Kept Stories

Gift ideas

Sentimental gifts for grandparents, built on their own stories.

The most sentimental gifts for a grandparent hold something only your family has: their stories, their recipes, their faces at 20. Here are five, and the questions that start each one.

Get the book, $9See the book

Questions to start any of these gifts

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

Print the free sample

Five sentimental gifts

  1. A story book they fill in

    A book of questions they answer in their own handwriting. Kept Stories is one you print at home for $9, with 62 questions, photo pages and a family tree.

  2. Family recipe cards

    Ask for the dish that must be on the holiday table, write the recipe on cards, and add a line about who first made it.

  3. A framed photo with its story

    Pick an old photo, ask who is in it and where it was taken, and frame the answer beneath the picture.

  4. A recorded conversation

    Sit down with a phone, ask before you record, and work through a few interview questions with follow-ups.

  5. A letter from each grandchild

    Each grandchild writes one memory with Grandma or Grandpa. Bind them together, or slip them into the story book.

What I have learned

  1. What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?
  2. What do you know now that you wish you had known at twenty?
  3. What has changed most in the world in your lifetime?
  4. What has stayed the same, and should?
  5. What are you most grateful for?
  6. What do you believe makes a good life?
  7. Is there anything you would do differently?
  8. What makes you laugh, every time?

Questions people ask next

What is a meaningful gift that doesn't cost much?

Any of these. The story book is $9 plus paper; the others cost a frame, a few cards or nothing.

Which is easiest at the last minute?

The story book: buy it, print it and bind it the same evening.

Can we combine them?

Yes. The book has photo pages, a holiday chapter that asks for a recipe, and a notes page for letters.

The full book

  • All 44 letter-size pages in one PDF
  • Grandma and Grandpa covers in the same file
  • 62 questions with wide lines, 5 photo pages, a family tree and a letter to the grandchildren
  • Print as many copies as your family needs

The free sample and the question list stay free. The book adds every chapter with room to write. Printing and binding are up to you.

Kept Stories book

$9

One payment, PDF download
Buy the book
Format
PDF, 44 letter-size pages
Delivery
A download after payment; nothing is shipped
Refunds
If the file doesn't work or isn't what this page describes, write to us within 14 days for a full refund.

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