Grandparents Day is a time to celebrate our mom and dad’s parents and the significant impact many of them have had on us.
On Grandparents day people often visit their loved ones, give them a phone call or send them a card. Others use the time to reminiscence about their late grandparents, possibly remembering the days cuddled in their laps listening to their stories.
According to Reader’s Digest, Marian McQuade of West Virginia created the holiday in 1956 after realizing a lot of senior citizens in her local nursing home were not visited by family while she was trying to plan a community celebration of the elderly.
McQuade then made it her mission to ensure they were not forgotten by creating Grandparents Day. It became an official holiday in 1978 when it was signed into law by former President Jimmy Carter.
However, the purpose of the holiday is not meant just for grandchildren to celebrate grandparents, but also the reverse. The National Grandparents Day Council says that the holiday is also meant for grandparents to celebrate their grandchildren.
The holiday is always celebrated on the Sunday after Labor Day in the United States. This year the special day is on September 8.
This year the official theme is “Grand Minds: Learn, Love, Legacy”. Generations United is encouraging people to #DoSomethingGrand this year with their grandparents and have a list of activity ideas on their website.
Grandparents Day Gift Ideas
We put together a Grandparents Day gift basket for those looking for ideas for Grandparents Day. Check out our basket below!
Here’s the items we included in our basket: