A greeting card accompanied by flowers, a meal and a gift certificate are the most popular gifts that will be given this Mothers Day.

According to the US National Retail Federation, this year’s Mother’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey shows Americans will spend about $US124 per person, compared to last year’s $US139 average – which is STILL A LOT! (Like it’s about $AUD170… Arghhh – I don’t spend that much on my mum – maybe a third of that? – so I’ll have to hide this article.)

From those (outrageous!) figures, I guessed that this Mothers Day, people are actually giving their mothers a number of gifts + brunch/lunch/dinner/burnt cheese on toast.

The most popular gift for 67% of Americans is – you guessed it – flowers (for mums who don’t get hayfever at least) at an average spend of $US25. These would be accompanied by a greeting card (85% for $US7).

Then 54% plan to take their mothers out for a meal but the average cost is $US44 which is more like a Chinese takeaway for six, or maybe a posh brunch for two somewhere.

Then about 37% will give her a gift certificate for her favourite store or website for about $US36 (Mum, don’t read this but you’ll be getting a Historic Houses membership).

I wouldn’t have predicted this, but the next in line as a gift is clothing – probably in a vain attempt to stop them wearing their jeans hoiked up to their armpits ($US35, by 31%).

Jewellery will be bought by 28% of gift-givers for an average of $US72 which makes it the second-most expensive item given (and remember, mothers love carats). Books and CDs are given by 24% for an average of $US18 (then again, books do cost less in the US).

Then we get onto my personal favourite of personal services (a spa, massage or facial) of which 16% are indulging their mums for an average of $US55. Housewares and gardening tools ,which frankly I would have placed a little higher in the gift-giving stakes, will be given by 15% for about $US34 per person.

Drum roll please… The most expensive item being given by 10% to their mums, step-mums, grandmothers and other women are….consumer electronics for an average of $US76 so I imagine there will be a lot of groovy mothers with iPods this Mothers Day.

And if you’re getting something made up specially for your mum, let us know in our survey…

Tags: Mothers Day gifts, research

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 2:48 am and is filed under Mothers Day, gift ideas, gifts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.