# 70/75th Birthday Gift Ideas



## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

I am well and truly stumped, and could use some suggestions from you folks.

Nick's mom and dad will be celebrating their 70th and 75th (respectively) birthdays, and I cannot think of gifts for them.

I was trying to come up with something along the number theme, but :shrug: nada. Zilch.

They have more than enough "stuff" and really don't want any more.

They live 9 hours away, so any gift is going to have to be mailed.

Relationships with the siblings are strained, so the gift will just be from us.

We need to keep each gift under $50.

Mom's hobbies are knitting and jewelry making.

Dad is into woodcarving, fishing, and guns.

Ideas? Suggestions? 

TIA!


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## Melissa (Apr 15, 2002)

Magazine subscriptions? gift card to local restaurants or grocery store?

http://www.goodolddaysmagazine.com/ I know several older couples who enjoy this magazine.


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## Cindy in NY (May 10, 2002)

My parents also have enough stuff! However, they both enjoy going to the movies and watching movies at home. For my Daddy's 70th birthday, we got him a year's subscription to NetFlix. They liked it so much that they have renewed it for 2 years in a row!


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

A collection of coins minted in the years of their birth.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Great ideas! Keep 'em comin'!


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## DW (May 10, 2002)

when my good friend turned 70, I bought dollar store decks of cards...wrote happy birthday on 70 cards...she loved it.
She gave her sister 70 (sm) gifts on her 70th.


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

My husband sent his grandmother a greeting one time while he was in the service. He bought a pack of index cards and wrote one letter on each card (she was a big puzzle and crossword fan) and mailed them all at once....well they came in over 5 or 6 days! She had the biggest kick trying to puzzle out what he sent.

My aunt sent my grandfather a box with 70 $1 bills all rolled up in it (although that blows your budget). He said he always wanted a box full of money, so she did it.


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## MWG (Aug 14, 2006)

A fire extingusher for all those candles on their cakes?


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## Helena (May 10, 2002)

How about gift cards to E-Bay or Barnes and Nobles on line or for the book store its self..I think the Net Flex movies is a great one...or even just a few favorite old time videos..red Skelton shows..Honeymooners..things like that..Perhaps you could even manage to have a small birthday cake delivered to them too.. Good Luck !XX!


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## Jokarva (Jan 17, 2010)

One year I got my sister and her husband old copies of the Sat Evening Post from their birthdates. Only cost about $7-8 each on ebay and they really got a kick out of them.


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## nduetime (Dec 15, 2005)

Hello Squishter!
Bet you thought I dropped off the face of the earth! Nope I didn't.
A friend of mine turned 50 this year, we had the hardest time coming up with a gift idea. You know the type, already have so much and if they really want/need something they just get it. I finally sat down and wrote out 50 things we love about her. She absolutely adored the card. Cried and what not. We put in things we really thought about. Like that her feet were pretty (not everyone's are ) or the way she really treated her pets like family, etc etc. I also bought her a pretty Laurel Burch scarf but she ended up framing the card and putting it on her wall so she could see it when she felt blue. Turned out to be one of the best ideas I have had. Miss you guys!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

My Mom's is tomorrow, she will be 70! Got her a new shovel,it's small and has a shorter handle. She is tiny and Gardens ALOT. Also a new spring Blouse. How about some yarn and Fishing lures. Special ones that they would never splerge on.


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## jmtinmi (Feb 25, 2009)

For my Dad's 80th birthday, we had a balloon party! Several weeks before we asked friends and family for little stories, jokes, or cards. The day of his birthday, his sons took him golfing. We headed in and filled 80 balloons, first with notes and then helium. If there was a card or gift we added it was tied to the balloon. Some balloons held confetti along with a coupon for a grandchild to clean up!

Now he has 10 children, so there was a lot to draw from! Anyways, when he came home from golfing most of his family was there with potluck food. The eldest child handed him a dart and told him his gift was in the rec room of the barn (man-cave). We all knew what he was thinking 'great, they gave me a lousy dart board'. He sure was surprised to see all the balloons hugging the ceiling. We kept our Mom out of the loop, so she could be surprised too. It took him a while to pop the balloons. It was my Mom's job to put the notes/cards into an album. It was a good day.

Of course, the cake said, "Happy Birthday, POP!" And he received some POPcorn, and Soda POP, etc.


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## Old John (May 27, 2004)

Pony said:


> I am well and truly stumped, and could use some suggestions from you folks.
> 
> Nick's mom and dad will be celebrating their 70th and 75th (respectively) birthdays, and I cannot think of gifts for them.
> 
> ...


Just had my 70th BD party Saturday. And, We put on the Invitations...
"No Gifts Please."

Like your Folks, I buy whatever I want or need. I do woodcarving, too.
But I have a great set of carving tools that I picked out myself, prob'ly
40 gouges & knives.
I have a half dozen fishing lures, I mostly use, out of two fishing boxes full.
DSW Says I am "Gun-poor", whatever that means.....She thinks I use to belong to the "Gun of the Month club". We have a safe full.LOL

One of my DD's brought me a gift card for WallyWorld. I will spend that.
One DS brought me a gift card to Gander Mountain. I'll prob'ly get me some boolits. Can't have too many boolits. But! i want to pick my own.
Same with my Home-brewing..... I like picking out my own Recipes & ingredients.

What I enjoyed Most for my Birthday was getting together with lots of Family, Brothers, Sister, Kids, Grandkids & Friends, at our Open-house, to chat, having a beer together.
I hope I have helped.


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## upnorthlady (Oct 16, 2009)

How about something in the food line? Maybe some fruit or cheese or wild rice or wine or dried fruit and nuts, etc. There are many places you can order stuff like this online - Harry and David's comes to mind - and they can send it for you and everyone likes food, right? Is there something you produce on your place that you could send? Someone once sent us a box of Harry and David's fruits, and they were really good.


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## Tricky Grama (Oct 7, 2006)

upnorthlady said:


> How about something in the food line? Maybe some fruit or cheese or wild rice or wine or dried fruit and nuts, etc. There are many places you can order stuff like this online - Harry and David's comes to mind - and they can send it for you and everyone likes food, right? Is there something you produce on your place that you could send? Someone once sent us a box of Harry and David's fruits, and they were really good.


These are wonderful but expensive! You don't have to package & mail it tho.
Also, aren't there some catalogues that mail something every month? All I can think of right now is a beer of the month thing. 

For smaller gifts, a sheet of cool stamps is always appreciated. Nice teas. Speical coffee.

Happy Birthday to them!


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

WOW! Great ideas!

We looked at the Old Times mag web site, then followed a link to Reminisce magazine, and then found a great DVD set about the 1940's. We'll get that for Mom.

For Dad, we thought that the Netflix is a good idea. We just don't like that the folks will have to give their credit card number to activate the account. Wonder if we could just use ours?

Really like the idea of the Life magazines from their birth dates, but don't know if they'd appreciate it or just consider it "one more thing" to pass on to the kids later on. 

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! These are fantastic ideas. Some of them would be hard for us to do b/c of the distance, but they are good ideas to tuck away for a later date, I think.

You all ROCK! :rock:


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## mistletoad (Apr 17, 2003)

Not sure if this would work but how about sending the folks a store bought credit card to use for the authorization? DS uses those all the time to buy stuff online so he never has to give out his real number and he doesn't lose money if he forgets to cancel a recurring subscription.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

mistletoad said:


> Not sure if this would work but how about sending the folks a store bought credit card to use for the authorization? DS uses those all the time to buy stuff online so he never has to give out his real number and he doesn't lose money if he forgets to cancel a recurring subscription.


That's a good idea! I'll run it past Nick. 

Thanks!


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## ronbre (Apr 26, 2009)

my best suggestion (with my mom turning 90) is that you purchse lovely food items that they love and make up a food basket..but make sure it is things they can eat..if they can't eat nuts and seeds..don't include them..if they have special dietary needs watch that too.

but a lovely basket of smaller single or double serving sizes of things are perfect..with a few fresh things tucked in if they like them..like fruit..i love to include things like a small box of chocolate, a few pieces of fruit, maybe a candy bar..packets of drink mixes that they might like, tea, coffe, or coccoa? small packets of nice cookies, if she loves to bake..things like cake or cookie mixes? look at what they give other people too..but most of all look at what they use regularly and then go for that but special..really special items that would be on the line they would like..like if they like chocolate, go for godiva if you can spring the extra?? they will always love something that they can REALLY use..also..don't let them open and share it with their guests..


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## wombatcat (Mar 29, 2005)

When my mom turned 80, I found a website (sorry I don't have a link, but you can probably Google it) where you type in the person's birthday and out comes something like this: (all names and dates are not accurate, just inserted to give you an idea of what it's like....
You are one year younger than Jimmy Carter.
You are 21 days younger than George Bush.
You are 3 days older than Marilyn Monroe.
You are the same age as Loretta Lyn.
You are one year older than Ringo Starr.
(you get the idea) (the website figures out the dates for you).

Then it goes on and lists a timeline of important events and birthdates that happened during the person's lifetime--this gave us a lot to talk about!
Like "When you were four years old, the Great Depression started."
When you were 12 years old, Woodrow Wilson became president.
When you were 39 years old, JFK was assassinated. (I told you I"m making up the dates--don't flame me for not knowing the exact years!)
When you were forty years old, the first man set foot on the moon.
When you were 42, Richard Nixon resigned.
etc. etc.

So I did the webpage, printed it off, and spent .75 at Kinkos to have it blown up to poster size so that everyone could read it. It made for some great conversation....and not expensive.....here's a link I found to some timeline stuff, but I wasn't able to find the one that I used....that one was very easy and fun because the computer did all the hard work....I hope this helps though.

http://www.phs.d211.org/Media/subjects/timeline.htm


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Wow! More great ideas! Now I wish I'd started to think about this earlier!


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## Shandys2 (Mar 3, 2017)

Last Sunday went to my cousinâs birthday party. There carried wonderful Nike shoes as she loves jogging along with elegant flower Bouquets for her. She loved fresh flowers a lot. Had used BloomThat flowers delivery service to buy them. Will use it for motherâs day floral delivery too.


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## emdeengee (Apr 20, 2010)

If your parents don't like computer and cell technology ( as mine did not) then long distance telephone cards or additions to their home phone may be appreciated -especially if it covers overseas countries where they may have friends and relatives. 

My Mom got to phone her cousin many times a year instead of just once and my Dad was able to speak to classmates who he had only been able to write to for 40 years. And work colleagues all over the world. They had so much fun especially surprising people.


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## COWS (Dec 23, 2012)

If your dad is into guns, give him some ammunition.

COWS


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## Grandmotherbear (May 15, 2002)

My DIL just ignored my repeated-every-year request for a photograph of the family- don't even frame it, just send us the picture- to buy us stuff we never wanted or used.
For my mother's 86th birthday, she received from GFB a framed photo of herself and her sister from years before. The mother wouldn't let her picture be taken for years and he snapped a shot of them all unawares after they got out of the car. My aunt had a massive stroke and went into the nursing home for 6 years before she died. My mother really appreciated it- funny, as she returned to me EVERY gift I had ever gotten her before I wised up and stopped buying her gifts.
I would rather be gifted with experiences now, not "things". I have noticed a lot of tribute bands playing south Florida featuring music from the 50s and 60s. That is something I've been thinking about. And I would really like to take the sea express ferry from Fort Myers to Key West someday. Now that I have my camper, I am hoping that my birthday will lead to some short overnight trips somewhere. If I'm ever in the Pacific NW, there is an actual company running zeppelin sightseeing tours that would be a neat experience. There may be experiences or sites near you that your folks would enjoy experiencing but they just haven't justified spending the time or money to themselves, and would be thrilled to receive as a gift.


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