Kept StoriesFree · for the holiday table
62 questions to ask your grandparents.
Draw one at dinner or on a call, and let the stories come.
Tap to draw a question
What did the holidays look like when you were a child?
Where I come from
- Where and when were you born? What do you know about the day you arrived?
- What were your parents' names, and what did they do for work?
- Tell about your grandparents. What do you remember about them?
- Where did your family come from before that? Any stories passed down?
- What was your family known for in the neighborhood or town?
- What did your parents teach you that you still think about?
- Which relative were you most like, and how?
- Draw or describe the house you grew up in.
Growing up
- What is your earliest memory?
- What did you do on a summer day when you were ten?
- Who was your best friend as a child, and what did you get up to?
- What chores did you have? Which one did you dislike most?
- What was dinner like in your house? Who cooked, and what was your favorite dish?
- What games did you play, and what toys did you treasure?
- When did you get in the most trouble, and what happened?
- What did you want to be when you grew up?
- What music, radio shows or programs did your family love?
- What was the biggest event in the world when you were young, and how did it touch your family?
School days
- What were your schools called, and how did you get there each day?
- Which teacher do you remember most, and why?
- What subject came easily, and which one was hard?
- What did you and your friends do after school and on weekends?
- What did you wear? What was in style?
- What is a school memory that still makes you laugh?
Starting out
- What was your first job, and what did it pay?
- When did you first leave home? Where did you go?
- What work did you do over the years? What did you like best about it?
- What was the hardest stretch of your working life, and how did you get through it?
- What was your first car, or how did you get around?
- What did a dollar buy back then? Name a few prices you remember.
- Who helped you most when you were starting out?
- What are you proudest of from those years?
Love and family
- How did you meet the person you married, or the love of your life?
- What was your first date like?
- Tell about your wedding day, or the day you knew this was your person.
- Where was your first home together? What was in it?
- What do you remember about the day your first child was born?
- What were your children like when they were little?
- What family tradition did you start, and why?
- What was the hardest thing about raising a family, and the best thing?
- What is a funny thing one of your children said or did?
- What do you hope your family remembers about these years?
Holidays and traditions
- What did the holidays look like when you were a child?
- Which holiday food must be on the table? Write the recipe if you know it.
- What is the best gift you ever gave, and the best you ever got?
- Which holiday do you remember above all the others?
- What songs, prayers or sayings belong to your family's celebrations?
- What tradition do you hope your grandchildren keep?
Being a grandparent
- What did you feel when you first heard you would be a grandparent?
- What do you remember about meeting your first grandchild?
- What do you love to do with your grandchildren?
- What surprises you about being a grandparent?
- What are your grandchildren like? Write a line about each one.
- What do you want your grandchildren to know about their parents as children?
What I have learned
- What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?
- What do you know now that you wish you had known at twenty?
- What has changed most in the world in your lifetime?
- What has stayed the same, and should?
- What are you most grateful for?
- What do you believe makes a good life?
- Is there anything you would do differently?
- What makes you laugh, every time?