The best gifts for seniors, from fancy chocolates to personalized pet portraits

Why you can trust usWe may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we believe in. Pricing and availability are subject to change.The best gifts for seniors, from fancy chocolates to personalized pet portraitsBrittany NimsJanuary 19, 2024 at 5:07 PM

We would argue that the two demographics that are consistently hard to shop for are teens and seniors. Teens, fortunately, are a notoriously online bunch, so figuring out what’s cool and trendy among their cohort only takes a few trends emerging on TikTok (hello, Stanley Tumblers!), and you are set. Parents and grandparents, on the other hand, not so much.

Quick Overview

Custom Pet Portrait From Photo

$40 at Etsy

Loop Wi-Fi Digital Picture Frame

$160 at Amazon

Weleda Skin Food Original Ultra-Rich Body Cream

$17 at Amazon

Kate McLeod Daily Stone Solid Refillable Body Moisturizer

$45 at Sephora

Happy Heat Electric Hot Water Bottle

$30 at Amazon

AncestryDNA Genetic Test Kit

$99 at Walmart

Harry and David Signature Chocolate Truffles

$40 at Harry and David

Keurig K-Express Single Serve Coffee Maker

$49 at Walmart

Soundcore by Anker Life Q30 Noise-Cancelling Headphones

$80 at Amazon

Home Chef Fresh & Easy Ready Meals

$8 at Home Chef

The Original Under Cabinet Jar Opener

$15 at Amazon

OCOOPA Rechargeable Hand Warmer (1 pack)

$21 at Amazon

Birthday Calendar Family Tree

$40 at Etsy

Sunbeam Restful Electric Heated Mattress Pad (Queen)

$68 at Amazon

Tile Mate Bluetooth Tracker (1 pack)

$18 at Amazon

Reader’s Digest Large Print Magazine

$12 at AmazonSee 11 more

What makes shopping for seniors especially challenging is that they have a unique set of needs. You want gifts that aren’t too techy or complicated to set up and maintain. They can’t be too heavy or have lots of small, fiddly parts that are hard for aging hands to maneuver. Most of all, you want something they’ll actually use and love. It’s a high bar, but fortunately, it’s not an impossible one to scale.

We at AOL consider ourselves experts in sniffing out the best products. From our testing experts’ guides to the best cellphones for seniors to our research on the best wireless headphones for seniors, we’ve spent years thinking about which items are ideal for the aging parents and grandparents we know. With that in mind, take a look below at what we think are 16 of the best gifts for the seniors in your life.

Etsy

Custom Pet Portrait From Photo

Our furry friends are one of the family, which is why we highly recommend a customized pet portrait as one of the most unique and thoughtful gift ideas you can get for a senior. This Etsy artist paints a customized portrait of your pet using a reference photo, and the results are truly magical. And you don’t only have to think about current pets. Portraits of childhood pets or furry companions who’ve since passed away is a thoughtful way to honor their memory, while giving a gift that will last a lifetime.

$40 at EtsyLoop

Loop Wi-Fi Digital Picture Frame

We ranked Loop’s Wi-Fi Digital Picture Frame as one of our best digital picture frames for one simple reason: it can receive new photos via text message. That feature alone makes it a great gift for seniors who might not be interested in a fancy digital picture frame that requires a smartphone and dedicated app. Instead, each frame comes with its own dedicated phone number, which you simply text to add new photos to the frame’s rotation. According to our reviewer Rick Broida, “the Loop proved one of the more novice-friendly frames I’ve used. The app and onscreen settings menus are simple and straightforward, allowing you to set up different albums and tweak things like photo transition time and sleep mode.” We also like that this frame doesn’t come with quite as steep a price tag as other digital frames we’ve tested and recommended.

$160 at AmazonWeleda

Weleda Skin Food Original Ultra-Rich Body Cream

For folks with extremely dry, rough, weathered hands, we recommend reaching for a tube of Weleda Skin Food. Its nourishing formula is made without parabens and phthalates, synthetic fragrances or preservatives and instead is fragranced with extracts of rosemary, chamomile, and pansy in a nourishing base of sunflower and sweet almond oils. It’s an extremely thick formula that goes on greasy, but leaves hands feeling like they’ve just enjoyed a tall glass of water. It’s also designed with a flip-top tube that’s easy for those with arthritis and limited dexterity to open. For that reason, we think this nice hand cream makes an excellent gift for moms, grandmothers and pretty much any senior on your list who suffers from dry hands.

$17 at Amazon$20 at Macy’s$18 at TargetSephora

Kate McLeod Daily Stone Solid Refillable Body Moisturizer

If they’re dealing with more than just dry hands, Kate McLeod’s Daily Stone is a solid body moisturizer that’s easy to apply. Shaped like a solid bar similar to soap, this lotion solid glides onto warm skin like silk and leaves you feeling soft and supple. It’s made with skin-loving ingredients like cocoa butter, sweet almond oil and apricot kernel oil to deliver powerful results you can see almost instantly. It has a light floral blend of rose, frankincense and neroli that’s subtle enough for everyday use.This starter kit includes a reusable bamboo canister to easily store the Daily Stone in, but be sure to keep it out of direct heat. Because it’s designed to melt onto warm skin, it can also melt in extreme temperatures.

$45 at SephoraHappy Heat

Happy Heat Electric Hot Water Bottle

Hot water bottles are great for aches and pains, but they’re a pain to fill and reheat. That’s why we like this electric hot water bottle. It’s an ingenious design that allows the pillowy water-filled pad to be heated internally kind of like an electric kettle. In just 15 minutes, you’ll have a heated water bottle pad that stays warm for up to 5 hours. And when it needs reheating, simply plug it back in for another quick 15 minute reheat. It never needs refilling, it doesn’t require a microwave and there’s no boiling water involved, which makes it a smart choice for seniors.

$30 at Amazon$50 at BelkAncestry DNA

AncestryDNA Genetic Test Kit

Ancestry’s DNA testing kit is a genius gift idea for aging parents and grandparents who might be interested in learning more about where they’re from. AncestryDNA tells you which countries you’re from as well as the specific regions within those countries. See more than 2,600 different regions of the world that can make up your ethnicity, learn the history of the areas, and discover facts about the people who lived in those regions, from ancient to modern times. It’s a fascinating tool for seniors who’ve ever been interested in tracking family history and have some questions of their own that they want answers to.

$99 at Walmart$99 at AmazonHarry and David

Harry and David Signature Chocolate Truffles

Nice chocolates are one of the best gifts you can buy anyone, period. For seniors, we recommend steering clear of super chewy and hard candies like toffee and nuts, which is why we love these truffles from Harry and David. This 24-pack of truffles arrives delightfully wrapped in stylish Harry and David packaging, and has a mix of flavors: dark chocolate cherry, white chocolate coffee, milk chocolate almond, dark chocolate raspberry, as well as plain dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Is your mouth watering yet?

$40 at Harry and DavidKeurig

Keurig K-Express Single Serve Coffee Maker

For the senior who loves their morning — and late morning, and afternoon, and evening — cup of coffee, this Keurig K-Express Single-Serve coffee maker is an excellent gift idea. Not only is it easy to use — simply grab a mug with water, pour the water into the back of the coffee maker, select your brew size and pop in a coffee pod — but it’s essentially no clean-up. Toss the pod in the trash or compost (depending on the type of coffee pods you use) and it’s ready for the next cuppa. We love this coffee maker for seniors who love having hot coffee throughout the day, but who might not want something complex and with much mess. Choose from several different colors and pair it with a box of their favorite blend for a gift they’ll use over and over.

$49 at Walmart$70 at NeweggSoundcore

Soundcore by Anker Life Q30 Noise-Cancelling Headphones

AOL’s Rick Broida ranks these as the best budget pick in our guide to the best wireless headphone for seniors — and it’s not hard to see why. Recommended for its sound quality, battery life, and low price, these headphones are a smart gift for seniors who are comfortable with Bluetooth technology and who like to watch TV or listen to music from a computer, tablet or phone.

$80 at Amazon$86 at NeweggHome Chef

Home Chef Fresh & Easy Ready Meals

If there’s one thing everyone can universally agree upon, it’s that not having to cook dinner is one of life’s greatest blessings. Gifting someone with ready-to-cook dinners like Home Chef’s Fresh & Easy meals is a gift that you know will be appreciated. Each meal is prepped, portioned and ready to cook with little to no clean-up — simply pop them in the microwave, heat them in the oven or toss them on the grill. Oven and grill meals come in oven-safe trays or grill-ready bags so you don’t even have to dirty a pan or tray on the way to a fresh meal that’s just as good as something home cooked. If you’re shopping as a gift, be sure to sign up with Home Chef’s Fresh & Easy plan to get all of these meals that are ready in a matter of minutes.

$8 at Home ChefTHE G GRIP

The Original Under Cabinet Jar Opener

The Original Under Cabinet Jar Opener is a pretty genius kitchen tool, designed for anyone with weaker hands, such as folks with arthritis, seniors or those with other disabilities that limit their dexterity. The tool itself is pretty easy to set up, too. It’s designed to be mounted under your cabinet so it’s out of sight. Once it’s mounted securely, the unique v-shape is designed to grip jars and lids of any size using its sharp carbon steel teeth that do the hard work of twisting and unsealing for you. Designed for seniors with arthritis — or anyone with weak hands — this under-cabinet jar opener makes it easy for anyone to open any lid or jar without any effort.

$15 at AmazonOCOOPA

OCOOPA Rechargeable Hand Warmer (1 pack)

If you’re shopping for a senior who likes to spend a lot of time outdoors, from long walks around the park with the dog, to bird watching, to golfing, we recommend a pair of rechargeable hand warmers like these from Ocoopa. These small pocket-sized heaters are long-lasting and rechargeable, and can even recharge your phone on-the-go too, if necessary. They have three heat settings, up to 131-degree Fahrenheit.

$21 at AmazonEtsy

Birthday Calendar Family Tree

Keep track of the entire family’s birthdays with this customizable birthday calendar wall art. Choose your color preference, select how many circle and heart discs you want to represent family members, and let the seller know if you’d like any personalizations (i.e. names) added to those discs. It’s a cute and fun way to keep track of birthdays without needing to refer to a planner or diary.

$40 at EtsySunbeam

Sunbeam Restful Electric Heated Mattress Pad (Queen)

Running cold is a part of life as you age, but fortunately gadgets like this heated mattress pad are designed to help you stay warm throughout the night. This option from Sunbeam includes dual controls with up to 12 different heat settings so that each side of the bed can control just how warm — or not — they want to be. It also includes a 12 hour auto shut-off choice, so you don’t have to worry about remembering to turn it off in the morning.

$68 at Amazon$116 at Wayfair$111 at Bed Bath & BeyondTile

Tile Mate Bluetooth Tracker (1 pack)

There’s nothing more frustrating than losing something important like your keys, phone or wallet. This Tile Mate is designed to help you in those situations. You can easily attach it to purses, keys, backpacks or wallets so you can keep track of them. Simply download the Tile app, and when something goes missing, open the app and tap “Find” for the Tile Mate to set off a loud ring. If you’ve lost your phone, on the other hand, simply double tap the button on your Tile Mate and your phone will beep. It’s a smart solution for seniors who are comfortable with smartphones, but who might need some help remembering where they set things down.

$18 at Amazon$18 at Walmart$18 at TargetCHERRY BOMBE

Reader’s Digest Large Print Magazine

Gifts like magazine subscriptions will rarely go to waste if they’re a senior who loves nothing more than cozying up with a good story. Reader’s Digest comes with a large print edition that’s easier for aging eyes to enjoy, and a year-long subscription is a gift that keeps on giving throughout the year. If they aren’t into Reader’s Digest, a subscription to their favorite hobbyist magazine — whether it’s travel, cooking, birds or hunting — would make for a thoughtful gift, too.

$12 at Amazon