Nursing Home Resident Gift Ideas

Every year caregivers in nursing homes and assisted living facilities must deal with the challenge of gift ideas to their resident's. In an attempt to make this task a little easier for you, here are some ideas for gifts as well as a few ways in which you might consider distributing the gifts to the resident's in your facility.

Give each resident a paper cut out Christmas picture (tree, bell, angel, star) and ask them to write on the back, their name and a few items they might like to receive, maybe some things they need. These can then be put on a wall, bulletin board, or a Christmas tree and staff can pick them and use them to buy gifts for the residents.

You might want to have a dollar limit of $10 or so, or this could get quite expensive. A list should be kept as well, of the resident's names and the staff member who picked them. You don't want to find, at the last minute, that some residents were missed. It could be helpful to have the purchased gifts brought in a few days before you are handing them out, just to go through your list and be sure everyone is accounted for.

If there is a possibility that staff may not want to buy for some specific residents, for whatever personal reasons, maybe picking names anonymously would be better. They could draw names out of a hat. To take the anonymous idea one step further, you could simply have staff choose male or female and then each resident gets whatever is gifted for their gender, rather than items specific for them. It might also be an idea to have a few of these types of gifts available for new residents arriving to your facility who came after your lists were made up. You really don't want anyone missed.

If there are just too many residents for the staff to purchase for, consider asking local churches or organizations like Boy Scouts to participate.

Another gift idea is to put together some beautiful baskets that can be raffled off. The raffle tickets can be easy enough to make with a computer and printer, then stapled together. The baskets could be themed such as "Beauty" with lotions and soaps, or "Movies" with popcorn, candy, a movie DVD, etc. The tickets could be sold for a dollar or two to resident's families as they come to visit, or the boy scouts could sell them for you. The money could be used to help buy gifts for the residents as well, or pay for some of the Christmas party.

The gifts can be taken to each resident's room, or handed out by Santa at a Christmas Party.

You could also have some extra fun distributing the gifts at a party if you had a large plastic dice the residents could throw, taking turns. If they throw a number you have chosen specific for the game, such as a 4 for example, they can choose from the gift wrapped gifts under the tree. These should be labelled male or female. Then some time could be added after the gifts were all chosen and before they are unwrapped, for a swapping round. If another particular number is rolled on the dice, the resident can choose to swap with another person or keep what they have. Game over when the time is up.

Gift ideas

These are also good gift ideas for senior citizen's that are not in a care facility.

Inexpensive gift ideas:

• stuffed animals


• clothes


• pyjamas


• sweaters


• shoes


• socks


• slippers


• scarves


• hats


• gloves


• underwear


• nail polish


• books (fiction, history, hobby specific, large print, audio, picture)


• magazines


• puzzle books (word search/crossword)


• jigsaw puzzles


• box of greeting cards (they can use throughout the year to write to friends)


• stationary


• pens


• games


• music CD's


• craft items


• tissues


• lotions


• soap


• candy


• chocolate


• cookies


• coupons


• deck of cards


• plaques


• calendars


• grooming items


• personal photo album


• costume jewellery


• craft kit

Pricier gift ideas:

• disposable camera (and developing)


• audio books (if you can find or download inexpensive ones)


• DVD's (old TV series such as Gunsmoke, I Love Lucy, etc)


• CD's (nature sounds, old time radio shows like Jack Benny, Bob Hope, George Burns, etc)


• purse


• wallet


• Bible


• Robe


• lap robe


• jackets


• afghan or blanket


• magnifiers


• reading lights


• bird feeders


• Decorative or ornate box for special items or jewellery


• picture frames


• radio


• clocks

If you don't find the exact gift idea that works for the resident or senior you have in mind, these can be a help to get you started. Many of these gift ideas can also be personalized to make them a little more meaningful.