Last year you promised yourself you wouldn’t do it again, you wouldn’t wait until Saturday night to buy a sub-par gift for mom and instead you would find the perfect thing a month in advance. Well, you broke your promise to yourself and here you are two days before Mother’s Day with nothing to put a smile on the face of the woman who went through labor with you.
Yeah, you could call 1-800-flowers or buy a card at the local Walgreens, but I promise there is still time to wow her with these last minute gifts and ideas.
Experience Gifts from Cloud 9 Living: Since this Boulder-based company has printable e-certificates on their site, you can order an experience for mom and wrap it up right away. Experience gifts are offered in 43 regions across the US (for Denver transplants), and a hand full are offered in Denver. Some top Denver experiences include a Front Range Hot Air Balloon Ride ($275), a Top Restaurants in Denver Tour ($119), Indoor Skydiving ($69), and Whitewater Rafting in Colorado ($90).
Plant some springtime flowers: Instead of spending an enormous amount on a bouquet that’s sure to die, take mom to a local nursery like City Floral Garden Center or The Home Depot to pick out bulbs and potted plants that will last year round. Spend quality time as you plant and pot them, and don’t forget about a memorable picnic lunch in between. She’ll enjoy spending the day with you, and every time a new flower blooms she will think of you.
Fill an iPod with songs: Although this will take up some time, it can still be done in the hours leading up to Mother’s Day. Show mom you really know her by choosing some of her favorites, and some she doesn’t know she loves yet.
Singing Telegrams: Want to really “WOW” mom? Forget the greeting card, send a singing angel, jester or rock star to her door ($50-$100). Orange Peel Moses will help you create a song just for mom that will be sung all the way into her heart! You bet she’ll be talking about this for years to come; talk about a photo op!
Tickets to a Cultural Event: With more than 40 museums and a performing arts center that is only second to those in NYC, Denver is full of events that you and mom can attend together. Purchase a ticket for an upcoming event or for something actually taking place on Mother’s Day such as Wicked (showing on May 13 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; $45-$155) at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective at the Denver Art Museum ($22), or Colorado Ballet’s upcoming Gotham Dance Festival (June 2-3; $19-$39). Or, if your mom is more of a free spirit, purchase tickets to a show at Red Rocks that you know she’ll love like The Fray (May 12), The Beach Boys (July 9) or Avett Brothers (June 29 and 30).
Wine of the Month Club: For $39 per month, mom will get three gourmet bottles of wine, access to a sommelier and multiple relaxing evenings. Club W uses a palate profile to determine what types of wine mom might want each month, and she can hand select ones she knows she loves from 12 options each month. Buy her the first few months, and then she can take it from there!
Give Back in Her Name: When asked, most of us agree that our mom is a saint for putting up with us all those years. Play off her saintly ways and give back to charity in her name, we promise this will make her proud. If you want to stay local, try donating to a women’s shelter like Denver’s Road Home. And for an international cause, donate to the Mother’s Day Movement, which saves women in the developing world from birth defects by “training birth attendants to use birth and hemorrhage kits, which are designed to decrease infection and hemorrhage at delivery in order to affect the high death rate for women in labor.” A donation of $10 will purchase one hemorrhage kit to prevent maternal death from bleeding.
Spa Packages: Yes, it might be cliché but no mom will be disappointed with a gift certificate to the spa. Save that extra $30 that you would’ve spent on micro brews or vodka sodas on Friday night and spring for a top-of-the-line package from the elegant Brown Palace Hotel, voted a top attraction in Denver by Trip Advisor. From mani-pedis ($65-$100) to hydro therapies ($60), they have it all.