Help me refine gift idea for my father's 70th birthday

my father's 70th birthday is today. we celebrated already with a nice restaurant meal, but I want to do something special in honor of him. unfortunately I got sidetracked and didn't act on various ideas in time, and now it's late to do much that is time-consuming. I wanted to have people do mitzvahs in honor of him and put together a little book about it...

any thoughts about this? similar things you have done? other ideas that would be meaningful for such an important milestone?

places to honor him by a donation, sponsorship of something, etc?

looking for lots of inspiration here - please help - even if you think it's "too late" to respond, it's probably not, because I'm late anyway!

thank you!

Diamond Member Joined: Oct 08 2009 Posts: 4018

A scrapbook with photos and writings by all family members, and friends and extended relatives.

we bought my FIL 70 gifts - some meaningful, some just for fun
the dollar store was a great source (socks, etc)

alternatively, 70 extra mitzvas is a great idea!

the men in the family could take on learning 70 different mishanyos and ladies 70 kapitlach of tehhilim you can have it all written out for him who will do what by dividing it up between family members even kids.

op here
thank you for nice ideas so far!

I need to add that most of my family is not frum, some not Jewish.... so taking on learning, tehillim are great ideas for certain members of the family but not for most (unfortunately) - still it is food for more ideas for me.

scrapbook is a nice idea if I had a lot more time! I need to be a bit more streamlined - less labor-intensive.

more ideas? I'm not trying to shoot them down, just refine what my situation is! I would love more ideas, anything, brainstorm with me please.

if you don't have the time to make a scrapbook, maybe you can try a photobook. most websites have templates where you can plug in pictures and it has a semipersonal scrapbooky feel to it (not quite the same but moreso than a regular photo album). try artscow.

take a video or photos of just your kids doing mitzvos (tzedaka, helping mommy etc)

Does the family all live nearby? If yes this idea would work for you.

For a recent parents' anniversary we got all the kids and grand-kids to the local flower garden and hired a professional photographer to take a casual and cute photo. Looked stunning. We had the picture printed/enlarged and framed and then presented it at the anniversary party/dinner.
It now hangs proudly on the wall of our parents' home.

Posted anonymously for obvious reasons.

more nice ideas - thank you!

maybe scaling back and just doing something with my own kids is a good idea... or just my kids and my siblings kids - that's not overly overwhelming. hm.

I would love to do a family photo but a few of the older teen kids are out of town and I wouldn't want to leave them out - maybe I will plan ahead for this as my parents' 50th anniversary present....! another milestone coming up in about half a year!

have any of you ever had a photo made into a photo canvas using any of the photo gift sites? I've always wondered how those come out... seems like a nice idea for finishing a family portrait.

thanks again everyone - more ideas? I feel like I have some good choices but still interested!