It can be hard to buy Christmas gifts for the elderly people in our lives that we love. Many of these wonderful people are not capable of participating in the hobbies they once did, they have all the household items they need and the clothing items they need. At first thought, we may be at a lost at what to buy them that they will not only like, but may actually need.

Yet, there are a number of different things you can buy and a number of different services you can offer or you can pay someone else to do, that will not only brighten their holiday season, but may make their holiday season a little easier for them.

Here are a few suggestions.

--Offer to clean their house once a week or help them to maintain their yard. If you don't have the time or think they would prefer a stranger to do these services for them, you could hire a cleaning service or a yard care service for them.

--Do you have a child in your household who always needs extra money? Is the child old enough to wash dishes? Discuss the idea of the child going over to the house once or twice a week to the dishes for him/her. You pay the child.

--Do you love to bake or cook? Bake a cake, pie or prepare a meal for the person.

--Give a gift basket filled with bath supplies. Include items such as sponges, lotions and soaps. Make sure the products are filled with moisturizes. As we age, our skin becomes dryer and dry skin can become rough and irritated.

--Give food baskets filled with anything from cookies, candies, meats, breads, wines, and crackers and cheeses and everything in between. Make sure anything that needs to be refrigerated, gets refrigerated as soon as possible.

--Offer to take the person to the grocery store or even to do their grocery store shopping or them.

--Visit them early (before the actually Christmas holiday). Ask if they need help decorating. Give them a whole afternoon of your time. Be sure to also help put the decorations away after the holidays are finished.

--Would the person enjoy a massage? Do you have a massage therapist in town? Old bones tend to hurt, especially in the cold seasons.

--Want a gift they can unwrap? Think about warm robes, warm slippers and even warm throws. Yes, they may have these all ready. But with age these tend to lose their softness. Be sure to buy the softness one you can find.

--Check and see if the person still has a working record player. Yes, record player. Older people still have a collection of records from their past. But many may not have a working player. Yes, you can still buy these. Sometimes they come in combination packages that include a CD player and radio. If the records are in storage, offer to help the person get them out and then set up the player for them to enjoy.

It can be hard to buy for the elderly. For one thing, they may feel like they have everything they need and want. In some cases, they actually may have. But we still have to take the initiative and we still have to try and find a special Christmas gift and special gift ideas for the elderly people in our lives. It is one way we can show them how much we love and cherish them.