My favourite gift ideas

Recently I've had several family members reaching milestone birthdays. One was 100 years and two were 90 years (I'm hoping I've inherited the right geans!)

While I'm happy to say that all of these family members are content with the things they have in life and they've been blessed with wonderful experiences, it can make it a little tricky to come up with gift ideas on a budget but we did.

Here are some of my favourite ideas for without breaking the bank.

Notes from the Prime Minister
& Governor General

• A note from the Prime Minister, Governor-General or Queen: for special birthdays and wedding anniversaries like these you can organise the birthday or wedding anniversary couple to receive a personal congratulations message from the Prime Minister, Governor-General or even The Queen.

• Memory box: this is a fun and thoughtful idea. Decorate a box, jar or any suitable container and fill it full of trinkets and memory joggers that each have a story. As each item is removed from the box and handed to the recipient, the giver retells the story about that item.  My amazingly creative cousin gave this to my Grandmother and we all enjoyed hearing the stories as each random, intriguing and special item was revealed. 

• Personalised vouchers: make your own book of vouchers that can be redeemed for hugs, poetry reciting, grocery shopping trips, assistance for getting to places or just every day chores. They can be lots of little things to help fill a need or put a smile on the birthday persons face.

Sing it or say it: write a short poem or song about the birthday person.

• Messages of celebration: use your iPhone, smart phone or video and ask everyone you can to say a little message to the birthday person.  Compile them into one video and have play it in the background during a party or wrap it and give it to them to watch when the party is over.

90th birthday cake for a keen gardener

• Hand made: if you have a talent (or think you do) have a go at making a special birthday gift.  Perhaps it's hand made biscuits, a cake, quilt, cards or even a flower arrangement.

• Slide show: collect as many photos of the birthday person as you can and create a slide snow.  Add some background music and enjoy. Note: instead of gathering and scanning loads of images, particularly when it came to those in albums that were difficult to remove, I just grabbed my smart phone camera and took photos of the photos. It was ideal as it was quick and meant I could simple download the photos and they were ready to go. I didn't even have to take them away.
• Music to their ears: put together a CD with special songs and design your own cover.