National Grandparents Day is an observance and not a public holiday in the United States. This year it falls on Sunday, September 13, 2026.
National Grandparents Day has more than one origin. Some people consider it to have been first proposed by Michael Goldgar in the 1970s after he visited his aunt in an Atlanta nursing home. He made 17 trips to Washington DC over a seven-year span to meet with legislators and spent $11,000 of his own money lobbying to have the day officially recognized.
Marian Lucille Herndon McQuade, a housewife in West Virginia was a second advocate for the observance. Throughout the 1970s McQuade worked hard to educate people about the important contributions of senior citizens. She also urged people to adopt a grandparent, not for one day a year and not for material giving, but for a lifetime of experience.
National Grandparents Day was finally signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978. Marian McQuade received a phone call from the White House to advise her of this event. A presidential proclamation on September 6, 1979, made this day official – it designated Sunday, September 9, 1979, (being the “first Sunday of September following Labor Day”) as National Grandparents Day.
Each year the President is requested to issue a proclamation to designate the first Sunday in September after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day; and to call on people, groups and organizations to observe the day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
The official song of National Grandparents Day is “A Song for Grandma and Grandpa” by Johnny Prill. The official flower for the day is the “forget-me-not” flower.
About four million greeting cards are sent within the United States each year on National Grandparents Day.