Mother's Day Gifts for Grandma and Nan

Last updated: September 2026

Mothers Day Gifts for Grandparents

Quick answer: A grandmother is somebody's mother too, and on Mothering Sunday she is usually the one who gets the afterthought card. The Mothers Day gifts for grandparents that land are the ones that treat her as a mother in her own right: the whole family at one table, daffodils because it is March, a job done at the house, or a photograph she has never seen printed. If the family wants one present that outlasts the day, a hand-painted portrait of the three generations costs £220 to £549 and takes about three to four weeks to paint, plus delivery. Mothering Sunday is 7 March 2027, which means a painting ordered this week is cutting it fine — more on that below.

Nan is somebody's mother too

Mothering Sunday has a pecking order, and grandmothers sit at the bottom of it. The day is built around whoever has young children: the card made at school, the breakfast on a tray, the flowers bought on the Saturday afternoon. Nan gets a phone call, or a card signed on the grandchildren's behalf.

Your mother's mother has had more Mothering Sundays than anyone else in the family, and spent most of them making sure her own daughter had a good one. At some point in the last twenty years the day quietly stopped being hers. Nobody decided that; it happened when the grandchildren arrived and the attention moved a generation down. A modest, deliberate effort in her direction therefore stands out.

On Mothering Sunday, "grandparents" nearly always means grandma, with grandad included in whatever gets booked. He does not expect a present. He does expect to be at the lunch.

Who is buying, and what that changes

Three different people go looking for Mothers Day gifts for grandparents, and they should be buying different things.

A grown grandchild. You have signed your mother's card to nan since you were six. The upgrade is sending your own, in your handwriting, arriving the week before rather than the Tuesday after. If you want to add something, a printed photograph of the current version of you is what she is missing; the ones on her sideboard tend to stop at about age nine. The post on a family portrait from the grandchildren goes through this by age.

Her own son or daughter. You are buying for your mother, who happens to be a grandmother, and the risk is that the grandchildren become the whole present. A framed photo of the kids is lovely; it is also, strictly, a present about someone else. Something that is for her — the restaurant she likes, an afternoon with just you — is worth putting alongside it.

A son- or daughter-in-law. The safe move is the joint present with your partner's name first. The unsafe move is the enormous personalised gesture that makes her own children look as though they didn't bother.

What she actually wants

Ask a grandmother what she wants for Mother's Day and she will say "nothing, I've got everything". Take her at her word on the objects and ignore her on everything else.

What she wants is contact. A Sunday lunch with the whole family at one table beats any parcel, and it is the one thing that gets harder to arrange as the grandchildren get older and busier. Book it early; the good Sunday-lunch pubs are full on Mothering Sunday by the middle of February.

She wants jobs done — the gutter, the garden, the phone that needs setting up, the box of photographs in the loft nobody has looked at since 2004 — and things to eat that she would never buy herself: a proper cake, a bottle of something better than her usual, a meal delivered on a weekday when she is on her own.

And she wants photographs, printed. Grandmothers are the last generation that expects pictures to exist on paper, and they have been quietly starved of them since everyone's camera became a phone.

The options, compared

Gift	Typical UK cost	Lead time	Still there in ten years
Card in your own handwriting	£3–£6	Post it a week ahead	Often, in a drawer
Daffodils or spring flowers	£15–£40	1–2 days	No
Afternoon tea for two	£40–£80	Book 2–3 weeks ahead	No
Sunday lunch for the family	£150–£350 for eight	Book by mid-February	No
A job done at the house	£0–£150	An afternoon	Usually
Photo book, 20–40 pages	£35–£70	1–2 weeks	Usually
Framed print, properly mounted	£40–£120	3–10 days	Usually
Hand-painted oil portrait	£220–£549	3–4 weeks, plus delivery	Yes

Most Mothers Day gifts for grandparents fall into two kinds: one that happens on the day and disappears, and one that stays. The lunch is the first. The second is nearly always a photograph in some form — a print for an ordinary year, a painting for a milestone. Prices for a painting depend on the canvas size and how many people are in it; the pricing page sets out where the lines fall, and each extra person adds from £59.

The photograph she doesn't have

The gift that works best is usually a picture she has never seen properly. Three come up repeatedly.

The three generations. Her, her children, the grandchildren, all in one frame. There is usually exactly one of these, taken on a phone at a christening or a wedding, and nobody has printed it. It is the image the family will want in thirty years and it is currently in a group chat.

Her with her own children, small. A print from the seventies or eighties with the colour gone orange, in an album she rarely opens. Scanned, corrected and printed large, it becomes a different object.

Her with her own mother. Powerful, and worth handling carefully — if she would only want to look at it sometimes, a photo book is kinder than a wall.

The picture matters more than what you make from it. A sharp phone photo beats a blurred professional one, and a faded print with clear faces is perfectly workable — drifted colour gets corrected on the way, not copied. The post on turning one of your own photographs into a painting covers scanning old prints without damaging them.

Timing it for 7 March 2027

Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent, so it moves with Easter; in 2027 it falls early, on 7 March, about three weeks from the middle of February.

A painting takes about three to four weeks, plus delivery, and before it is posted you are sent a photograph of the finished canvas so that anything not quite right can be changed. Ordered this week, it will arrive around Mothering Sunday or in the week after, and there is no honest way to promise which. So there are two sensible choices.

The first is to order now, give her the card on the day, and let the painting follow. Grandmothers are the one group of people who genuinely do not mind a present arriving on the Wednesday. The second is to give a framed print or a photo book on the day, and make the painting her birthday present, or next year's Mother's Day with the pressure off. Either is fine. What does not work is ordering on 1 March and hoping.

A commission from a photo starts with the picture and nothing else — you send it, say who is in it and what size you want, and the rest follows. The WELCOME20 code takes 20% off a first order, which brings the smallest canvas to £176. For next year, January is soon enough, though finding the photograph is the slow part in every family.

When a painting is the wrong call

It is a good present for the right grandmother and a poor one for others. Think twice if:

• She's in a care home or a very small flat. Wall space is limited and pictures often have to be approved. A photo book she can hold beats a canvas she cannot hang.
• She would be embarrassed by herself on the wall. A lot of women in their seventies and eighties would. A painting of the grandchildren, or of her parents, sidesteps it entirely.
• The only photograph is a distant group shot. If her face is a dozen pixels wide, ask before ordering rather than hoping.
• The budget is £50. Then the photo book is the right gift. No grandmother wants her family out of pocket in March.

Frequently asked

What do you get a grandma for Mother's Day?

Something for her rather than about the grandchildren: lunch with the family at one table, flowers because it is March, a job done at the house, or a photograph she has never had on paper. For one present that lasts, a painted portrait of the three generations tends to stay on the wall.

Do you give grandparents Mother's Day gifts?

Yes, if she is your mother — and a card at least if she is your grandmother. Grandmothers are usually the ones most quietly pleased to be remembered on it.

When is Mother's Day in the UK in 2027?

Sunday 7 March 2027. In the UK it is Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, so it moves with Easter each year. It is a different date from the American Mother's Day in May, which matters if you are ordering from a site based there.

Can a painting arrive in time for Mother's Day?

Ordered by early February, comfortably. Ordered in the middle of February, it lands around the day or in the week after; ordered in March, no. A painting takes about three to four weeks plus delivery, and you see a photograph of the finished canvas before it ships.

How much does a hand-painted portrait cost?

From £220 for a 12 × 16 inch canvas to £549 for 36 × 48 inches, with each extra person or pet from £59. First orders get 20% off with the WELCOME20 code. Framing is extra and done locally.

The short version: the Mothers Day gifts for grandparents that work are the ones that remember she is a mother first. She has had a lifetime of organising the day for other people. One year of it being organised around her is the present.