The best gift to give Mom is always your time, your attention, and your love…but most of us want to give Mom a special gift on Mother’s Day that says “I love you!”There’s one gift that is always the right size, the right color, and is exactly what Mom has always wanted: It is the gift she buys for herself using the gift card you’ve given her to her favorite store!
Gift cards are everywhere! There is hardly any store these days that doesn’t offer its own gift card (those plastic, credit-card-sized cards). And for stores that don’t issue their own credit cards, you can always purchase universal gift cards that carry either the MasterCard or VISA credit card logo. These gift cards are good in any store that accepts those credit cards. Also, many malls now offer gift cards that are good in any store in that particular mall.
Online “stores” as well, such as Amazon, offer gift-card-type gift certificates that can be redeemed for online purchases. To make it even easier, there are now websites that offer a unique service. You can purchase a “blank” gift card, worth the dollar amount you specify. When the recipient gets the notice about the gift card, that person can redeem the dollar amount for the gift card of his or her choice (to restaurants, shops, spas, or other services). GiveAnything.com is one example of this kind of website.
Gift cards may be a really wonderful gift idea—but there isn’t much to wrap. This is a situation you can rectify in two different ways.
If you live near Mom, or you are going to be visiting Mom for Mother’s Day and give her an actual gift card, then find a box, any size, and wrap it as gaily and festively as you can! You can fool Mom by putting in something heavy like a recloseable bag full of sand, or maybe a small rock. How about the old trick of “nesting” ever-smaller boxes inside a bigger outer box? Start with a small box, and put the gift card in it. Then put that box in a bigger box, and wrap it. Continue on for a few more boxes. This prolongs the fun of Mom opening the gift—and keeps her wondering about “what’s inside”!
You can also “hide” the gift card. Maybe Mom’s a bookworm and she loves to spend every Tuesday afternoon at Barnes&Noble, enjoying a latte while she sits in a comfy chair reading the first chapter of the new book she’s going to buy. Next time you are at Mom’s grab an old paperback off her shelf, and tuck a B&N gift card in it like a bookmark. The wrap up the book and include the note “…hope you find another bestseller to enjoy!”
If you can’t be with Mom for Mother’s Day, then you’ll be sending the gift card through the mail. Of course, you can send a wrapped package, like those described above. Or you can put the gift card in a “gift card certificate” type card. A gift card certificate can be anything really. You can make one by hand, or use your computer to put together a clever “certificate” type presentation page (you know the type that you’ve seen that come with awards). You can make a certificate using just your Word processing software (Microsoft Word allows you to insert various clipart that comes as part of the software). You can make a certificate using Microsoft Paint, which also allows you to insert clipart that comes with the software. You can also make a certificate with various card-making softwares, if you have one of those installed on your computer.
Regardless of how you give the gift card to Mom, make giving the gift card as much fun as you possibly can. Remember, Mom probably doesn’t much care what it is, or how much it is worth—she cares more about the fact that you put a little bit of yourself into it so that it would be something special for her…and that you did it with love.
Related post
Gift certificate cards
Many businesses are moving away from archaic paper gift certificates in lieu of gift certificate cards. With the help of a customizable gift card syst...
