Celebrate Grandparents Day with simple and fun activities for children and grandparents, from ice cream dates and favourite games to family photos, baking, and cozy time together.
Grandparents Day is September 13, making this weekend a wonderful opportunity to spend a little extra time with the grandparents and grandparent figures in your family's life.
Celebrating doesn't have to mean planning a big outing or buying a special gift. Some of the best ways to spend Grandparents Day are also the simplest like sharing breakfast, going out for ice cream, playing a favourite game, or sitting together and hearing a story you've never heard before.
Whether you have the whole day together or just an hour or two, here are some simple and fun ways to celebrate Grandparents Day as a family.
An ice cream date is an easy way to turn an ordinary afternoon into a little Grandparents Day outing. Head to a favourite ice cream shop and let everyone choose their own flavour, or pick up a few treats and take them to a nearby park.
For a little extra fun, grandparents and children can choose flavours for each other. You might discover a new favourite or learn that Grandma's idea of the perfect ice cream cone is very different from yours. If going out isn't convenient, create an ice cream shop at home with a few flavours and toppings and let everyone make their own sundae.
Start the day with a family breakfast. Make pancakes, waffles, eggs, toast, or whatever your family enjoys, and invite children to help with simple age-appropriate jobs.
They might mix pancake batter, wash fruit, set out napkins, or help arrange everything on the table. You can also skip the cooking altogether and meet Grandma and Grandpa at a favourite breakfast spot. The important part isn't what's on the table. It's having some unhurried time to sit, eat, and talk together.
Instead of spending half the afternoon deciding what everyone should watch, give grandparents control of the remote.
Ask them to choose a family-friendly movie they love or one they remember watching with their own children. Get comfortable with blankets and pillows, make some popcorn, and settle in for a movie afternoon together.
Next time, the grandchildren can choose. You may even end up introducing each other to a few new favourites.
Ask grandparents what they liked to play when they were children. Their answer might be a card game, hopscotch, a board game, hide-and-seek, a simple outdoor game, or something children have never tried before.
Let Grandma or Grandpa explain how to play, then give everyone a turn. Afterward, switch roles and let the grandchildren teach their grandparents one of their favourite games. It can be fun to see how play has changed between generations and which games haven't changed very much at all.
Turn lunch or dinner into part of the Grandparents Day fun. Start with ready-made pizza dough, naan, pita, flatbread, or another easy base and set out a few toppings.
Everyone can create their own pizza or work together on one big family pizza. Children can help spread sauce, sprinkle cheese, and choose toppings appropriate for their age. Grandma may want mushrooms while Grandpa wants extra cheese, and the grandchildren may have completely different ideas. That's part of the fun.
Sometimes you don't need a full-day outing. A quick trip somewhere for a favourite treat can be enough to make the afternoon feel special. Visit a bakery, doughnut shop, café, farmers' market, or another favourite family spot and let everyone choose something.
Take your treats home, enjoy them at a park, or find somewhere comfortable to sit and eat them together. It can be a particularly easy option when you want to do something for Grandparents Day but don't want to plan an elaborate activity.
Plant a flower, herb, or another simple plant that grandparents and grandchildren can enjoy long after Grandparents Day is over.
Children can help scoop soil, place the plant, gently pat down the soil, and give it some water. If you're planting in a pot, they could also decorate the container before you begin. Over the following weeks, children can help water the plant and watch for new growth. If grandparents live nearby, it can become something they check on together whenever the grandchildren visit.
You don't have to travel far to have a picnic. Pack lunch or a few favourite snacks, spread a blanket in the backyard, and eat outside together.
If you'd rather get out of the house, take your picnic to a local park or another favourite outdoor spot. Children can help decide what to pack and carry a small bag with napkins, snacks, or a favourite outdoor toy. And if the weather doesn't cooperate, bring the picnic inside and spread the blanket across the living room floor instead.
Put out ice cream and a few favourite toppings and let everyone build their own sundae. Depending on what your family enjoys, you might set out sliced fruit, sprinkles, crushed cookies, chocolate chips, or other familiar toppings. Children can decide what goes into their creations and grandparents can make their own.
For even more fun, give your finished sundaes ridiculous names. "Grandpa's Super Sprinkle Sundae" might just become a new family tradition.
Bring out a photo album or look through some older family photos together. Children may love seeing Grandma and Grandpa when they were young, especially the hairstyles, clothes, toys, and cars that look completely different from what they know today.
Instead of simply looking through the pictures, ask grandparents to tell the stories behind a few of them. Where was the picture taken? Who else is in it? What happened that day? How old were they?
You don't need to make it a formal family history lesson. Let one photograph lead naturally to another story.
Clear a space on the table, bring out a puzzle, add some snacks, and work on it together throughout the afternoon.
Choose a puzzle that works for the ages and abilities of everyone participating. Younger children might enjoy a large-piece puzzle they can complete with a grandparent, while older children and adults can tackle something a little more challenging.
There doesn't need to be any rush to finish. Half the enjoyment may be sitting around the table talking while everyone searches for that one missing piece.
Grandparents and grandchildren probably don't have exactly the same playlists, which can make this activity especially fun.
Ask Grandma or Grandpa to choose a song they love, then let the grandchildren choose one of their favourites. Keep taking turns and see where the playlist goes.
Dance if you want to, sing along, or simply listen together. Grandparents might introduce children to music they've never heard, while children get a chance to share the songs they currently can't stop playing.
Choose a simple recipe your family already enjoys and make it together. Cookies, muffins, brownies, or another favourite treat can all work well.
Children can participate in age-appropriate ways by pouring pre-measured ingredients, stirring, counting scoops, or helping decorate the finished treats.
If Grandma or Grandpa has a recipe they're known for making, this is also a great opportunity to learn how they make it. You might even want to write the recipe down afterward so it can be made again.
Before the day is over, take a picture together. It doesn't need matching outfits, a special backdrop, or everyone looking perfectly at the camera. Take a nice family picture, then take a silly one too.
Try making the photo a yearly Grandparents Day tradition. Take one picture together every year and, over time, you'll have a collection showing just how much everyone has changed.
Sometimes the easiest plan is to let children decide what sounds fun. Give them a few simple choices that work for your day: go to the park, get ice cream, bake cookies, play a game, watch a movie, colour pictures, or have a picnic.
You might be surprised by what they choose. An afternoon that adults would have spent planning could end up being as simple as Grandma pushing the swings at the playground or Grandpa sitting on the floor building a very tall block tower.
Grandparents Day only comes around once a year, so why not change the usual order? Have ice cream before dinner, share a piece of cake in the afternoon, or start lunch with the cookies you baked together. Children will probably find the idea of eating dessert first especially exciting.
It doesn't need to become an everyday habit. That's exactly what can make it feel like a fun little Grandparents Day treat.
Choose a comfortable spot, gather a few favourite books, and spend some quiet time reading together. Children can choose books they want Grandma or Grandpa to read, while grandparents might bring a story they remember reading to their own children.
Children who are learning to read can also choose a short book to read aloud to their grandparents. Younger children might prefer to look through the pictures and tell the story in their own words.
Grandparents don't always have to choose the outing. Let the grandchildren be the tour guides for the day. Take Grandma or Grandpa to a favourite playground, library, park, walking trail, or another place children enjoy visiting.
Children often love showing someone else "their" places. They can show grandparents their favourite slide, the books they always look for at the library, or the spot where they like to play at the park.
Some activities don't need much preparation at all. Make a bowl of popcorn or another favourite snack, bring out a deck of cards, and sit around the table together. Grandparents can teach children a simple card game they know, or children can choose a familiar game everyone can play.
If younger children aren't ready for traditional card games, use the cards for matching, sorting colours and numbers, or invent a simple game together.
Not every part of Grandparents Day needs an activity. Sit on the porch. Have a cup of tea and a snack. Let children play while grandparents watch and chat. Colour at the kitchen table. Put some music on. Talk about what everyone has been doing lately.
Children don't necessarily need an elaborate activity to enjoy time with their grandparents. Sometimes having nowhere else to be for an hour is what gives everyone the chance to really enjoy being together.
It's easy to see ideas for special occasions and feel as though you need decorations, carefully planned activities, or an entire day filled with things to do. Grandparents Day doesn't need any of that.
Choose one or two things your family would genuinely enjoy. Maybe that's pancakes in the morning and a trip for ice cream later. Maybe it's playing cards at the kitchen table, going to the playground, or making pizza together.
Plans can change, too. Children may lose interest in the puzzle after ten minutes but spend an hour asking Grandpa questions about his childhood. The picnic might turn into an afternoon of playing outside. A quick visit for a treat might end with everyone sitting and talking much longer than expected.
The activity gives you a reason to get together. The time you spend together is what makes the day special.
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