It’s that time of year again when every mother gets a robe. Or some flowers. Maybe it’s finally time for that spa day they always wanted? Who knows.
Admittedly, I too have never been perfect at picking gifts for my mom. Lucky enough for all parties involved, I am now at a reasonable age that I can just ask her without feeling embarrassed. Not everyone does that, though.
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Following the high searches of “Gift” with a score of 96 and “Idea” with a score of 38, Google Trends shows us the popularity of seven different searches regarding gift ideas for Mother’s Day. We can use this data to give us an idea as to what people are gifting mothers.
“Jewelry” had the highest relative popularity when including searches for “Ring,” “Necklace,” and “Bracelet.” The second highest score was given to the combination of the “Basket” and “Gift Basket” searches.
Every other prominent search was unique in itself, with “Flower” having a score of 7, “Party” and “Gift Card” each having scores of 6, and our lowest of the bunch, “Spa” and “Craft” having 3 each.
Now, Mother’s Day is a pretty popular holiday. Northwestern Medill Spiegel Research Center proposes support for the Prosper Insights and Analytics survey recording Mother’s Day as the seasonal holiday with the third most participation across the nation, being 84.2% of all Americans.
If these search trends seem skewed to a lower relative popularity than they should be, given the size of Mother’s Day celebrations, I offer you a deeper look into this research center’s results.
Dr. Martin Block, Professor Emeritus, Northwestern University, and the Retail Analytics Council reported the percentage of survey respondents that planned to purchase each type of gift, along with the Annual/Average Growth Rate (AGR) of each gift type’s popularity and specifically the growth in 2024.
With this data, we can see a drastic shift between what people looked into/searched up as opposed to what people truly planned to buy — likely not needing to search up help for ideas they already had. Flowers stays high, jewelry drops, gift cards rocket, and so on and so forth.
While all of this research is fine and dandy when looking into what people purchase for Mother’s Day and even the economic impact of the holiday, has no one checked up on the mothers? Do their families and friends really know them that well, or would they prefer other gifts?
Well, I checked up on them. All of this data has been really broad, collected from all over the USA with all its differing customs and tastes, so I surveyed a sample size from the community relevant to my readers here. I checked up specifically on mothers that live in Miami.
As it turns out, most mothers that I surveyed wanted to make Mother’s Day theirs by having a pleasant experience they don’t usually get. Even my own mother only asked for a nice dinner in a niche spot in the city that we would not normally drop by.
“Miami has a very dense Latino population, which I think could be part of why so many mothers here crave an experience rather than a physical gift,” only daughter to Latino parents, Emily Saez, stated. “As Latinos, we are raised to be very family-focused in all we do — which can certainly pour into these results.”
A sentimental gift — a handmade or very personalized one — tied for the second most desired choice can also stem from this strong sense of appreciation for family. Meanwhile, the numbers for luxury items and self-care are these moms wanting something special that they don’t receive in their day to day life because of the responsibility they take on being mothers.
But these all-American trends may not always hold true everywhere in the country.
Mother’s Day is a lot more simple than we make it, at least in Miami. In every response, a mother just wanted something they can’t usually have. A nice dinner, a stunning necklace, their child’s art or craft, a day to themselves. Whatever they wanted, they deserved.
For spending 365 days taking care of children or keeping tabs on their grown-ups, make sure you make a mother’s one day a year the chance to give them an opportunity or present that’ll show your appreciation for every other day — something they never receive to prove that they should.
Media Sources:
Infographic: https://www.statista.com/chart/29985/mothers-day-spending-in-the-united-states/
YouGov: What do American moms want for Mother’s Day?
Finance Buzz: Mother’s Day Statistics [2025]: 14 Surprising Facts About the Holiday