What would be good party favors for a great-grandmother's 90th birthday?

May 21, 2013 4:38 PM

A relative of mine's great-grandmother is having her 90th birthday party this Sunday, in New Orleans. She's expressed a wish to have each of the 25-30 guests receive a small present, up to $15 each. Any suggestions? It has to be something I can obtain and wrap before Sunday afternoon.
posted by Joe in Australia to Shopping (12 answers total)

I would get $10-$15 purchases from Heifer International (please google, posting from phone). You can buy a clutch of chicks or some tree seedlings to be given to a needy family in a developing country and customize the cards to be printed out and presented to guests. Make each gift in honor of the Birthday girl. We always do this as teacher gifts and people love them. Check out the website.
posted by pearlybob at 4:58 PM on May 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

Can you get a baby or child picture of her as well as a current one? It would make a lovely commemorative mug or T-shirt.
posted by Mchelly at 5:05 PM on May 21, 2013

Something that reflects her personality or interests. Is she a gardener? A book-lover? A dancer? Does she like to cook? Something that represents her favorite thing in a topic that she is interested in (a packet of seeds for her favorite flower, a paperback copy of her favorite Shakespeare play, or a copy of her favorite recipe) would be thoughtful and cherished, imho.
posted by vignettist at 5:14 PM on May 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

Some sort of fancy chocolate, perhaps? Big chocolate dipped pretzels?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:18 PM on May 21, 2013

Best answer: Immediate mind-picture of a gift I would treasure if she was in my family is a framed picture of her in her heyday or as a little girl or young lady. Wow!
posted by Lornalulu at 6:01 PM on May 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

A friend of mine had a party and gave everyone tchotchkes from her home - hand painted decorative plates, teacups & saucers, carved animals, books, small framed artworks, etc. It was her way of giving everyone something sentimental, as well as recognizing that she needed to get rid of many years' worth of stuff. For a purchased gift, chocolates, pralines, petit-fours, something like that would be nice.
posted by theora55 at 6:21 PM on May 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

It really depends on the personality of the person, but when my great aunt turned 90, we had a huge bash for her. My brothers and I all bought a ton of scratch-off lottery tickets, and she gave a handful to each guest as they said good-bye. That was *so* in sync with who she was and she loved it.
posted by aviatrix at 7:24 PM on May 21, 2013

Is there a cookie recipe that she bakes? Maybe give people different recipes that she's known for cooking. Even if the cookies don't match the recipe, it'll still work.

I'd love to leave a party with cookies and a recipe. Also, I really wish someone would have gotten my Nana's cheesecake recipe before she passed. That was the thing she made for special celebrations and I miss it.
posted by 26.2 at 11:48 PM on May 21, 2013

I would find out the gg mother's favourite book and get the requisite number of copies delivered ready gift wrapped from amazon. She might like to do signings and dedications at the party.
posted by BenPens at 4:09 AM on May 22, 2013 [1 favorite]

Love the book idea!

It's really perfect and it doesn't require wrapping!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:59 AM on May 22, 2013

I like the idea of a nice picture of her (maybe her favorite picture of herself) and then add on to that a photograph of the guest with your great-grandmother. Maybe a nice double-photo frame with the "young" picture of her on one side and then have a photo printer set up to print digital photos to the size of the other side. Extra bonus: make a small photo album of the newly taken pictures to give to your great-grandmother at the end of the party!

Of course, this would require a digital camera and a photo printer, but if you do $15 x 30 people = $450, you could buy a point and shoot digital camera, plus cheapy-photo printer for that much.
posted by jillithd at 9:21 AM on May 22, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks for the great answers. What we ended doing was making small party bags with magnetic framed photos of her as a young woman or girl. We varied the photos so that couples would have a pair of different ones, and we gave the kids some small toys as well. We all had a wonderful time.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:27 PM on May 26, 2013