Some links in this post are affiliate links (Amazon, Viator, Expedia). If you buy or book through them, Import Detroit earns a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, Import Detroit earns from qualifying purchases.
Buying for your parents gets harder every year. Ask what they want and you get “Nothing, we have everything,” which is true. They have the mugs. They have the robe. Grandma has a drawer of candles from 2019 that she’s saving for a reason nobody can explain.
So this guide skips the drawer. Most of it is stuff that gets them out of the house in a Michigan winter, ideally with you or the grandkids along: museum and zoo memberships, nights out with a date already on them, and a few Detroit-specific things that’ll get Dad talking about Hudson’s for forty minutes. Every price and date below was checked on the venue’s own site on October 21, 2026. Amazon links go to search results, so check current prices there.
Detroit memberships for parents and grandparents, compared
Here’s our own comparison of the four memberships that make the best gifts for this crowd. The column most guides skip is the one that matters for grandparents: does it cover the grandkids?
| Membership | Cost (as of Oct 21, 2026) | Covers grandkids? | Best for | Winter value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit Institute of Arts | $100 Dual; 20% off for members 62+ | Guest passes for all children and grandchildren through high-school age | Big exhibition fans; tri-county residents who already get free general admission | Excellent (all indoors, Friday nights until 9) |
| The Henry Ford (Dearborn) | $75 Individual, $100 with rides; Family $215 | Family level covers children/grandchildren 18 and under | History buffs, car people, Holiday Nights regulars | Good: museum open daily, Greenfield Village weekends |
| Detroit Zoo (Royal Oak) | $121 Dual ($131 non-tri-county); $130 Single Guardian | Single Guardian = 1 adult + 4 kids ages 2–18 | Grandparents who babysit | Fair: best spring through fall |
| Detroit Historical Society | $80 Dual; $45 Individual ($30 for seniors on-site) | Only kids in the member’s household | Lifelong Detroiters, nostalgia | Excellent (Glancy Trains, mid-century photo show) |
Our call: if they live in the tri-county area and like art, get the DIA. If they’ll go to Holiday Nights anyway, get the Henry Ford before October 28 so they can buy in the member presale. If they’re the designated summer babysitters, the zoo’s Single Guardian level is the sleeper pick.
Memberships: the gift that keeps showing up
A membership is the rare gift that sends a reminder every time they use it. It also solves the “we never go anywhere” complaint, because now they’ve paid for it.
Detroit Institute of Arts
Free general admission already applies to anyone living in Wayne, Oakland or Macomb, so people assume a DIA membership is pointless. It isn’t. Members get free admission to the ticketed exhibitions (this fall that’s Georgia O’Keeffe: Architecture and Caravaggio’s Models), free guest passes, 10% off in Café DIA and the shop, and guest passes for all their children and grandchildren through high-school age. Dual runs $100 a year and the DIA lists 20% off for members 62 and above.
Timing tip: gift memberships bought online start the day you buy them. If you want it to start on Christmas morning, call the membership line at 313-833-7971 before you pay. The museum is at 5200 Woodward, closed Mondays, and open until 9 p.m. on Fridays, which is the calmest time to see the Rivera murals without a field trip in the way.
The Henry Ford
A Henry Ford membership gives 12 months of free admission to Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, free parking and Giant Screen films, starting the day it’s activated. Individual is $75 ($100 with the ride pass for the steam train, Model T’s and carousel). The Family level ($215 without rides) covers two members plus children or grandchildren 18 and under, which makes it the obvious pick for grandparents who host summer visits.
The real reason to buy it this month: members get 15% off Holiday Nights tickets, early entry at 6 p.m., and a presale that opens October 28, a week before the public. Holiday Nights tickets often sell out, so the membership is basically a fast pass.
Detroit Zoo
The zoo doesn’t sell a membership called “grandparent,” but its gift membership list has the next best thing. Single Guardian covers one named adult and four children ages 2 to 18 for $130 (tri-county residents) or $140. Grandparent couples should look at Family: two named adults and four kids for $139 or $149. Every level includes free parking, and kids under 2 get in free anyway.
Go if: Grandma and Grandpa take the grandkids one weekday a month from May to September. Skip it if they’d only go once, because two visits is roughly the break-even point.
Detroit Historical Society
The cheapest membership here and maybe the most nostalgic. A Detroit Historical Society Dual is $80 and covers free admission to the Detroit Historical Museum and the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle, plus 20% off in the museum stores. Seniors can get an Individual for $30 instead of $45 when they buy at a museum with photo ID. Non-member adult admission is $15 ($12 for seniors 65 and up), so two visits covers it.
What’s on right now makes the case for parents who grew up here: the Streets of Old Detroit and the Glancy Trains, The Searching Eye: Images of Mid-Century Detroit by Norman Zadoorian (through May 15, 2027) and Detroit Red Wings at 100: Becoming Hockeytown (through January 3, 2027). The museum is at 5401 Woodward, open Wednesday through Saturday 10 to 5 and Sunday 1 to 5. Parking in the Kirby Street lot is $10.
Holiday gift guides
Shopping for the rest of the family too?
Experiences together: nights out with a date on them
An experience gift for parents only works if it has a date. “Let’s do something sometime” in a card is how you end up doing nothing until Easter. Print the tickets, circle the night, and offer to drive.
Holiday Nights in Greenfield Village
Holiday Nights runs December 3–6, 10–13, 17–23 and 26–28, 2026, from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Public tickets are $39 to $48, members pay $33.25 to $40.75, seniors 62 and up get 10% off, and kids 4 and under are free. Horse-drawn wagon rides, Model T rides, skating and the fireworks finale are included. New this year: the Jackson Home is decorated for Christmas 1965, with the Village’s first exterior Christmas lights.
Local knowledge: it’s outdoors and Dearborn in December is cold, so a dinner package in the Village is the move for parents who’d rather sit than stand. Dining packages are advance-only (online or by phone, no walk-ups), and members can add the $5 Eagle Lane Shuttle so nobody hikes from the far lot. Public sales open November 4 at 9 a.m.
Check rates at The Henry Hotel in Dearborn on Expedia → if they’d rather not drive home after the fireworks.
Broadway at the Fisher Theatre
The 2026–27 Broadway in Detroit season has three shows in the gift window: The Great Gatsby (November 17–29), Boop! The Musical (December 1–13) and Operation Mincemeat (January 12–24, 2027), all at the Fisher Theatre on West Grand Boulevard. A Sunday matinee is the parent-friendly slot: daylight driving and dinner after instead of before.
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra Hall (3711 Woodward) opened in 1919, and plenty of lifelong Detroiters have never been inside. The DSO’s Create Your Own package lets you pick a few concerts across the Classical, Pops and Paradise Jazz series. Pops is the easy yes for parents who’ll say they “don’t really do classical.” Box office: 313-576-5111, weekdays 9 to 5.
A guided Detroit tour they don’t have to walk
For parents who left the city decades ago, a chauffeured tour that hits the Fisher Building, Belle Isle and the neighborhoods is a surprisingly emotional gift. Nobody has to find parking, and the guide does the talking until Dad starts correcting the guide.
Book a chauffeured Detroit history tour on Viator →
If they’re food people, a guided food tour of Eastern Market or Mexicantown is a sit-down-and-taste kind of afternoon. Our Detroit food tour guide compares the routes.
Browse Detroit food tours on Viator →
Staying downtown makes it a mini-getaway. Check rates at The Inn on Ferry Street on Expedia → It’s a block from the DIA and the Historical Museum.
Nostalgic gifts for parents who grew up in Detroit
Anyone over 60 who grew up here has a Hudson’s story. Give them a reason to tell it.
- The Hudson’s photo book. Hudson’s: Detroit’s Legendary Department Store by Michael Hauser and Marianne Weldon is a 128-page Images of America book built from photos at the Detroit Historical Museum. At 25 stories, Hudson’s was the tallest department store in the world, and the book has Toytown in it. Find the Hudson’s book on Amazon.
- Motown on vinyl. A Motown greatest-hits record is the easiest nostalgia gift in the city. Shop Motown vinyl on Amazon. If their turntable died with the Carter administration, add a simple record player with built-in speakers.
- The hometown snack box. Sanders hot fudge, Better Made chips, Vernors, Faygo. We cover where to order each one in our Michigan-made gifts guide, so we won’t repeat it here.
- A museum date to go with it. Wrap the Hudson’s book with two Detroit Historical Museum tickets. The mid-century Detroit photo show is the perfect follow-up.
Comfort gifts for a Michigan winter
Practical beats precious with parents. These are the things they won’t buy themselves and will use from December to March.
- Ice cleats that slip over shoes. The least romantic gift on this page and the most useful. Detroit sidewalks, church lots and grocery store lots ice over every January. Shop slip-on ice cleats on Amazon.
- A heated throw. For the parent who keeps the thermostat at 66 to “save money.” Shop heated throws with auto shut-off on Amazon.
- A Wi-Fi photo frame you load for them. Set it up before you wrap it and invite the whole family to send photos. If you hand them a box and a QR code, it lives in the closet. Shop Wi-Fi digital frames on Amazon.
What to skip
- Gadgets that need an app and a password. Unless you’re setting it up at the kitchen table on Christmas Day, it’s a paperweight.
- Undated experience vouchers. Pick the night yourself. A Henry Ford membership card with a Holiday Nights date written on the envelope beats a gift certificate every time.
- Another Detroit mug. They have it. It’s next to the other one.
Still stuck? The Downtown Detroit Partnership’s Detroit Card is a digital gift card for more than 100 local businesses, from $5 to $500, delivered by email. Read the fee and inactivity terms before you buy.
For more ideas, see all our Detroit gift guides, the Detroit Christmas markets guide for a shopping day out with Mom, or Frankenmuth at Christmas if your parents’ favorite holiday tradition involves Bronner’s.
