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Every year, during the festive season, we publish a list of some fun and useful gifts which seniors would enjoy receiving. These come for different purposes and budgets. We have no conflict of interest to declare as these are general suggestions and several brands are available for most of them on your standard shopping websites. You might also find them at your local store, depending on where you stay. They are not listed in any order of preference – choose any or all depending on what your parents enjoy!
Medicine Organiser
Almost all seniors take medicines and keeping them properly is something they can seldom do on their own. Pill boxes are only advised for those who have a fantastic memory and whose medicines do not have any ‘look alikes’ – a near impossibility! Just the other day, one of my relatives took the wrong medicine from the pill box because she had not kept it properly and there was no strip cover to check the name – dangerous! What if there was a solution? Well, we created one! Care Continuum’s special 3 chamber medicine pouches. There is enough space for storing medicines in strips as well as separating them into morning / evening / night doses. The pouch can be stored in any small place such as a drawer and is perfectly portable – so no changing bags for travel every time. An ideal daily use gift for older adults.
10 Inch Tablet Photo Frames
Many elders feel quite uncomfortable around smartphones and tablets and its quite a challenge to get them to use it. A simple way to do so might be to buy a tablet and set it up as a digital photo frame. This is a wonderful festive addition to the household and they might even learn to use it when fiddling with it. If you still feel they will not comply, a digital photo frame is the answer. Every family has hundreds of clicks which are mostly shared on WhatsApp etc. but the elders who do not use smartphones don’t get to participate. Loading these moments on the frame will be a perfect way to share happy memories.
Lightweight Microwave Safe Crockery
Most seniors prefer to eat light. Many eat only one major meal a day and make do with milk or a health drink in the evenings. With fewer members in the household, cooking once or twice a week and reheating leftovers is a frequent phenomenon. Look around. The microwave safe utensils are probably old and stained with use. It is time to get a great set of light weight microwave safe crockery which will cheer up the tedious work of reheating food, especially when the elderly have to do it themselves! In fact, it’s a good idea to replace any tired old utensils in the kitchen because proper nutrition is key to a healthy active life.
Laser Tape Measure
Most of the active seniors I know, love to remodel or repair things and to do so, they need a couple of common household tools such as a tape measure. However, to measure large distances such as between walls etc – especially when repainting the house or planning new furnishings, it’s such a pain to try and hold the tape measure. Why not get them a Laser Tape Measure, an inexpensive but handy tool? It gives seniors the independence to do their own calculations and planning without the risk of falling and hurting themselves. It’s also so much fun with the beam instantly calculating distances without any effort.
Indian Salads / Low Oil Cookbook
Recently a very fit and active 70 year old medical professional told me that the key to good health for seniors was eating uncooked items and low oil items as well as eating smaller meals a day and avoiding at least one major meal. She gave the example of her 90+ mother who was practicing this and keeping in perfect shape! Keeping a light balanced diet is important to slow aging and therefore helping older adults eat healthy is a great idea. There are multiple Indian cookbooks available which promote gut health & can be a wonderful gift to your parents. It also involves less cooking and cleaning and could be the right fit for those who have no household helps.
Brain Games / Puzzles
A fit body and a fit mind both need exercise to maintain agility. However, due to various challenges such as poor eyesight, poor hearing, and mobility restrictions, many elderly give up on their hobbies such as reading, or listening to music or learning something new as it is too much of an effort. New research has suggested that ‘gamification’ can motivate adults to adopt new technology or even learn new skills. Hence, what can be better than gifting Brain Teasers and Puzzle games which you can play together with your older family members? This has multiple benefits – it enthuses them to participate, compete and feel productive. Overall, it improves motivation to live more fully.
Massage Pillow
Aches and Pains are common place in old age. However the elderly are very wary of gadgets such as chair massagers and the like due to an inability to fully understand and operate it to their satisfaction. It also entails providing space for the contraption in a home which is already full with things they hate to dispose of! Fret not. A small useful item is a massage pillow which can be used to massage the head and neck as well as provide heat therapy for muscle relaxation. Its just a switch on/off mechanism and the pillow does not occupy much space. An ideal gift for the upcoming winters.
Bath Towels (Cotton)
Gone are the days when we used to find everyone using ‘gamchhas’ to wipe themselves. For many years, cotton towels had lost ground to fluffy thick woven towels which were at once attractive as well as cushiony. However, given Kolkata’s monsoons, we all understand the value of a quick drying towel which will be easy to wash as well. Enter the new age ‘gamchhas’ or cotton towels which are a far cry from the old stuff. They come in all sorts of sizes and colours and indeed being eco-friendly are all the rage again, amongst environmentalists. So, giving a set of colour co-ordinated hand and bath towels is not just great for the elderly recipients but also good for your soul, as a friend of the earth.
Thick anti-skid home slippers
Falls are much too common among older people as their muscles weaken along with their eyesight as well as their executive brain functions. In today’s flats, with granite and tile floors, the surface is often very slippery and even young adults often skid across the surface if they are not careful. Also, seniors often do not lift their feet sufficiently to move forward resulting in a greater risk of slipping as they drag their feet. Thick soled anti-skid slippers for home can solve both these issues as these give the feet a good grip and their weight adds as reminder to lift the feet off the ground completely. A small but extremely valuable gift which your older relatives will greatly appreciate.
OTT Subscription / Magazine Subscription
Are we not all familiar with how glued our seniors are to their daily soaps and don’t we always also get complaints about how “there is nothing good on television” these days? With the advent of scores of online streaming media platforms, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to good content but often, our seniors are still captive of the old style TV programming full of never ending advertisements. Its time, we offered them the choice of the type and style of content they would want to watch. Gifting a subscription of any of these platforms (or their combinations) is really easy and quite inexpensive too. If however, the older family members are fond of reading, then magazine subscriptions of special interest are a long time perennial favourite.