Grandparents Day

If you’re a florist or a greeting card maker, the idea of Grandparents Day might not excite you the way Valentine’s Day does. In the floral industry, this holiday, observed the Sunday after Labor Day, isn’t even a blip on the radar. The picture isn’t much rosier for card makers either.

That’s okay, though.

Marian McQuade, the West Virginia homemaker who worked tirelessly throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s to gain national recognition for the holiday, wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. An advocate for the elderly, McQuade instead saw the day as a chance to bridge the gaps between different generations. She wanted to encourage younger people to tap into the wisdom and experience grandparents could provide, and for those grandparents in turn, to feel they still had something to offer.

How do you observe Grandparents Day? McQuade thought of it as a day for families rather than a cause for wild celebrations. So celebrate any way you like. Have a family picnic, gather on the porch for stories or play a board game together. If they’re far away, Grandparents Day is a great excuse for you to phone, text, FaceTime or Skype. You might even go down to the post office and send a message the old-fashioned way.

Better yet, reach out and make any day a Grandparents Day. That’s really what Marian McQuade had in mind all along.