So Your Parents Are Celebrating Their 50th Wedding Anniversary -- I'll Tell You What You're NOT Going To Do

When it's your parents' Golden Anniversary -- or any anniversary, really -- do not buy them a plate or other glass or ceramic gift ware with 'happy anniversary' on it.

I don't care how personalized, pretty, or 'golden' it is. One trip to any thrift store, and you will see isles littered with such token gifts nobody wants.





Sure, you could argue (insensitively, yet pragmatically) that a couple may, in fact, pass away not long after celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary -- but the lesson here is that no one in the family wants to keep such mementos.