Gifts for grandparents from grandkids that actually get used

Ask most grandparents what they want and they'll say they don't need a thing. They're usually telling the truth. The cupboard already holds four mugs with the grandkids' names on them, and there's a drawer of macaroni ornaments nobody will ever throw out or hang up. What they want more of is the kids. So the gifts that get used are the ones that keep bringing the grandkids into the house in some form, long after the wrapping paper is in the recycling.

Here's what we'd buy, how to set each one up so it doesn't end up back in the box, and what we'd skip.

A digital photo frame, loaded before you wrap it

A Wi-Fi photo frame is the one gift on this list that gets better every week. You, your siblings and anyone else in the family send photos from your phones through an app, and they show up on the frame on Grandma's kitchen counter. No email attachments, no asking her to scroll Facebook. Aura and Skylight are the two names you'll run into most. Compare the screen size and check whether any features sit behind an optional yearly plan before you pick.

The setup is where these gifts live or die. Plug the frame in at your house first and load fifty or so photos, so it shows something the moment it's unwrapped. Bring a note with their Wi-Fi name and password, or ask for it ahead of time. A blank frame that wants a router password on Christmas morning tends to go back in its box.

Then decide who keeps it fed. If nobody adds photos, by March it's cycling through the same Christmas pictures. A monthly reminder on one parent's phone fixes that, and a two-second video of the baby laughing will get more attention than ten posed shots.

A book of their own stories

Storyworth emails the grandparent one question a week for a year (where they grew up, how they met, what their first job paid), they write back, and at the end the answers are bound into a hardcover book. It's really a gift to the grandkids, wrapped as a gift to the grandparent.

The trade-off: it works when they like to write, or when someone helps. If Grandpa hates typing, sit with him once a week, ask the question out loud, record the answer on your phone and type it up later. If you know neither of those will happen, pick something else. A book that stops at week six isn't a disaster, but it's not much of a present.

A photo book of the year, picked by the kids

Chatbooks, Shutterfly and plenty of others make these, and most grandparents already have one or two. What makes it get pulled off the shelf is making it a series: one slim book every year, same size, same spot next to their chair. By year five it's a row they show visitors.

Let the kids choose the photos and write the captions. A seven-year-old writing "this is the day Max ate my sandwich" under a blurry dog picture beats a perfect layout every time. Keep it short. Thirty pages that get read are better than a hundred that get skimmed once.

A story read in a voice they know

Hallmark's recordable storybooks let you press record on each page and read the story aloud, so the book plays back in that voice. The usual move is Grandma recording a book for a grandchild who lives far away. Flip it: if your kid reads well on their own, have them record a book for their grandparents. Hearing a seven-year-old sound out the long words in a favorite picture book is a gift that gets replayed.

If the grandkids already have a Yoto player, the Make Your Own cards do the same thing in reverse. Grandpa records stories through the app, they go onto a blank card, and the kid can play Grandpa at bedtime whenever they like.

A standing video call

The most-used gift on this list might cost nothing. Pick a day and time, the same every week (Sunday at five, Tuesday before bath) and give it as a card in a box. Grandparents plan around a call they know is coming in a way they can't around "we'll call sometime this weekend."

A few things keep it from turning into four minutes of "say hi to Grandma":

• Read the same book on both ends. Buy two copies of a chapter book and do one chapter a call.
• Show and tell. The kid brings one thing to the camera each week: a drawing, a lost tooth, a Lego build.
• Let the grandparent teach something. A card game, a recipe, a magic trick. Kids pay attention to adults who are teaching them something real.

If video calls are a struggle at their end, a cheap tablet set up with one calling app on the home screen and nothing else can do more than any gadget with a long manual.

Something big for their wall

The framed school photo is a classic for a reason, and it's still worth giving. What grandparents' houses rarely have is one larger piece of a grandkid that feels like art rather than a snapshot. That's what we make at Dovelie: you upload one photo of your child and see them as a dragon rider, a princess or a little firefighter in about 20 seconds, free, before you pay anything. A 12×16 canvas ($61.99) sits on a shelf or beside a reading chair; a 16×24 ($87.99) holds its own over a dresser. Each portrait is one child, so if there are six grandkids, add up the total before you start. Browse all the scenes, and check our Christmas order dates if it's for the 25th.

What we'd skip

• Anything with all the grandkids' names fixed on it. The family grows, and the mug with four names looks odd once there are five.
• Subscriptions they have to manage. If it renews, put it on your card and your calendar, not theirs.
• Gadgets they didn't ask for. A smart speaker nobody sets up is a paperweight with a power cord.
• Decor in your taste, not theirs. Look at what's already on their walls before buying anything for them.

Getting it there

If they live a few states away, ship straight to their address instead of carrying it in your luggage. And don't let the card be an afterthought; it's often the part that stays on the fridge. We wrote up what to write in a gift card for grandparents, and if the grandparents are brand new at this, there's a separate list of gifts for new grandparents.