Christmas Gifts for Nan That Aren't Slippers

Last updated: September 2026

Christmas Gifts for Nan

Quick answer: The best Christmas gifts for nan produce contact rather than clutter — a booked lunch with the grandchildren, a job done at the house, a photograph she has never seen printed, or something to eat that she would never buy herself. Slippers, talc and a tin of shortbread are what people buy when nobody has asked her a question. If the family wants one present that stays, a hand-painted portrait of the grandchildren worked up from a photograph costs £220 to £549 and takes about three to four weeks to paint, plus delivery — which is why September is the month to think about it, not December.

Why nan ends up with slippers

Nobody sets out to buy their grandmother a bad present. It happens because she is asked what she wants, says "nothing, I've got everything I need", and is taken at her word. The result is a category of gift that exists purely to fill a box: slippers, a scarf, hand cream, a mug with a slogan on it. Most go in the drawer with last year's.

The tell is whether the present could have been bought for any woman over seventy. If it could, it is a placeholder, and she knows it. Christmas gifts for nan that actually land are specific to her — the particular garden, the particular photograph, the particular grandchild she hasn't seen since Easter.

The practical problem gets worse every year, too. A woman in her eighties is not accumulating; she is quietly getting rid, and may already be in a smaller place with one sideboard and one wall that isn't a window. Anything that needs a shelf is competing for space she has already allocated.

What she actually wants

Ask a grandmother what she'd like and take the second answer, not the first. The first is "nothing". The second, if you wait, is nearly always about people. Time is the present; the trick is turning it into something that survives being wrapped, and three forms work.

A date, not a promise. A table booked for a Sunday in January, with you doing the driving, is a gift. "We must come and see you more" is not.

A job done. The gutters, the printer that hasn't worked since spring, the garden cut back before the frost. None of it wraps, so it wants a card with a date in it, but for a nan who lives alone it is often the thing that improves her week most.

Something she'd never buy herself. Not a hamper — a basket of small things assembled by a stranger — but one good thing. A proper Christmas cake, the sherry she likes, the expensive marmalade. Consumables never need a shelf and don't outstay their welcome.

Christmas gifts for nan from the grandchildren

The gift that gets kept longest is nearly always from the youngest person in the family, and nearly always made rather than bought. A drawing, a card in a child's handwriting, a jar with forty reasons they love her on folded paper. If the grandchildren have pocket money, let them choose one small thing themselves and wrap it badly.

For older grandchildren the equivalent is a photograph. Nan has almost certainly never had a decent print of the current version of you — the ones on the sideboard stop at about age nine. A 6 × 4″ print in a plain frame costs under £15 and gets looked at every day, which is more than can be said for a scarf.

The options, compared

Gift	Typical UK cost	Order or book by	Needs a shelf	Still there next Christmas
Christmas cake, cheese or a good bottle	£25–£60	Mid-December	No	No
Sunday lunch, family of eight	£150–£300	Now, for a January table	No	No
A job done: garden, gutters, tech	£60–£250	Book the tradesperson in October	No	Yes
Flowers on the first of every month	£120–£240 a year	Early December	Briefly	It renews
Framed print of a recent photo	£15–£60	Mid-December	Small	Usually
Old photograph restored and reprinted	£30–£90	Mid-November	Small	Yes
Hand-painted oil portrait	£220–£549	Mid-November	One wall	Yes

Nearly everything that stays needs a wall, and nearly everything that doesn't is gone by Twelfth Night. The families who get this right buy one from each half — something for the day and one thing that lasts.

The photograph on the sideboard

Every nan has one. It is the picture she'd take out of the house first: her own parents, her wedding, a husband who died, or the only photograph with every grandchild in it, taken at a christening before the youngest was born. It is usually a small print, often faded, with no other copy. That photograph is the starting point for the one big present the family can give together, and two versions come up.

Restore and reprint it. If the print is creased or drifting orange, a restoration and a decent enlargement costs £30 to £90 and takes a fortnight. Restoring and painting an old photograph covers what can and can't be recovered.

Have it painted. A hand-painted oil portrait from that photograph becomes an heirloom rather than a replacement print. Prices run from £220 for a 12 × 16″ canvas to £549 for 36 × 48″, each extra person adds from £59, and the code WELCOME20 takes 20% off a first commission — the pricing page sets out the sizes. The useful part for a grandmother is that photographs can be merged: the grandchild born after the group photo can be painted in, the background changed, the person who would rather not be in it left out. All seven grandchildren on one canvas, when they have never been in the same room, is a present nobody else can give her.

Painting takes about three to four weeks, plus delivery. Before it ships you receive a photograph of the finished painting so any changes can be made, and the canvas arrives unframed to hang as it is or take to a local framer. Anything with a clear photograph behind it can be painted from that photo; a phone snap of a print laid flat by a window on an overcast day is usually enough. If the present is for both grandparents, the same photograph works as a joint Christmas gift for grandparents.

Why September matters

Consumables can be bought on 22 December. A painting cannot. For Christmas delivery, order by mid-November to be safe: that leaves three to four weeks for painting, a few days for the finished photograph to come back and any changes to be made, and delivery on top.

Miss mid-November and it becomes a January painting. That is not the disaster it sounds — a print of the source photograph in the card on the morning, with the canvas arriving in the new year, tends to please a grandmother more than another parcel — but it is better to decide now than to find out in December. Last order dates for handmade Christmas gifts has the cut-offs for the other slow categories. The other reason to start early is the photograph itself: getting the right one out of nan's album without explaining why takes a visit, and the visit is half the gift.

If nan is in a care home

Christmas gifts for nan in residential care need to be small, labelled and either useful or lovely. A large canvas is the wrong thing; a 12 × 16″ one on the wall by the bed is the right size for a room where every visitor sits in the same chair and looks at the same wall. Photographs of the family, named on the back, matter more than they did at home, because staff will ask who everyone is. Beyond that: a soft blanket in her colour, a large-print book, a radio with three buttons, and the visit rota written down so she knows who is coming and when.

When a painting is the wrong present

• She's mid-move. A grandmother downsizing or going into sheltered housing this winter does not want a canvas arriving the week before. Give the print, hold the painting.
• The only photograph is a distant group shot. If no face is readable, ask before ordering rather than hoping.
• She has lost someone this year. A portrait of a husband who died in March can be exactly right or badly timed. If she hasn't started looking at photographs of him again, wait a year.

FAQ

What do you buy a nan who says she wants nothing?

Take her at her word on objects and ignore her on everything else. She means she doesn't want another thing to house. A date in the diary with the grandchildren, a job done, or a photograph she has never seen printed all get past "nothing" because none of them needs a shelf.

How much should you spend on a Christmas present for a grandmother?

There is no rule. Between grown grandchildren, £20 to £40 each is typical, and pooled across a family that is enough for one proper present rather than five small ones.

What are good Christmas gifts for nan from young grandchildren?

Anything made. A drawing, a card in their own handwriting, a badly wrapped small thing they chose themselves. It will outlast every bought present in the house.

Can all the grandchildren be painted together if they've never been photographed together?

Yes. Separate photographs of each child can be merged into one painting, with backgrounds changed and people added or removed. Send the clearest photograph of each, faces well lit, and say which to combine. Each person after the first adds from £59.

When do I need to order a painted portrait for Christmas?

By mid-November to be safe. Painting takes about three to four weeks plus delivery, and you receive a photograph of the finished painting before it ships so anything can be corrected. Ordering in October leaves room for the family to change their minds about the photograph.

The short version: Christmas gifts for nan go wrong when they are bought for a generic grandmother. Feed her, visit her, fix something, or rescue the photograph on the sideboard — and if it's the photograph, decide by the middle of November.