“A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.” – Agatha Christie
As the saying goes, you can’t buy love. That’s especially true when it comes to moms. There is a unique love – an unconditional love – that bonds a mother and her child. So as you start thinking about how to make this Mother’s Day special for mom, focus on how you can spoil her with gratitude, love, and affection. Sure, you can do a last-minute run to the flower shop and buy an expensive arrangement. Or sprint to the spa to purchase a gift certificate for a pricey treatment. But you don’t have to break the bank to make mom feel like a million bucks. Here are 10 creative ways you can make your mom the happiest mom on earth this Mother’s Day for less than $10 (and in many cases without spending a dime!).
- Sharing Mom-ories (cost $0) – Take some time this week to think about some of your favorite memories with Mom – a.k.a. “Mom-ories.” Then, on Mother’s Day, reminisce with mom about those special moments and tell her how impactful they were in your life. Bonus points if you can dig up photos of those moments, and bring them along for your trip down memory lane.
- A Clean House (cost $0 if you do it yourself) – Imagine all the times your mom cleaned up after you over the years. Why not return the favor by giving mom a sparkling clean house this Mother’s Day? You can schedule a cleaning crew to come do the dirty work, or better yet, roll up your sleeves and get your hands a little dirty making mom’s home look spic-and-span.
- Blooming Tea (cost $5-10) – Simply find an excuse to enjoy a tea with mom (perhaps when you are sharing your mom-ories from idea #1 above), and drop a blooming tea ball into boiling water. Then, sit back and enjoy the huge smile on mom’s face as the tea blooms into a beautiful flower before her very eyes. You can pick up blooming tea at your local Teavana or tea speciality shop.
- A Custom Fortune Cookie (cost $0) – This is one of our favorite tricks here at Datevitation: how to remove a fortune from a fortune cookie without cracking the shell and replace it with your own custom message. All you have to do is follow our simple instructions in this step-by-step video and enjoy mom’s face light up when she cracks the cookie to find your sweet message inside.
- A Custom Music Mix For Mom (cost: $0 or the cost of a CD) – Your mom will love that you took the time to put together a playlist of songs just for her. It could be songs that remind you of her, songs that you enjoyed together during your childhood, or even current hits to keep mom in-the-know on today’s music culture (moms love to be cool!). You can create and share the playlist with mom using an online service like Spotify. Or, if you want to go “old-school” with a physical CD, then here is a blog post where I show you step-by-step how to create a CD insert using iTunes that lists all of the the song titles on your mix.
- A Home-cooked meal (cost: depends on what you’re making!) – Think of all the hours that your mom has spent in the kitchen preparing home-cooked meals for you. This Mother’s Day, don’t let your mom lift a finger in the kitchen. Instead, it’s your turn to slap on the apron and cook something delicious for mom. Consider coming over early to surprise her with a gourmet breakfast-in-bed.
- A framed childhood photo (cost: approx $10) – There is nothing that screams adorable like a childhood photo of you with your mommy. Find one of your favorites, put it in a nice frame, and deliver it on Mother’s Day along with a sweet handwritten note.
- A Thoughtful Toast (cost: $0) – Your mom knows how much she means to you. But it doesn’t hurt to tell her. Take some time this week to pull your thoughts together so that on Mother’s Day you’re ready to offer a meaningful toast in honor of mom. Or better yet, ask the entire family to prepare a toast for mom so that she gets to hear lovely sentiments from all of her loved ones.
- A relic from her childhood (cost: depends on the item) - Take a moment and think about the most memorable places, foods, and toys from your childhood, and imagine how fun it would be to experience those things once again. Now rack your brain for any old stories your mom has told you over the years about her childhood. Did she have a favorite treat growing up? A favorite book or toy? Bring things full circle by surprising mom on Mother’s Day with a relic from her childhood. She’ll be forever grateful.
- New memories - If you do any of the above actions this Mother’s Day, your mom will undoubtedly be one happy camper. But all the other ideas on this list focus on reliving the past or spoiling Mom on Mother’s Day itself. A Datevitation gift book is a gift that is all about creating new memories together in the coming weeks and months. You can start making your book here!
