Photo album
Ten photos and a line under each. Photograph the old prints if prints are all there is — a picture of a picture holds up fine at this size, and those are the ones she'll stop at.
Gifts for mom
Gifts for mom that take longer than a text
Mostly the photographs she's only ever seen on a phone screen.
Mothers are easy to please and hard to buy for, and people mistake those for the same problem. She doesn't want the candle. She wants evidence that you thought about her for longer than the drive to the shop took.
The most reliable version of that is photographs. Almost every picture of her lives in somebody's camera roll, and she has seen almost none of them at any size — which makes the cheapest thing you own the one thing she hasn't got.
This page is for the ordinary days. If it's the festival itself you're planning for, the Mother's Day page below goes into the day properly.
What suits mom
Nested surprise boxes
For her birthday: five boxes inside each other, a ribbon on each, and your message at the bottom of the last one.
Balloon pop
Balloons to pop, one per year, then a cake with her name on it. Sillier than she will admit to having enjoyed.
What to actually write
- Use the photos from before you can remember. She's in those, and you're the one who's never really looked at them
- Include her, not only you. Most family albums are accidentally all children, because she was the one holding the camera
- Thank her for something invisible — the arranging, the remembering, the worrying nobody asked her to do
- Then ring her. The gift is the reason to call, not a substitute for calling
Occasions this fits
- How to Make an Interactive 3D Photo Album Online (Free)
- 30 Birthday Wishes for Mom (Heartfelt, Short & Funny)
- Why Interactive Gifts Feel More Personal Than Ordinary Messages
Send one now
Write your words, get a link, and send it however you'd send any link. It's free, it takes about ten minutes, and neither of you needs an account.
Make a gift for mom