What to get your mom for Christmas when she says she doesn’t need anything? Type “gifts for mom Christmas” into Pinterest and the answer looks very different from a store catalog. The pins people save are baskets packed at the kitchen table, plates and frames made by hand, and jars of things to eat. We went through the most saved boards and picked 25 Christmas gift ideas for mom, from ten-minute treats to presents worth ordering early.
These Christmas gifts for mom are all original pins, so you can save any of them to your own board. Under each one is what the picture leaves out: how to make it, what to put in it, and which kind of mom it suits.
Christmas gift baskets for mom
1. A Christmas burr basket
Use this pin as a shopping list. A woven basket, a Christmas blanket, a cozy outfit, a candle or two, something in a holiday scent and one thing she would never buy for herself. Here the outfit is a “Christmas vibes” sweater with checkered pants, the scents are peppermint mocha hand sanitizer and gingerbread body wash, and the treat is a Stanley cup. A gingerbread-man mug and a red bow clip keep the whole thing looking like December.
2. A spa jar
A wide mason jar holds more than you’d guess. This one fits herbal tea, a bath bomb, lip balm and a pair of fuzzy socks, with dried lavender at the bottom to fill the gaps and make it smell good when she opens the lid. The tag says what the gift means: “Relax, you deserve it.” It suits the mom who spends December cooking for everyone else.
3. Hug in a mug
Pick a mug she would choose herself, then fill it with things small enough to fit: under-eye patches, nail polish, lip balm, a pair of socks. The cups in this pin are covered in cherries and little flowers, the kind of mug that stays on her shelf long after the polish is used up.
4. A gingerbread house mug
Same idea, Christmas edition. The mug is shaped like a gingerbread house, and inside are a gold claw clip, a bottle of nail polish, body cream, lip balm and a soft white cloth. The person who pinned it called it an affordable gift for friends, but nothing in it needs to change for a mom.
5. A cup holder gift basket
Ask for an extra cardboard cup carrier next time you buy coffee. Its four slots become a gift basket: her usual drink in one, a jar candle in another, a gift card tucked in a third and a small bunch of tulips in the last. It is one of the quickest Christmas ideas for mom on this list, because everything in it can be bought on the morning of the 24th.
6. Pasta night in a colander
For the mom who does the cooking, give her a night off from it. A white colander lined with a red and white dish towel holds Bertolli olive oil and pasta sauce, two bags of dried pasta and a wooden spoon tied with a red bow. The colander is part of the present, so choose one good enough to keep.
DIY Christmas gifts for mom
Handmade things fill a large part of the boards of Christmas gifts for mom from daughter or son, and most of them take a weekend at most. Air-dry clay, acrylic paint and a few frames cover nearly everything in this section.
7. A plate with one sentence on it
“I would choose you to be my mum in every lifetime,” painted in red letters in the middle of a plate with a ring of small flowers around the rim. The maker of this pin is a potter who made it to order. If you don’t have a kiln, a paint-your-own-pottery studio will glaze and fire a plate you decorate yourself.
8. A lighthouse ring dish
Roll out a flat, wavy puddle of clay, pinch up the edges, and stand a tiny striped lighthouse on one side. Paint the middle sea blue. Rings and a necklace sit in the “water”. A dish like this can be shaped around anything she loves: a lighthouse for a mom who grew up by the sea, a little house, a cat.
9. A claw clip holder
If your mom’s claw clips live at the bottom of her handbag, this is for her. Knot macrame cord between short wooden dowels like a ladder, and each rung holds a row of clips. Headbands hang from the bottom rung. It takes an evening and a ball of cord.
10. A jam-jar flower pot
Someone painted a plain terracotta pot to look like a jar of Smucker’s strawberry jam, red gingham lid and all, and put a leafy plant inside. Any label she knows by heart works the same way: her favorite tea, her coffee, the cereal she buys every week. Seal the paint with a clear varnish so watering doesn’t wash it off.
11. A painted hairbrush
The back of a plain bamboo hairbrush is a flat wooden canvas. This one has her initial in pink, a ring of tiny flowers and a painted bow running down the handle. Use acrylic paint and finish with a coat of varnish, or the paint won’t survive daily brushing.
12. Clay photo magnets
Instant photos are exactly the right size for a fridge magnet. Shape a frame from clay around each one, paint it in a different pattern (checks, hearts, flowers), and glue a magnet on the back once it is dry. Five of them, like here, cover the family and the cat.
Homemade Christmas gifts for mom from the kids
13. Snow globe ornaments from plastic cups
Turn a clear plastic cup upside down over a photo of each child, add a handful of fake snow and a few sequins, glue it to a lid, and make a hanger from a pipe cleaner. Small children can do most of the work, and the finished globes hang on the tree.
14. A family handprint
Three handprints layered on top of each other: the biggest in grey, the middle one in dark pink, the smallest in light pink in the center. The names are written underneath and the year at the side. It is worth doing once a year, because next Christmas the smallest hand will already be bigger.
15. “I love you Mom” in Scrabble tiles
A deep frame, a favorite photo, a few paper flowers and eleven Scrabble tiles. A secondhand Scrabble set is the cheapest source of tiles, and it has enough letters for most short messages.
16. MOTHER, spelled out
The letters M-O-T-H-E-R are cut from old book pages and run down the middle of the frame. Each one starts a handwritten word: amazing, loving, strong, happy, selfless, graceful. Older kids can choose the words themselves, which is the part she will read twice.
Sweet mom Christmas gifts from your kitchen
17. Brownie mix in a jar
The recipe is printed on the pin. Layer 1 cup sugar, ½ cup cocoa powder, ½ cup flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt and ½ cup chocolate chips in a jar. On the tag, write what she adds later: ½ cup melted butter, 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla, then bake at 350°F for 25 minutes.
18. Hot chocolate on a stick
Melt chocolate, pour it into a mini muffin tin, push in a wooden stick and top each one with marshmallows or sprinkles. Once set, she stirs one into a mug of hot milk. Wrap them in cellophane and pack a dozen in a box.
19. “Oh snap!” cookie stacks
Gingersnaps and white-dipped cookies stacked in clear bags, each tied with a striped ribbon and a gingerbread-man tag that says “Oh snap!” The pun does the wrapping for you. Bake one batch and you have gifts for mom, both grandmas and the neighbors.
20. Chocolate truffle wreaths
Line up foil-wrapped truffles in a ring, wrap the ring in cellophane, twist it tight between each chocolate and tie the ends with a bow and a tag. The wreaths in this pin are sorted by wrapper color, gold, red, blue and pink, which makes even a pile of them look neat.
21. Christmas sugar scrubs
A sugar scrub is mostly sugar and oil. The scent is what makes it Christmas. The jars in this pin are labeled peppermint candy cane and vanilla sugar cookie, and one has a mini candy cane tucked in the twine. The pin promises five recipes with simple ingredients.
Christmas presents for mom you can buy
22. A mini skincare fridge
A small fridge in pastel lilac with two shelves, sized for creams, serums and a face roller, with a door rack for smaller bottles. It suits the mom with more skincare than bathroom shelf space.
23. A Stanley tumbler bouquet
Put the flowers inside the present. A dusty pink Stanley tumbler holds a bunch of cream and pale pink roses, with a white satin bow tied around the handle. When the roses fade, she still has the tumbler.
24. A gift guide for the homebody
This one is a list in pictures for the mom who would rather stay in: short pajamas, cozy socks, a floral diffuser, a candle, a temperature-controlled mug, an e-reader, a gold frame, a silk pillowcase with a matching eye mask, a knit throw and fluffy slippers. Choose one big item and two small ones.
25. 25 gifts for mom who doesn’t want anything
We end with the list for the hardest case. Personalized jewelry, a memory book, a family portrait, a personalized cutting board, a spa set, a weighted blanket, a photo calendar, an indoor herb garden kit, a recipe book, cozy slippers, a cutting board with a handwritten recipe, an embroidered throw, a puzzle made from a family photo, a monogrammed robe and scented candles are all on it.
Of all the best Christmas gifts for mom on that list, the cutting board with a handwritten recipe is worth a second look. Ask your grandmother or an aunt for a recipe card in your mom’s mother’s handwriting, and a laser engraver can copy it onto the wood exactly as it was written.
