My least favorite task is to come up with cheap gift ideas for special events like Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and Veterans Day. There are only so many unique ideas for that specific occasion before you become mundain. And to make it worse, to get something Mothers Day-specific costs an arm and a leg. my one dollar per person budget only goes so far. Like how many years in a row does that mom want a carnation? Is she really going to use that cheap bookmark? Another pen?
Now give me the assignment to come up with great gifts for the entire church family and I am going to have a blast. We recently bought these cool magnetic clips and they turned out beautifully! There are so many great ideas and so many cheap options, when you are doing something that simply has the church logo. Otherwise, good luck!
I love pens and notepads, but I really like the nice generic ones, not cheap ones trying to be fancy with strange notes on them. Ergghhh....
So here are some ideas that I have come up with. Hopefully it will help you...
- A single flower - carnation, daisy, rose, tulip
- A chocolate covered strawberry in a pretty packaging, homemade
- A nail polish & nail file in cellophane bag with pretty ribbon
- A gardening tool or kitchen tool (check your local dollar store)
- Handmade jewelry by the children's or youth ministry
- Gift bag with items that each have a special meaning to the ladies in your church (maybe related to a recent ladies event or Bible study)
After working on some ideas periodically over the last few weeks, I realized something. If I get a really good selection of gifts, I can just rotate them. That way there might be a repeat of gifts over the years, but it really wouldn't be so bad to get a flower once every five years. Would it? I think not. And if you did a carnation one year, you could do a daisy on the repeat year - five years later.
As you start rotating items, keep looking for items to add to the list. Eventually you could be rotating the favorite items once every ten years instead. That is really a ptty good deal.
If you still want to honor the mothers in a special way instead of a generic gift for each mother, you could honor specifically the women who became new or 1st time mothers or the 1st time grandmothers. I would avoid honoring women for things like oldest grandmother, or woman with the most children, or youngest mother, simply because some women might find those types of things embarrassing. Be attentive of this, especially if you are in a larger congregation and might not know everyone's "story." Everyone's budget differs and the number of women who would qualify for this type if gift will differ from church to church.
- Devotional book specifically for mothers or grandmothers
- A specially imprinted, fancy mug or water bottle
- Gift certificate to a nice salon for a manicure or spa treatment
- A nice purse or tote bag (the ladies in my church obsess over Coach and Vera Bradley because we have outlets near our property and can score name brands at deep discounts. They would love a gift like this even if they only had a small chance of receiving it!)
- Voucher for a discount to an upcoming ladies retreat or Bible study hosted by your church
No matter how many ways you look at it, selecting giveaways for any event is difficult. I hope that this gives you a few ideas for Mothers day. Oh... Above all, make sure that this Mothers Day gift is something useful and valuable to the mother. Something that lets her know that you thought about her!
Stay tuned for some ideas for Father's Day and other fun gift occasions.
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