15 Surefire Themes & Items That Moms Would Love in a Gift Basket for The Upcoming Holiday Season

A gift basket for Mom – be it Mother’s Day, Mom’s birthday, or any special occasion in between – is an attractive way of presenting a selection of smaller gifts.

You can opt for a pre-filled basket from a retailer or fill your homemade basket with hand-picked items. There is also an option with some shops that allow you to select items from a menu, and then the gift basket is assembled and packaged for delivery.

Regardless of the way you go about getting the gift basket, pampering bath and beauty products, gourmet food and drinks from her favorite chocolate to soothing teas, and any items that contribute to the enjoyment of her hobby are great things to include. Of course, the items you get depends on your Mom’s preferences but the overriding approach works the same.

Pre-made Gift Baskets

Pre-filled gift baskets come in all shapes and sizes with an astounding range of products. They split into these categories:

• Food and drink – everything from gourmet food, wines, chocolates, jams, cheeses, and biscuits.
• Beauty products – all the products needed for a home pamper session
• Flowers – can be a flower arrangement or a planted basket.
• Theme – these require more diligent searching but you can find gift baskets around a theme like yoga or a craft.

The advantage of a pre-filled gift basket for your Mom, Stepmother, or Mother in Law is that it is a straightforward process.

You select a gift basket with the products you think the recipient will like, and the presentation is professional. You can arrange direct delivery which makes it an ideal gift for parents when you live far away and can’t deliver the present on the day.

If you need ideas for a ready-made gift basket, look at the same theme ideas outlined below to get an idea about possible content.

DIY Gift Baskets

Making up a gift basket is a fun way of assembling a unique gift tailored to the recipient.

Presentation

Expert presentation is the key to making a DIY gift basket looking and feeling fabulous!

Wicker baskets, wooden boxes and novelty cardboard boxes are easy to get, and they let you present the gift attractively.

You can repurpose a box by covering it with paper or other materials, build a box or be creative with your choice of a vessel by using flowerpot, wooden serving tray, or decorative wire basket intended for eggs.

When deciding what you’re going to use as the container or vessel for the gift items, consider how re-usable it’s going to be so that the gift basket as a whole is more valuable. Practically, every part of the basket is something she’s going to use.

Invest in a packing material like wood wool or shredded paper to pack out the basket if necessary.

Suppliers of pre-filled gift baskets for any gift-giving occasion commonly use packing materials like these to improve the presentation and give the impression that the basket is fully packed.

Packing materials also cushion fragile materials and help prevent damage.

Cellophane and ribbons are perfect for a professional finish, allowing the contents of the basket to shine.

Filling the Basket

There are thousands of ways of putting together a DIY gift basket – regardless if you’re doing it for your Mom, Aunt, a new Mom, or a first-time expectant Mom (whether or not Mother’s Day is celebrated).

You can even buy a DIY gift box kit to explain how to assemble a gift box.

It makes sense to adopt a theme for your gift basket and to set a budget. Setting the criteria for selecting the items helps to focus the mind!

Also, you can copy ideas from completed baskets with the advantage that you choose every item you include – you know your Mom’s tastes and preferences.

Twelve Fabulous Themes for a Mom’s Gift Basket

When you decide on a theme for your gift basket, take a sheet of paper and write down as many ideas for items to include as you can, then try and think of five more.

If you need some help with DIY gift basket ideas for Mom, think about some of these:

(We’ll start off with gift items and progress to more theme-based ideas in the later parts)

1. Wine and Chocolate

Wine and chocolates are a classic gift combination.

You can opt for full-size bottles or small bottles of luxury champagne. Small boxes of handmade gourmet chocolates add to the luxurious tone of the gift. You can also include only wine or only chocolates.

For an expectant Mom, exquisite handmade chocolates are a delightful treat, and if you include a bottle of sparkling wine, you can label it as a gift to toast the new arrival at a later date!

2. Cheese Board

Fill your gift vessel with a selection of artisan cheeses, crackers, and breadsticks for the basis of a cheeseboard. If your budget permits, you can add wine, grapes, chutney, pickles, and a cheese knife and board to round out the present.

Gift baskets are flexible to fit your budget and the tastes of the recipient.

If your Mom or Mother-in-Law likes cheese (or, should you get your Mother-in-law a gift?), then you can delight them with a thoughtfully put-together cheese board for their birthday, Christmas, or Mother’s Day.

3. Tea/Coffee/Hot Chocolate

Another versatile theme for a unique gift is morning coffee, afternoon tea, or bedtime hot chocolate.

As well as tea, coffee, or hot chocolate include accessories – a teacup set or infuser, a travel mug or marshmallows, and sprinkles.

A selection of tea or tea-related gifts, coffee, and hot chocolate as a theme or, in combination, makes an inexpensive gift basket for any Mom in your life from new Mom to Grandma.

4. Sweet or Savory

Everyone likes snacks. You can concentrate on sweet or savory or a mixture of snacks to fill your gift basket.

Homemade treats like small desserts and cookies or savory snacks like bite-sized pies or pickles make excellent items for including in a treat basket.

A trip to the deli counter will give you plenty of mouth-watering and exciting food items to add to your gift basket.

5. Fruit

Luscious fruit in jewel bright colors looks superb, tastes fantastic, and improves your health – a practical gift basket for any Mom and perfect for a Mom-to-be or new Mom.

For an extra-special presentation, search for a decorative fruit bowl as a vessel. Use cellophane and ribbons to give the whole collection a celebratory feel.

If you need something extra to add to the gift, include a book on smoothie making or an infuser bottle that uses chopped fruit to flavor the water.

6. Flowers/Gardening

A basket of flowers or growing plants is a charming gift for any mother.

You can give future flowers by including small gardening tools, gardening gloves, and seeds in a flowerpot or basket.

There are plenty of gardening accessories that can go in a gift basket for a green-fingered Mom – plant labels in terracotta, wood or copper, solar lights for the garden, and wind chimes (source).

7. Pampering

This theme gives you plenty of options for filling a basket.

As well as bathing and beauty products, there are accessories like face cloths, body buffs, and massage mitts. You can put together a foot pampering kit which is a lovely treat for pregnant Moms with aching feet.

To create a home-spa pamper night include scented candles, eye masks in the gift basket along with bath bombs, and body lotion.

8. Crafts

Any craft enjoyed by your Mom provides the opportunity for a themed gift basket!

A basket of goodies relating to her favorite craft will put a smile on her face, or you can put together a kit of materials to let her try out a new hobby.

9. Sport

Whatever sport of leisure activity your Mom likes is an excellent subject for a gift basket – hiking socs and trail mix for the keen walker, golf balls and tees, or a sports towel and water bottle or tumbler.

There are plenty of creative ways you can put together a sport themed gift basket for your Mom.

10. Travel

If your Mom is a regular traveler, then a gift basket filled with travel-friendly items is fun and practical.

You can choose travel-sized toiletries, luggage straps, universal travel adapters with USB ports, mini-sewing kits, first-aid packs, and insect repellant to put together a useful gift basket.

Alternatively, you can include travel games and small luxuries – scented eye masks and a manicure set for a home comforts package.

11. Stationery

Most family and friends stay in touch digitally, and the elegant art of letter writing is dying out. But there is a rising interest in journaling and scrapbooking.

Contemporary stationery provides notebooks with decorative covers and blank or lined pages for journals of all types.

A gift basket filled with pretty notebooks, pens, colored pencils, washi tape, post-it notes, and other stationery items is attractive and practical for any Mom who loves to write.

12. Color or Scent

If you want an amusing gift basket, you can opt to challenge yourself with a color theme – only include items around a specific color, hue, or color palette.

If you pick green, you will only include items like green tea, bathing products in green packages, green scarves, and other green objects. Without restricting yourself too much, any item packaging with white or light blue, for example, can also go well with green.

A scented theme like lavender or rose means seeking out products with that scent – aromatherapy tea lights and candles, shower gel, soap, room fragrance (like diffuser sticks), and any other scented product.

13. Resolution

Similar to crafts, let your knowledge of your Mom’s resolution for the new year guide you in what type of gift basket to make for her.

Whether it’s aiming for a health goal through a specific diet or fitness regime, or learning a new skill to fill the void during her retirement years, there’s no shortage of inspiration for your next homemade gift basket idea that your Mom’s going to love.

There is simply no better way to show your attentiveness and support by giving your Mom the things that are going to help her in the process of reaching her goals.

Such show of care means a lot to a mother – or any woman in your life – for that matter!

14. Practical Items

Specifically, there are always going to be things that your Mom already has but doesn’t mind having more of which you can include in a gift basket.

Consider a new pair of silk pajamas, a pair of slippers, or a t-shirt from her favorite brand. These are items that tend to get old over time so having new ones as ready replacement certainly works for most people.

Get these items as a theme by themselves, or as additions to another theme.

15. Literary Classics

Your Mom may have a favorite book, literature, or literary character. Gone with the Wind, Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter – the list goes on.

You’d find that more popular literary works probably have a cult-like following so getting gift items themed around them shouldn’t be too difficult. Literature-based gifts can work wonders if you know what she’s into.

Consistent with this approach, consider a movie night kit. Fill it with her favorite literary gifts, popcorn and chocolates, and you have yourself a unique gift that will get your Mom excited!

Gift Baskets for Moms

A gift basket for the significant women in your life – Mom, Stepmom, Mother-in-Law, and grandmother, etc. – is a charming and thoughtful present whatever the occasion.

A carefully chosen theme lets you give your Mom an ideal gift – purchased or homemade with love.