9 Sympathy Gifts Other than Flowers
When someone we love is grieving, our first instinct is often to send flowers. And while a beautiful bouquet is always a kind gesture, it can sometimes feel like a fleeting comfort — gone within a week, leaving little trace behind. The truth is, grief doesn't end when the petals fall.
If you're looking for a way to show someone you care that goes a little deeper, you're in the right place. Whether you're supporting a close friend, a coworker, or a family member through loss, the right gift can offer real comfort — a warm meal on a hard day, a keepsake that keeps a memory alive, or simply something that says I'm still thinking of you long after the funeral has passed.
Here are some of the most meaningful sympathy gifts that go beyond flowers, including:
- Options they can use immediately to help with everyday grief
- Sympathy gift ideas that show your support
- Gifts other than flowers that will resonate for years to come
1. PerfectGift+ gift card
A gift card that allows them to choose where to spend it
If you’re looking for sympathy gifts other than flowers, you can never go wrong with a digital or physical gift card like PerfectGift+. This isn’t just any gift card, instead it allows the recipient to choose exactly what they spend it on, whenever they’re ready to use it. Just choose the amount you’d like to place on the card, then decide whether the recipient would prefer a digital card or a physical gift card. You can then customize the gift with a personalized photo and a heartfelt message to them. Then it will be sent to their phone or will arrive in the mail—and there is more than one way they can redeem it!
- Choose from thousands of popular merchants available at PerfectGift, from restaurants like Olive Garden, to meal delivery services like DoorDash and UberEats.
- Send the balance to their debit or credit card.
- Swap it for a physical Visa card.
- Re-gift it
- Send it to their bank account via Zelle.
2. Handwritten note with baked goods
Showing your support via a personalized note and comforting baked goods is a great sympathy gift
Baked goods in particular feel warm and nostalgic, the kind of thing that reminds people of home and being taken care of. Image courtesy of Craft to Crumb.
Food is one of the most ancient forms of comfort and care. When someone is grieving, cooking is often the last thing on their mind, so having something ready to eat — especially something homemade — removes a small but real burden from their day. Baked goods in particular feel warm and nostalgic, the kind of thing that reminds people of home and being taken care of. They're also something the whole family can share, which matters when a house is full of people coming and going during a loss.
In a world of texts and emails, a handwritten note carries real weight. It shows you slowed down and made an effort. It's something tangible the grieving person can hold onto, reread on a hard day, and keep long after the gift itself is gone. A few sincere, personal words — a favorite memory of the person they lost, or simply acknowledging how much they're loved — can mean more than an expensive gift ever could.
Together, they hit two important notes: practical comfort and emotional connection. The baked goods say I want to take care of you, while the handwritten note says I see your pain and I'm here. It's personal, it's warm, and it feels human in a way that a store-bought gift often doesn't.
3. Fresh or dried fruit basket
Ensure the recipient is getting nutritious, and delicious, food at this difficult time
A fresh or dried fruit basket might seem like a simple or even understated choice, but it's one of the most practical, considerate, and universally appreciated sympathy gifts you can give. Image courtesy of James Cress Florist.
Heavy, rich foods — while comforting in their own way — can sometimes feel like too much during a time of grief. There's something about the freshness and simplicity of fruit that feels gentle and restorative. Bright colors, natural sweetness, and the feeling of something clean and wholesome can offer a small but real sense of comfort and normalcy during a time when everything feels heavy and dark.
Dried fruit in particular has a quiet, earthy quality to it — figs, apricots, dates, and cherries feel almost timeless and nourishing in a deeper sense. Many cultures have long associated certain fruits and nuts with mourning rituals and comfort foods, so there's a subtle cultural resonance to this kind of gift that feels appropriate to the occasion.
A fruit basket also lends itself beautifully to personalization. Choosing fruits you know the recipient loves, adding a jar of honey or a bag of nuts, including a small box of chocolates or a tin of herbal tea, or simply tying the basket with a ribbon and a handwritten note can elevate it from a practical gift to a genuinely heartfelt one. It shows that you didn't just grab something off a shelf — you thought about what would bring this particular person a small moment of comfort.
4. Memorial ornament
Give them something to comfort them for years to come
A memorial ornament is one of the most quietly powerful sympathy gifts other than flowers that you can give. Image courtesy of Personalization Mall.
Most sympathy gifts, by their nature, are temporary. Flowers wilt. Food is eaten. Candles burn down. A memorial ornament is different because it's made to last. It's something the grieving person can keep for years, even decades, and return to again and again as a physical connection to the person they lost. Over time it becomes more than a gift — it becomes a keepsake, something that holds memory and meaning in a way that few other objects can.
For ornaments specifically designed to be hung on a Christmas tree or displayed during the holiday season, there is an added layer of meaning that makes them particularly special. The holidays are often one of the hardest times for people who are grieving. The absence of a loved one feels most acute during family gatherings, seasonal traditions, and moments that were once shared together.
5. Self-care gift set
Give them a cozy gift basket that’s designed to meet them where they’re at
When someone is grieving, taking care of themselves is often the last thing on their mind, and in many cases, the very concept of self-care can feel almost impossible. That's exactly why a self-care gift set can be one of the most considerate and genuinely useful sympathy gifts you can give. Image courtesy of Chestnut Ridge Honey.
One of the quiet but powerful messages a self-care gift set sends is this: it's okay to take care of yourself right now. Grieving people often feel tremendous pressure — to hold it together for their family, to handle arrangements, to be strong, to keep functioning. Many feel guilty when they do something that feels good or peaceful, as though enjoying a moment of comfort is somehow a betrayal of their grief or the person they lost.
A self-care gift set gently pushes back against that. It's an explicit invitation to slow down, to rest, to tend to themselves without guilt. One of the great strengths of a self-care gift set is how easily it can be tailored to the individual. A generic set purchased from a store can be thoughtful on its own, but a set assembled with a specific person in mind becomes something genuinely special. If you know they love the smell of eucalyptus, include a eucalyptus shower steamer. If they're a tea drinker, add a selection of their favorite blends. If they love to read, tuck in a small candle and a bookmark.
6. Wind chimes
This beautiful gift will remind them of their loved one whenever they hear its soothing chime
Wind chimes are one of the most poetic, meaningful, and enduring sympathy gifts you can give, and the reasons why go far beyond their beauty. Image courtesy of Astarin.
For a grieving person, the sound of wind chimes can become quietly associated with the person they lost. A sudden soft melody on a still afternoon can feel like a hello, a reassurance, a reminder that love doesn't simply disappear. Whether or not someone holds spiritual beliefs about signs from the deceased, there is something undeniably moving about a sound that seems to arrive on its own, carried by a breeze, at unexpected and often deeply needed moments.
Like a memorial ornament or a keepsake, wind chimes do something that many sympathy gifts don't — they honor not just the grief of the living, but the life of the person who passed. Many memorial wind chimes can be personalized with the name of the deceased, a meaningful date, a favorite quote, or a symbol that represents something they loved.
7. Memorial tree
Planting a memorial tree is a way to ensure they legacy of a loved one endures
Of all the ways to honor the memory of someone who has passed, few are as quietly powerful, as lasting, or as full of meaning as planting a tree in their name. Image courtesy of TN Nursery.
There is something deeply fitting about a tree as a symbol of grief and remembrance. Trees are rooted in the earth — in the same ground where we bury the people we love. They reach upward toward light and sky. They weather storms, lose their leaves in the fall, and return to life again in the spring. They are, in almost every sense, a living metaphor for the experience of grief itself — the way loss roots itself deeply in us, the way we are stripped bare by it, and the way life, slowly and often surprisingly, continues to grow around it.
One of the most difficult aspects of loss is that grief can feel formless and directionless — an overwhelming emotion with no clear outlet. A memorial tree gives that grief somewhere to go. It gives the grieving person something to tend, something to watch over, something to care for.
8. Grief support book
A book gives them someplace to turn to when they need extra help
One of the most important qualities of a grief support book is that it can be picked up and put down entirely on the reader's own terms. Image courtesy of Amazon.
Grief can be a profoundly isolating experience, and one of the reasons for that isolation is how difficult it is to articulate what you are going through. The feelings are so large, so complex, and so layered that ordinary language often seems completely inadequate. Grieving people frequently describe a sense of being unable to explain themselves — to their family, their friends, even to themselves.
A well-written grief support book gives language to experiences that the grieving person may not have been able to name on their own. Reading a passage that perfectly captures something they have been feeling but couldn't express can be an almost physical relief — a sense of recognition so strong it can bring tears. The feeling of being understood, even by a writer they have never met, can break through the isolation of grief in a way that few other things can.
9. Personalized candle
A candle allows someone who is grieving to light it in remembrance whenever they need to
When you give a personalized candle as a sympathy gift, you are tapping into all of that meaning while adding something uniquely modern and deeply personal. Image courtesy of Etsy.
One of the things that grief counselors and researchers consistently emphasize is the importance of ritual in the healing process. Rituals give grief structure. They create designated moments for remembrance that allow the grieving person to honor their loss intentionally rather than being ambushed by it unpredictably. They provide a sense of continuity and meaning in the chaos that loss creates.
A personalized candle naturally lends itself to ritual. A grieving person might light it every evening while preparing dinner, finding a few minutes of quiet reflection in the flickering flame. They might light it on the birthday of the person they lost, or on the anniversary of their death, or on holidays when their absence is most keenly felt. They might light it when they need to feel close to the person who is gone, creating a small, private ceremony of connection in the middle of an ordinary day.
Any of these sympathy gifts other than flowers are sure to help your loved one
Grief is one of the most universal human experiences there is, and yet it can feel like the loneliest place in the world. When someone we love is walking through it, our deepest instinct is to do something — to show up, to offer some small proof that they are not alone and that the person they lost truly mattered. Flowers are a kind and lovely gesture, but as we've explored throughout this post, there is a whole world of sympathy gifts that go deeper, last longer, and speak more directly to the needs of someone who is grieving.
