Why Magazines Make the Best Long-Distance Gifts for Grandkids
For many long-distance grandparents, gifts are an important way to show their love and establish a connection with their grandkids. But coming up with universally appreciated gift ideas can be a surprisingly difficult task. Will the toy your grandchild loves today be irrelevant in a month? Will your own adult children push back against an ever-growing collection of trinkets gathering dust in the playroom?
While grandparenting from afar can make you feel, well, far away from your grandkids, there is one present you can count on to erase the distance and bring you close no matter where you live: the gift of magazines.
A Gift That Gives Month After Month
What makes magazine subscriptions more magical than other kinds of gifts? The fact that kids can look forward to getting them — and a “visit” from you — every time they’re delivered. Getting mail, for kids, can bring excitement and joy beyond holidays and birthdays; it can transform regular days into meaningful memories.
A Gift That Builds Family Connections
Just because you send your grandkids gifts through the mail doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy them together. Kids magazines are “experience gifts,” which mean they focus on “doing” rather than “having.” Magazines are full of articles, crafts, recipes, experiments and more things that are easy for you to share with your grandchild through video calls, written letters and in-person visits. You’ll laugh together, learn together and create together, developing a strong grandparent-grandchild bond from wherever you are.
A Gift That Helps Kids Grow Through Fun
By providing your grandchild with fresh magazine stories and puzzles on a regular basis, you’ll strengthen their foundation for learning and encourage a reading habit that will last a lifetime. Whether your grandchild is into animals, puzzles, science, current events, sports, history or all of the above, there’s a perfect magazine subscription gift for long-distance grandparents to give to every kid.
Highlights magazine subscriptions let you share a little bit of your own “classic childhood fun” with your grandchildren. Developed by childhood experts and featuring unique content you won’t find anywhere else, magazines like Highlights, High Five and brainPLAY help kids explore and learn, without screens or batteries.
A Gift That Makes Everyone Happy
While giving gifts is a perfectly reasonable love language, sometimes bigger issues are at play when it comes to grandchildren. Your adult children’s parenting philosophy, physical space in the home and concerns about sustainability are all factors that can influence which gifts for grandkids you feel comfortable choosing.
Magazine subscriptions check the box for so many gift-giving criteria, making them universally loved by parents, grandparents and kids. Magazine gifts:
- Don’t take up a lot of space at home
- Are portable enough to take on errands, playdates and vacations
- Encourage reading, problem solving, curiosity, and other essential school and life skills
- Are endlessly reusable and engaging to children (and adults!) of all ages
- Can be upcycled or recycled
- Are accepted as donations at libraries and other organizations
- Can be shared with friends, family members, teachers and more!
Finding long-distance gifts for grandparents to give their grandchildren can be an intimidating exercise. After all, what material item can ever measure up to all the love and devotion we feel for the little ones in our lives? Magazine gifts can help bridge the physical and emotional gap between grandparents and grandchildren by providing opportunities to explore, grow and build precious memories together. Each delivery of engaging activities, sharable stories and fascinating facts will bring you and your grandkids closer together, no matter how many miles apart you are.
