Gift for parents' 40th Wedding Anniversary

[secretpantssam]

My parents 40th wedding Anniversary is coming up next month and I wanted to get them something special. I figured you guys on the Dis would be able to give me a great suggestion! I know that the 40th anniversary is the Ruby Anniversary and I thought it would be nice to do something with that, but I'm not sure what. I could easily buy my mother a piece of jewelry (ruby is actually her birth stone) but then that would leave my dad out. Also I don't want to break the bank here either, but I wouldn't mind spending a hundred or so. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[msmayor]

My brother, sister and I did this for our parents' 50th last year, and its a gift my parents absolutely treasure.

Over the years, each family has taken hundreds and hundreds of photos and most of those photos our parents don't have. Each 'family'...mine, my brother's and my sister's...scanned our favorite photographs and sent them all to my sister. She compiled them all on a digital photo frame and we gave it to our parents. A 'digital history', if you will, following all their children and grandchildren throughout the past years.

So many of the pictures I hadn't even seen, or remembered. We had great fun watching them change once the gift was opened. My sister also made a CD of all the photos and gave them to me and my brother so we had all the pictures too.

All it cost was the price of the digital frame and time.

 

[kittychatalot]

How about having a little cookout and having all the plates and such be red and then serve one big red velvet cake for dessert. A hundered bucks would go far in throwing something nice and I know my parents would appreciate a party rather then a gift. Good luck!

 

[secretpantssam]

That's a nice idea! Though much to my mom's dismay, they don't have any grandchildren right now. But I think a ton of family photos, old and new, on a digital picture frame would be a good gift.

Thanks!

 

[secretpantssam]

A party would be nice too. I should get my brother and sister in on this and we could plan something.

Thanks Kitty!

Any other suggestions?

 

[Kimmumum]

My parents turned 60 last year (3 days apart) and had their 40th anniversary 2 months later. We threw them a big party for about 100 friends. It really wasn't that expensive and we split the cost with my sister. Would your parents like a party?

 

[belle's mom]

I second the pictures but with a twist. Either a regular or digital photo album full of pictures of them and their life together

A friend of mine had her 40th last year. Her four kids gathered pictures from their life together. Pictures while dating, wedding, family events. The kids had everything transfered to fabric and had a quilt made from it. She brought it in to show us at work and it was absolutly beautiful. Everything had been changed to a sepia tone so no one picture stood out. If you know someone who can sew, the material and supplies wouldn't be that much money.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

My grandparents (who raised me as their own) have been married 52 years. For their 40th, I did the photo quilt. I had snuck a bunch of old photos from their albums out and put them onto really good iron ons (I actually had them done professionally so it would hold up) and had a quilter (I don't have the talent) turn it inot a quilt. I had their baby photos and that of their kids, their wedding photo family photos, had each of their kids (and me) take a current family photo and they were all on there. They adore it. They do not use it as a quilt, but have it hanging in their house. It really did turn out so much more beautiful then I could have even imagined.

For their 50th, I again stole (borrowed) a photo. I took their wedding photo and had it made into one of those woven throws. It too is beautiful, and they use it all the time to curl up under on the couch. I know Walmart does it for around $75 or so, but I actually googled it and Costco had it. We don't have a Costco here so I googled for a free trial membership, used it to buy the certificate for the throw and got it for $50.

Last year I did the digital frame for them at Christmas with all our family photos from our Disney trips (they always go with us) and they loved that too.

 

[kaismahma]

I am actually working on a project for one of my girlfriend's parents who will be celebrating their 50th in Nov. I had her gather photos from all family members and I have digitally scrapped scrapbook pages for her. Now I am in the process of putting the layouts in life sequence into a movie that I will burn on to a DVD. You could easily do this too just with regular pictures. Most computer systems have windows movie maker on them, which is a very easy program to figure out using the help key. This could be fairly inexpensive if you have all the photos and a program on your system. You can easly download the right songs too from itunes, walmart, amazon. That way you could add their song to it.

The digi frame is a great idea too. The one I recieved for Christmas also has an MP3 player in it so you can add music. Best of luck. Just remember that what ever you do your parents will love it!

 

[secretpantssam]

Thanks guys. Great ideas! I really like the digital picture frame idea with the MP3 player built in. I can put their wedding song on there and pictures from the past 40 years. I think I'll start working on it. Thanks Disers!!

 

[powellrj]

Make sure your parents are pretty computer apt before you get the digital picture frame. I did the same thing for my parents 50th a few years ago and I found out my mom has never used it. It is still in the box. I have gotten it out a few times to show her how to use it and she gets frustrated and puts it away when I leave. I got it when they were still pretty expensive and it was a true waste of money.

 

[TnTWalter]

As long as you preload the pictures onto the frame or keep an sd card in the frame that you've loaded it should be easy. We bought one for my 102 year old grandma. You just turn it on and off that's it. When it's on the picture show starts when it's off, well it's off.

We sent my folks on a cruise for their 40th. They LOVED it.

I did a photobook last Father's day for my dad [he's loves picture taking]. He FLIPPED. He loves it.

Good luck.

 

[disneygals]

My parents 50th was a couple of years ago. Most friends and family live far away now, plus my dad is not a party person.

I sent a note out to everyone stating that we were having a small family party, but if people could send a card to me I would give it to them. Their anniversary is near Thanksgiving, so as a surprise on turkey day, I set up a small table with a cake (their wedding pic on it) balloons etc and a basket with all the cards in it. They really enjoyed it.