The Best Gifts for Long-Distance Grandparents, 2026

Where in the World Are You?! Personalized Book

Adorabook

Best for: Grandparents who want a game for video calls

Send the grandparents a book starring their grandchild, hidden in crowds in seven cities around the world. It turns a video call into a game: Grandma holds up Paris, the grandkid shouts when they spot themselves. Order a second copy for the grandkid's house and they can hunt the same page at the same time.

Good to know: Each copy is printed to order, so order early if two households need one before the holidays.

Read our spotlight on both search-and-find editions →

Adorabook is a Gifted partner. How partner picks work.

Carver Mat 10" Digital Photo Frame

Aura

Best for: Grandparents who would watch a slideshow of the grandkids all day

If you buy one thing for faraway grandparents, make it a frame you can fill from your own phone. The Aura Carver Mat is a 10.1-inch HD frame with a paper mat around the screen, which helps it look more like a framed print than a gadget. Anyone in the family can add photos and videos through the free Aura app, by email or by text, with unlimited storage and no subscription fees. Best of all, you can preload photos and a message before you give it, so it lights up full on day one.

Good to know: It needs Wi-Fi on a 2.4 GHz network, and the Aura app is required for setup.

Skylight Frame 2

Skylight

Best for: Families with lots of relatives who all want to send photos

Skylight's appeal is how simple it is on the receiving end. Every frame gets its own email address, so anyone with that address can send up to 100 photos per email, or use the free Skylight app with no per-send limit. Frame 2 has a 10-inch touchscreen with a sharp 1920 by 1200 display, so the grandparents can swipe through on their own, and the app can send the same photos to several frames at once, which is handy when both sets of grandparents want the new baby pictures.

Good to know: Video playback and captions on Frame 2 require a paid Skylight Plus subscription, and the price varies by finish.

Monthbooks Photo Book Subscription

Chatbooks

Best for: Grandparents who would rather hold a photo than tap one

A digital frame is wonderful, but there is something about a book you can hold. Monthbooks is a photo book subscription from Chatbooks: you pick a size and cover, choose 4, 6 or 12 books a year, add photos from the app on your phone, and Chatbooks prints, binds and ships each one with free standard shipping. Hand off or mail each finished book to the grandparents and their coffee table slowly fills with a year of the grandkids, one slim volume at a time.

Good to know: It is a subscription, so someone has to add photos on schedule, and it continues until you cancel in the app.

Hardcover Photo Book

Mixbook

Best for: A once-a-year highlight reel of the grandkids

For a one-time keepsake, a hardcover photo book of the year still lands better than any slideshow. Mixbook's hardcover books start at $29.99 for an 8-by-6-inch book with 20 pages and go up to a 14-by-11-inch coffee table size, with up to 400 pages, a choice of three paper finishes and a glossy or matte cover. Build it from your camera roll, add captions in the kids' own words, and it becomes the book Grandma pulls out for every single visitor.

Good to know: The starting price covers 20 pages and the basic finishes; extra pages are $1.79 each, and bigger sizes cost more.

Classic Long-Distance Wi-Fi Touch Lamp, Set of 2

Friendship Lamps (Filimin)

Best for: A grandparent and grandkid who want to say hi without a call

These Wi-Fi touch lamps are the sweetest idea on this list. Each household gets a lamp; touch yours and the other one glows in your chosen color, a quiet 'thinking of you' that a 4-year-old can send as easily as an adult. The Classic set comes pre-paired, offers 256 colors, uses built-in LEDs that never need new bulbs and works without a subscription for lamp-to-lamp touches. An app sets colors, nicknames and sleep schedules, so nobody gets a surprise glow at 3 a.m.

Good to know: Both homes need 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and the lamps do not make true white light, so they are signals, not reading lamps.

Yoto Mini (4th Gen)

Yoto

Best for: Grandparents who want to do bedtime stories from three states away

The Yoto Mini is a screen-free audio player for kids, and its secret weapon for grandparents is the Make Your Own card that comes in the box. Grandma records herself reading a favorite book in the Yoto app, links the recording to the card, and the grandkids can play her voice any time by sliding the card in. A card holds up to 100 tracks. The player runs up to 16 hours on a charge, stores more than 1,000 hours of audio offline and is made for ages 3 and up.

Good to know: Extra blank Make Your Own cards are sold separately, and someone has to handle the recording and upload steps in the Yoto app.

Wizard Creative-Tonie

tonies

Best for: Grandkids who already have a Toniebox

If the grandkids already own a Toniebox, this is the most affordable way to put Grandpa's voice in their bedroom. A Creative-Tonie is a hand-painted figurine (this one is a wizard) that holds up to 90 minutes of your own audio. Record bedtime stories, silly songs or a good-morning message on a phone, tablet or computer, upload it, and the kids play it by setting the figure on their box. Send a new one every birthday and pretty soon there is a whole shelf of Grandpa.

Good to know: It only works with a Toniebox, which is sold separately.

Letter Writing Set, Dahlia

Rifle Paper Co.

Best for: Starting a pen-pal habit with a grandkid who loves getting mail

Real mail is a thrill for kids, and a pretty box of stationery is an invitation to start a pen-pal habit. Rifle Paper Co.'s Letter Writing Set comes boxed with 40 sheets of illustrated letter paper, 20 coordinating envelopes, 20 gold envelope seals and a pen, enough for a letter every few weeks all year. Tuck in a book of stamps and a few pre-addressed envelopes so the grandkids can write back, and you have started something that can last for years.

Good to know: Rifle Paper Co. sells it as final sale, so there are no returns or exchanges.

Letters to My Grandchild

Lea Redmond (Chronicle Books)

Best for: Grandparents who want to be part of milestones they may miss in person

This one plays the long game. Lea Redmond's Letters to My Grandchild is a set of 12 letters, each starting with a prompt such as 'What I want you to know about me,' which grandparents fill in, seal with the included stickers and date for opening later, at a graduation, a wedding or simply a hard day. Distance makes it even more meaningful, because it is a way to show up at the big moments a grandparent might not be able to attend in person.

Good to know: It is meant to be handwritten, so it suits grandparents who enjoy putting pen to paper.