Mother’s Day is just over a week away, if you’re looking for some last minute Mother’s Day ideas, you’ve come to the right place. There are a ton of Green Mother’s Day Ideas to save you from copping out with industrially grown flowers.
There are are no shortage of possibilities for gifts for Mom that are also good for Mother Earth. I always start with gifts of experience. I know my mom doesn’t need any more stuff. Her well known affinities for moose and Jimmy Buffett memorabilia have resulted in a house filled to the brim with parrots, palm trees, and moose figurines.
Experience is the perfect gift for the mom who has too much. Does she need a break? A popular gift for moms of school aged kids is simply TIME. An uninteruppted hot bath with a good book and a glass of wine. A day out shopping by herself or with friends. An empty house for a few hours. It really depends on her individual personality, but for many moms, time is a very precious commodity indeed.
Other great gifts of experience for mom include concert tickets; spa treatments (at a green spa, of course!); an outing to a museum, park, theatre, or beach; cleaning the house, doing the laundry, or doing some other housework she would normally do; visiting her, cooking her dinner, and cleaning up afterward. If your mom is crafty, find a great craft to do (Pinterest is a good resource for ideas), and do it with her.
Gifts That Grow
I am a big fan of plants as gifts. Bouquets wilt in a matter of days, but plants keep their beauty. If you’re giving your mom a plant that goes outside, why not plant it for her? One year, we gave my mom a raspberry plant. About a month later my brother, Boo, called to say it was still in her diningroom window, and it was growing fruit right there in the window. She did eventually plant it, and we just found out over Spring Break that she ended up having to tear the whole thing out because it spread so rampantly and was taking over her front yard. Ha.
If you are going to give a plant, be sure to take into account the amount of light it requires, whether it’s and indoor or outdoor plant, and the amount of care it requires. Stay away from genetically modified or hybrid plants. If at all possible, find heirloom, non-GMO, or organic varieties at your local farmer’s market. I know our Farmer’s Markets have a wonderful assortment of plants of all kinds. There is also mail order companies like Organic Bouquet and Organic Style. They offer plants and wreaths like these:
Get Creative
Most 6 year olds can tell you that nothing is more meaningful than a gift from the heart. If you’re really artistically inclined, what would be more fun that making your mom a gorgeous work of art out of macaroni and glitter like this portrait of Rosie O’Donnell by Jason Mecier:
Of course, your creative production doesn’t have to involve dried pasta, glue, and construction paper, but kudos to you if it does! (By the way, don’t feed your mother chocolate sourced from child slavery). Leverage your own talents for you mom. I am not a visual person; my realm is words. I could write my mom a poem or a story or put a limerick devoted to her on a local billboard.
If you’re an artist, create something for her. If you’re a photographer, do one of those really fun pictures when you re-take a favorite childhood shot as adults (I sorely regret never having been able to do that with Boo, we often talked about it). Show your mom that her parenting paid off.
Something Other Than Flowers
I’ve written several times about the environmental impact and human rights abuses rampant in the commercial bouquet industry. There are so many other wonderful gifts that can be delivered straight to your mom’s door or office, picked up at a local farmer’s market or craft show, or ordered from charity sites. If your mom has a favorite cause, check out websites for that cause and get her a tote bag or other fun item that supports it. Or check out the awesome fair trade shops that support various good causes through the Greater Good network. That is always my first stop when I want to send someone something but am not 100% sure what they might like.
Better Flowers
Sometimes, it just has to be flowers. And if it does, please just put some thought into their source. Check out local growers and farmer’s markets. If you’re ordering them, order them from sites like Organic Bouquets and Organic Style (both linked above). Don’t allow your Mother’s Day gift to contribute to the suffering of mother’s in Kenya or similar places.
And if you still need ideas, leave a comment! I never know what to get for my own mom (or family in general), but I have a lot of fun trying to guess what other people’s loved one’s might like!
A Happy, Sustainable, Green Mother’s Day to everyone!