50th Weddding Anniversary Gift Ideas for Parents

[poohfriend]

My parents are fast approaching their 50th. THEY are planning a beach getaway for the kids and grandkids.

Any suggestions on gifts for these amazing people. We cannot be extravagent...but I could spend $200 on a gift.

it's not about the money to me, but to celebrate the 50 years they have had together. They are truly a wonderful example to a couple generations of family.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

 

[Soulsearching]

My parents are fast approaching their 50th. THEY are planning a beach getaway for the kids and grandkids.

Any suggestions on gifts for these amazing people. We cannot be extravagent...but I could spend $200 on a gift.

it's not about the money to me, but to celebrate the 50 years they have had together. They are truly a wonderful example to a couple generations of family.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.[/QUOTE

This is a bit of work, but most appreciated.

I think you need to try and get everyone together and get a great big family photo made. Have everyone dress in the same color combination or each family have a specific color combination in the picture so you know whose family is whose (no patterns). Whatever you decide as a group. Have everyone chip in and hire a good photographer or use a friend you know takes good pictures and do it.

Put the pics on the computer, take many shots, and choose the one you love. Get a great frame and present it to them.

My parents love looking at there family and how it has grown and there is such love and pride in their eyes.

Most of all, love every moment you have with them.

 

[Bearvet]

It sounds like the beach getaway with kids and grandkids is the perfect opportunity to get that family photo. Schedule a photo session on the beach with a professional photographer - that will be priceless!

 

[Priorityonecb]

Agreeing to the above suggestions! Book a photo session while everyone is together! Those pictures will be absolutely priceless!! Better still, plan to put together a photo book of all the pictures, with quotes from everyone added in of their favorite memories (gather those quotes quietly from everyone over the weekend). The gift of the photo shoot, with a suprise gift coming soon after...perfect IMO!

 

[pigletto]

Love these books..
http://www.whenweweremarried.com/

It's a personalized book that you can add photos and names to with all kinds of news stories and write up about music etc from the year they were married.

 

[kelleigh1]

You can also make a photo book through Shutterfly. I just did this for my niece's high school graduation. I took all of her school photos and scanned them in. Then I designed the book one page at a time and added tons of quotes about life. I sent a link to my sister after it was done and she loved it. And so has everyone else who has seen it.

We'll see how my niece likes it next week at her graduation.

 

[Pesky]

You can also make a photo book through Shutterfly. I just did this for my niece's high school graduation. I took all of her school photos and scanned them in. Then I designed the book one page at a time and added tons of quotes about life. I sent a link to my sister after it was done and she loved it. And so has everyone else who has seen it.

We'll see how my niece likes it next week at her graduation.

I was thinking a shutterfly book as well, summing up life before they met, marriage and up until their life now. My parents LOVE showing off the shutterfly book I made for them of our last family reunion. Also, totally agree with getting a photographer and arranging a family photo. Just be sure to try and set some universal color for some degree of uniformity. Like khakis and blue shirt or white shirt.

 

[dfchelbay]

I agree with the others about getting a family photo when everyone is together. I would also use your money and perhaps pool it with other siblings you have and get them a bunch of dining/restaurant cards. Maybe $25-$50 on each one and get them for a bunch of restaurants they enjoy dining at. You can wrap them with a card saying something about their date nights out to dinner together is on all the family for their 50th year of marriage.

 

[AntePrincess]

I agree with the above posters that the #1 thing to give would be a good family portrait!

If that's already taken care of, what about his and hers rocking chairs? My great grandparents had them and in their later years liked nothing better than sitting together reading, doing puzzles, and watching shows. (I must be an old lady at heart because I love a good rocking chair myself and put a pair of dollhouse miniature rocking chairs on our wedding cake.)

 

[Eljay]

You can use Windows Movie Maker to create a beautiful slideshow with music. I pretty much make them for any occasion that I take lots of pictures at. You can get creative and make them look very professional. It's quite easy, even for a beginner. If you haven't already, you might need to scan all of the old photos you will want to use in the slideshow. I've made them for weddings, funerals, vacations, birthday parties, pretty much everything.

Congratulations to your parents!

 

[marthachick]

We celebrated my dear parents' 50th Anniversary last December. They live in the house Mom was born in and where they were married. So, we got all the family together & made pictures at the house. There is also an old house that Mom's family lived in before she was born that we made some of the pictures at. We have several in the family who are pretty stubborn about what to wear. So we just said to wear jeans and a solid shirt. I was kind of organizing it so just to have everyone there was the ultimate goal. If you're having an anniversary party and want the portrait to display, start talking to everyone early to get a date that everyone can be there. We were working with several people who regularly work weekends, so it was hard to do, but we did. These pictures are real treasures to me. We did a big group pic of everyone, then one with my parents and my brothers and sister and me with our spouses. Then we did one with my parents and the grandkids and great grandkids. Then each individual family did some. Then we did some of Mom & Dad. Then I got Mom, Pops, DH, DS & me & we did one at the old house. I got a print of it & Pops made me a frame from wood he had taken off the old house. SCORE! That is a major treasure for me! A guy from work made our pics. He is a graphic artist so does a really good job. He just gave me the cd with all the photos on it that he had edited. He didn't charge me anything but we bought him a gift card to one of his favorite places to eat. We ordered our pictures from mpix.com. They have great prices and do wonderful work!

I also made a slide show with pictures of them starting when they were little up til now. I used the Windows Movie Maker that a PP mentioned. I put the pictures to music. I used music that was popular in 1961 and then finished with Alan Jackson's "Remember When". The day before their party, I had them come into my house after we finished decorating the church hall. I had them sit down & played it for them. They both cried and I cried with them. They didn't know I was doing this for them. There was no cost involved in this, just my time.

Then at their party, we had several people taking pictures. I took the pictures and made them a book on Shutterfly using a code I got for a free book. I had the book printed and gave it to them when it came. They loved it.

 

[Swimalie]

I'm interested in this as well as my parents are celebrating their 50th in Dec. They left yesterday on a 14 day cruise around Italy and areas as their present to each other. One thing I am going to do is had a flag fly over the Capital Bldg on their anniversary and then have the flag sent to them. My dad is a form Army officer and both will love this. It's not expensive and you can do it through your representatives.

We don't have a big family (me, my husband and son and my sister and her husband) so a family picture would be small and doable but not now since my sister and I live 800 miles apart. Please keep sending these ideas in!

 

[DawnM]

We threw a party with family and I asked everyone coming to write down a favorite memory of time with my parents as well as any photos they wished to contribute. I ended up with a very nice scrapbook for them with memories and people they love included.

Dawn

 

[DisneyRunnerGirl]

I made a picture dvd with music for my parents 50th. The music over the shots of them dating and their wedding was "their song" - the Joni James version of "When I Fall in Love" and the rest of the songs were all special to them.

ITunes is an amazing help with this part - I know Joni James because she is a favorite of Mom's but many people are probably not familiar with her work. I assumed I would just have find a version of the song and use that so it was a great surprise to get exactly what I wanted. Both of my parents commented that they loved the music I had found. And like previous posters parents - they both cried.

On the ligher side, I also found something called Create Your Own Opoly. It is a Monopoly game but you completely customize the board, cards and even the money. Moving around the board from Go I did each square in a chronological order of places from their 50 years. My sister and I spent hours figuring out fun cards that were specific to family things and incidents like Mom ALWAYS asking if we had shut the garage door a few miles down the road on a vacation trip, so the card reads "Not sure you shut the garage door, go back 3 spaces and lose a turn"

We had a ton of fun at their anniversary party reading the squares and game cards out loud. Their friends and the of the family were in stitches.

Both of these options take time but they are SO worth it!

 

[pigletto]

You can also make a photo book through Shutterfly. I just did this for my niece's high school graduation. I took all of her school photos and scanned them in. Then I designed the book one page at a time and added tons of quotes about life. I sent a link to my sister after it was done and she loved it. And so has everyone else who has seen it.

We'll see how my niece likes it next week at her graduation.

I would go with this idea over mine too. I love the idea of adding the current events/news stories of the time, and popular songs etc but I think you could make a nicer book yourself than the one I linked. That one is a good one to look at for ideas though