This story is part of Mother’s Day Gift Guide. CNET editors round up the hottest gadgets for Mom this year.
Mother’s Day is just a few weeks away. If you need a funny card, we’ve got some ideas. Flowers? We’ve tested the top online florists to help you find a beautiful bouquet. For something more personal, we tapped into our Mother’s Day spider-senses to curate a list of gifts, from the practical to the lavish, to give that special mom this year.
Nobody deserves to be spoiled more than Mom, so we say saddle her with something extra special that she’d never buy herself. We’ve had our heads down testing the best gear, gadgets, kitchenware and more to prepare for the big day. Whether your mom or the motherly figure you love is a tech type, fitness fanatic, culinary queen or lover of music, we’ve got Mother’s Day gift ideas that’ll make her smile. (Not to mention keep you in good standing.)
So be a good kid and read on, will ya? And lay a little lovely on Mom this May.
Read more: Best Food and Drink Subscriptions for Mother’s Day
Brian Bennett/CNET
If your mom runs as cold as mine, she’ll love a fire pit to enjoy time outdoors during the spring, fall or cooler summer nights. CNET’s Brian Bennet tested several fire pits and this model was his favorite overall with its clever airflow system that recycles hot smoke back into the fire chamber. It’s also super easy to ignite, firing up in about 5 minutes and fully burning in just 15. Even better, this model generated far less smoke than the other fire pits that were tested.
Theragun
If you can’t hire a personal on-call massage therapist for Mom, this may be the next best thing. The Theragun Prime is our top-rated model with five speeds, impressive power, smart features and a quieter motor than others. Read our full review here.
Óscar Gutiérrez/CNET
CNET editor and mom Bridget Carey says, “I never cared about an Apple Watch until I had to do everything at home. Now it’s the only way I stay sane.” With this multifaceted device, Mom can be with the kids and away from the laptop without worrying about missing a call or big email.
Working from home while also running a home can lead to some serious scatterbrain and an Apple Watch will help Mom locate her phone if lost, schedule her day, make playlists for running and 1,000 other things.
Read our Apple Watch SE review.
Ingarden
This might be the most attractive smart garden we’ve come across and it’s impossibly easy to use. Microgreens are best known in their role as entree garnish but these baby vegetable greens are positively packed with vitamins and antioxidants.
Ingarden has LED grow lights and a reservoir for water that is wicked up into the soilless seed pads. In about seven days, you’ll have bushy microgreens to use for salads, sandwiches and a host of other applications. The sleek, simple and clean indoor grower is made from ceramic and steel and fits on basically any windowsill or bookshelf for a welcomed pop of green. See our full review of the Ingarden here.
Mosaic Foods
Everyone could use a few extra meals lying around for those busy days and weeks. Mosaic Foods sends freshly prepared meat-free meals that are as good as any other we tried. You can send a delivery of about eight meals for $70 without committing to any subscriptions. Most are good to pop into the freezer if she’s not planning to eat them right away.
Some of my personal favorites were the chili with jackfruit that had a texture eerily similar to tender pulled pork and the Mediterranean tomato ragout with olives, beans and feta. Read our full review of Mosaic Foods here.
All-Clad
In a rigorous test of 10 top skillets, the All-Clad D3 came out on top. If Mom likes to sauté and sizzle, she’ll appreciate the even heating and sleek design this high-end frying pan delivers. It’ll be her new favorite pan courtesy of her new favorite kid.
Chris Monroe/CNET
Give Mom a helper of the smart home variety and this is our favorite overall smart display for 2022. Thanks to the built-in Google Assistant, the Nest Hub responds to all of the same voice command options as the Google Home Mini smart speaker. You can also control your smart home devices, like a smart doorbell, with an intuitively designed control panel. The second-generation smart home hub model also includes Sleep Sensing and Quick Gestures thanks to Google’s Soli mini radar.
The colorful fabric design on this Google assistant smart display allows the device to blend in anywhere, though the tablet touchscreen comes in particularly handy if you want step-by-step help through a recipe in the kitchen. Read our Google Nest Hub (2nd gen) review.
Aarke
Hauling heavy (and pricey) cans of seltzer home from the store can be a thing of the past with an eco-friendly water carbonator. SodaStream is a good option but the Swedish Aarke carbonator is big on style and more giftable if you ask me. It’s available in five great finishes to match her kitchen motif. Read our Aarke carbonator review.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
If there’s one thing moms put up with way too much of, it’s noise. Help her drown out the clamor with a pair of noise-canceling headphones so she can listen to music, podcasts or the soothing sounds of waves crashing on a far-off shore. New moms with small children in sleep training will appreciate them doubly — triply, even.
Because nothing’s too good for Mom, we’d go straight to our top recommendation, the Sony WH-1000XM4. CNET’s David Carnoy called it a “nearly flawless noise-canceling headphone.” Not only are they more comfortable than the previous iteration, Sony upgraded the voice-calling capabilities, too.
These often sell for as low as $278, but if that’s still too pricey we have plenty of other recommended noise-canceling headphones, including earbud models, that start at $100 or less.
Read our Sony WH-1000XM4 review.
Apple
This compact Wi-Fi speaker is affordable at $99 and plays bigger than you’d expect for its small size. Yes, it’s more appealing to those invested in Apple’s ecosystem and comfortable with Apple’s voice assistant Siri, which drives the speaker. But the price is right and Mom can pair two HomePod Minis to create stereo sound or combine several to create a multiroom audio system.
Sage & Sill
A more analog indoor grower is this simple propagation station with a chic rustic look. Plants can live in there, giving your home a fresh pop of green. And Mom can cultivate clippings from existing plants to be potted or planted and make the most of the ones she has.
Dyson
If Mom uses a hair dryer regularly, she will almost certainly consider this Dyson an upgrade. The admittedly pricey Dyson Supersonic hair dryer measures air temperature over 40 times a second and regulates heat accordingly. This is all to prevent heat damage to hair that’s blow-dried often.
Uncommon Goods
This unique candle burns for as long as 60 hours and the copper-finished holder is giving off some seriously cool antique energy. This would definitely make a nice centerpiece on the dining table during a relaxing meal. Refills for the candle are $18 so bag one or two for when this long-lasting candle finally does burn out.
MasterClass
With all the time mom spends keeping the ship from sinking, there’s not always time to spend on personal interests and endeavors. MasterClass makes it easy to learn about a plethora of subjects from the folks who know them best. There are cooking classes from icons like Thomas Keller and Alice Waters but also lessons on subjects you might not realize you need help with. Try Brandon McMillan’s 15-part MasterClass on dog training, for instance, or TED Talk phenom Ron Finley (pictured) and his MasterClass on gardening.
A MasterClass subscription isn’t cheap — $180 for an annual membership with no monthly option — but with more than 100 classes taught by legitimate luminaries in fields from fiction writing to poker, there’s something here for everyone. With credible teachers, solid production values and a vast catalog of subject matter, MasterClass is like Netflix for the overly ambitious.
Kammock
Surely you remember the Snuggie. Well, definitely don’t get Mom a Snuggie for Mother’s Day. I repeat, don’t get your mom a Snuggie for Mother’s Day. The wearable blanket has grown up, however, in the form of this stylish and giftable Kammok Bobcat 45. CNET editors like this cozy number so much we stuck it in the master list of best gifts under $250 in 2021.
The 600-fill duck down insulated blanket is plenty warm and, weighing a mere 20 ounces, light enough for camping or wearing around the house (no judgment here). But it’s the quilt’s poncho mode that makes it the ideal accessory for hanging outside by the fire pit. If the mom you’re shopping for tends to run a little cold, this might be an ideal Mother’s Day gift as we roll through spring.
Kammok has a slightly more budget-friendly model, the Field Blanket, for $95 as well.
Nixplay
If you’ve ever heard mom complain about all those photos sitting in her phone collecting proverbial dust, now is the time to do something about it and a digital photo frame is the thing to do. The Nixplay smart digital picture frame stores thousands of images and will help you display either one or a running slide show of your favorite people and moments so you can actually enjoy them for once. The frame is available in various sizes — up to 15 inches — and a motion sensor will turn the frame on and off automatically.
David Carnoy/CNET
While the Sony noise-canceling earphones are great, not everyone is into that over-the-ear style. Mom can keep one ear on a Zoom call and the other on the kids with these popular and versatile earbuds. Long battery life comes via a case that recharges them throughout the week. The handy ear hook means Mom can wear them anywhere and while doing pretty much anything. Plus, the Powerbeats come in a range of flashy and fun colors.
Read our Beats Powerbeats Pro review.
BloomsyBox
Flowers for Mother’s Day may not be a new concept but with a subscription to BloomsyBox, the bouquets keep coming. You can choose weekly, bimonthly or monthly deliveries of fresh flowers to lift mom in the way only fresh flowers can. You can also choose the bouquet size, priced accordingly, from the Bloomsy Original (18 to 24 stems) all the way up to BloomsyBox’s Premium bouquet (27 to 32 stems).
Insider tip: Use our exclusive discount code FLOWERPOWER12 at checkout for 12% off your order.
Fellow
The Ode is one of those luxury gifts that fits squarely in the splurge category, and it should probably be reserved for a true coffee nerd of a mom. I tested the Ode and it grinds faster, more consistently and more quietly than any other I’ve used. It also aims to please even the most finicky coffee drinkin’ mom with 31 (yes, 31) grind settings.
Important to note that the Ode is engineered specifically for drip coffee and not espresso. The claim is that too many grinders attempt to do both and fail to do either well. It’s also not meant to grind large amounts of beans at once, making it ideal for Chemex and pour-over systems.
Uncommon Goods
These stemless wine glasses are handmade by Mexican artists, blown from recycled glass to create six elegant vessels for wine, cocktails or water. Because each set is handmade they’ll look a little bit different but you can bet they’ll draw some attention and compliments every time they’re set out on the table.
Everpresent
Speaking of memories of the photographic sort. If mom has a pile or piles of old-fashioned paper photos that are susceptible to damage, floods and fires, there’s an easy fix: professional photo scanning. Plus, you can use the files to make a sweet digital album or slideshow that mom can share on social media.
Everpresent is a master of photo scanning and will digitally organize any images no matter where they are — scrapbooks, photo albums or piled up in a shoebox. In fact, the company is especially well-suited to handle photos in all forms, shapes and sizes, turning them into a neatly organized, digitized collection that is completely safe from the elements.
Prefer to curate some photos and give Mom a photo book instead? We’ve pulled together the best photo book options.
Bokksu
The Japanese have been hiding some seriously good snacks from the rest of us. Bokksu collects the best snacks and treats from the east and sends them west in a tasty, curated monthly snack subscription. A perfect gift for the mom who’s prone to a snack attack. It’s also a unique gift for the new mom or expecting mom who needs those extra calories.
The best part about Bokksu is that almost none of these Japanese snacks are similar to snacks we already have here in the US, so she’ll likely come across some munchies she’s never tried before. Snacks run the gamut from sweet to savory with favorites such as seaweed tempura, puffed rice with ramen seasoning, green tea and lemon cakes, Japanese candy including yuzu gummies and creamy matcha Kit-Kats.
You can send as few as three months’ worth of snack boxes ($45 each) or as many as a full year ($40 each) and no two snack sends will ever be the same.
Read more: The best snack boxes to gift in 2021
De’Longhi
After my Mom treated herself to an espresso machine last year, I followed up with these double-walled cappuccino glasses. It was perhaps the best 15 bucks I’ve ever spent and they’re now the only glasses she’ll use for hot beverages.
This set of two sleek glass coffee mugs are great for coffee but also tea, chai and matcha (see above). If you’d like to really amp the gift up, pair the set with one of these great coffee clubs and subscription services that’ll ship the best beans — espresso and otherwise — to Mom’s door.
Matador
When the opportunity to swim arises, you must always be prepared to take the plunge. This lightweight towel is small enough to throw into a bike bag, backpack or back pocket. According to Matador, it absorbs more than twice its weight (81 grams) in water. It’s machine washable and comes in a mesh bag with a sturdy handle and hang loop.
Mario Badesco
Another small luxury for Mom. These bright and refreshing herbal spritzes transport her somewhere much more peaceful than the place she probably is with just a few pumps. The three-pack from Ulta includes an aloe, cucumber and green tea spritz, another with herbs and rosewater and a third with lavender and chamomile to calm and comfort her skin.
More for Mom
For all the latest world News Click Here
