Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 15, 1995 TAG: 9511150091
SECTION: HOLIDAY GIFTS PAGE: HG38 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JOANNE ANDERSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Well, consider thinking in consumable terms. Something that is used up. In fact, if it's used up fast - or at least before next Christmas - you can buy it again next year!
Top on the list of consumable gifts is, of course, food. Homemade food is always nice, but for those without the time or inclination to make things in the kitchen, there are many nice food gifts. The fruit baskets, nuts and cheeses top the holiday list, but there's also popcorn, salt-free seasonings, pancake mix and syrups, soft chocolates and coffee cakes.
A combination of food and functional gifts might include a loaf of bread on a bread board with a serrated edge knife or herbs and spices in fancy little crocks.
Flavored tea in a new cup and saucer, cookies in a cookie jar, muffin mixes with a new muffin tin, coffee beans with an electric grinder are other possibilities.
Non-food consumables include note cards or all-occasion cards with a postage stamp on each envelope, movie or theatre tickets, model and art kits, needlework or office supplies, candles, puzzle books, gift certificates and personal items such as perfume, powder and aftershave.
If you're not going with a consumable gift, then consider something sensible and functional. Ruth Payne, 75, of Blacksburg likes to receive flower bulbs "so I can begin planning for spring," she said. She also enjoys books, especially on local history, and cozy things like afghans.
Bird-watching is rapidly approaching gardening as one of the top hobbies in America. Bird feeders range from simple stick-on-the-window containers to ones with multiple-level dining areas. It's nice to include a supply of bird seed and even offer to set it all up for your older friend or relative.
When asked what three things she'd like to receive for Christmas, 87-year old Elsie Monaco of Blacksburg said things that "smell good, taste good and look pretty." Her examples in the first category were cologne, powder, body lotion and exotic soap.
Taste good items she likes are homemade cookies and fruit cake, and her list of look-pretty gifts included good stationery with sheets that are not too big, a picture frame, a drawing or painting and a blooming Christmas plant or an ornament.
Weather-related gifts such as an indoor-outdoor thermometer, large print outdoor thermometer, a rain gauge or barometer are popular. There are zillions of magazines on the newsstands, and a magazine subscription is something that keeps coming every month and you can renew every year.
Travel magazines are often of interest to people who have never been able to go anywhere, not just folks who travel. Business, financial, hobby, how-to, regional, house and garden, cars and computers and all things country are written about in slick, colorful periodicals.
A subscription to the Wall Street Journal or home delivery of USA Today might be of interest. The best-selling book of all time, the Bible, comes with great category references or notes, and there's a plethora of Christian books addressing topics from the heavy and serious to the comforting and inspiring.
For seniors who cannot get out often, think in terms of things used up regularly like toothpaste, lipstick, shaving razors, tissues, postage stamps, pencils and pens, note pads, hosiery, shoe laces. You can make a nice basket of everyday items that will be appreciated and used.
Debbie Gravely, a medical transcriptionist at Meadowbrook Nursing Home in Shawsville, said that nursing home residents can always use slippers and slipper socks as well as white socks, nightgowns and pajamas, cardigan sweaters and baby lotions "because they don't react with the skin."
There's physical warmth you can give with a blanket, sweater, flannel shirt and there's emotional warmth you can give with a personally written "certificate" for a monthly outing, weekly visit, help with the yard or the house, redecorating a room, bi- weekly time of reading aloud, ride to church.
Gift certificates are a wonderful means of giving while leaving the specific selection up to the recipient. You can get gift certificates from a restaurant, hair dresser, department store, bed and breakfast inn, specialty shop - almost anywhere.
As you plan a package for an older friend, be sensitive to conditions such as arthritis and prepare your gifts accordingly. For example, if you are giving a new flannel shirt, take out all the pins and tissue. Work each button on the front and the cuffs a couple times to loosen up the buttonholes.
Anything that comes shrink-wrapped can be quite a battle to open. Go ahead and open items that require scissors and a strong arm, and place them in tissue inside a box. You can rewrap new items so that they are more easily accessible than what the manufacturer delivered and look just as new and fresh.
Cassette tapes with books, music, foreign language lessons and lots of other information can be purchased or checked out from the public library. Thus, a small cassette tape player with earphones makes a great gift. It can bring music to those who cherish it and to those who cannot read for long periods.
Lewis Thomas wrote "we are a spectacular, splendid manifestation of life. We have language. We have affection . . . And finally, and perhaps best of all, we have music."
by CNB