind gauges, and it features a compact, modular design. Your weather-minded grandparent will love collecting big-picture trend data on specifics such as rainfall totals, temperature, humidity, and wind speed and direction. Earn extra points if you remember to ask them about the weather later.

Incorporate up to nine photos on a customized jigsaw puzzle that’s anywhere from about 60 to 1,000 pieces.

If they like puzzles, they’ll love putting together one featuring a cherished family photo. These customizable puzzles from Shutterfly are available in a range of sizes, from 60 pieces (that’s 10 by 14 inches) to 1,014 pieces (20 by 30 inches). A kid-friendly version (11 by 14 inches) has 30 larger, thicker pieces—a great gift for puzzling with the grandkids. Think wisely about what photo you choose though, or you can make it unintentionally challenging. For instance, a faraway landscape of everyone on a snow-covered hill with a large blue-bird sky would be particularly tricky.

We love finding gifts that are unusual, thoughtful, and well vetted. See even more gift ideas we recommend.

Dorie Chevlen contributed reporting. This article was edited by Hannah Morrill and Jennifer Hunter.

Samantha Schoech

Except for the time she gave a boyfriend her mother’s old toaster for Christmas, staff writer Samantha Schoech has a reputation as an excellent gift giver. She lives in San Francisco with two teens, two cats, a geriatric betta fish, and a bookseller husband. Her first book of short stories, My Mother’s Boyfriends, is coming out in 2024.

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35 Best Gifts for Grandparents of 2024 | Reviews by Wirecutter