Every year millions of Americans scramble to find the perfect Mother’s Day gift for their wives and mothers. This year, instead of worrying and/or procrastinating, why not let science tell you the perfect gift for the mother in your life?
In order to conclusively prove what the ideal Mother’s Day gift looks like in 2016, I consulted Google’s treasure trove of search data and looked at the trends among searches related to Mother’s Day and Mother’s Day gifts and learned some very interesting things.
1. The Search For Mother’s Day
Sorry dads, but it turns out that Mother’s Day is searched for much more often than Father’s Day. However, neither was nearly as popular as the Super Bowl. To make it even worse, the most common related search for Father’s Day is “when is Father’s Day?”
If you are feeling a little under-appreciated this Mother’s Day it is probably because you live in Oregon. Apparently people living in that state saw the fewest searches. But don’t feel too bad, moms, Oregon came in last for Super Bowl searches as well. Apparently they just don’t care about anything in Oregon. If you would like to be treated the way that you deserve then you should consider moving to Louisiana, West Virginia, or Texas, all of which perform a lot of searches for Mother’s Day.
2. Mother’s Day Gifts
Mothers who have high expectations need to be forewarned. I have some more bad news. The search term “Mother’s Day gifts” is declining rapidly. “Father’s Day gifts” is in the same boat. With the unusual exception of the years 2010 and 2011 “Father’s Day Gifts” is searched for less than Mother’s Day gifts. You will no doubt be amused to know that both, “ Mother’s Day gifts and Father’s Day gifts,” in recent years have been wildly overtaken by Shark Week.
So if “Mother’s Day gifts” is in decline? Many of the traditional searches show some interesting trends.
3. Traditional Mother’s Day Gift Ideas
Yes, mothers love flowers. Mother’s Day flowers have been the biggest searched Mother’s Day gift idea, followed by Mother’s Day brunch, jewelry, and dinner. Like other gift ideas, flowers may be on the decline and may have already peaked. But while Mother’s Day flowers have wilted, Mother’s Day brunch is still growing and gaining steam. In fact, brunch has been neck and neck with flowers since 2012. So far in 2016 “Mother’s Day brunch” has been searched for twice as much as “Mother’s Day flowers.” Mother’s Day dinner, while formerly popular, no longer holds a candle to brunch. Even breakfast, lunch, and dinner, when you combine their totals aren’t as popular as America’s favorite lazy weekend meal. That is of course if you are talking about Father’s Day. In which case “brunch” is searched for 10 times less for dads than it is for moms.
Jewelry is another popular Mother’s Day gift idea… in some states. Jewelry is not a thing at all in about half of all the states, but is very much a thing in others. For instance it is most popular in Louisiana but ranks a 0 on the index in both Arkansas and Mississippi, both of which border Louisiana. Globally jewelry is only really a Mother’s Day gift in the US and nowhere else.
But the #1 most popular gift idea and the most rapidly growing gift idea, is gift cards. That’s right, the one thing you already thought to get your wife/mother is probably what she wants. Gift cards tend to get a bad rap as being impersonal, but that’s really only true if you walk up to your mother, hand her the gift card and say, “here ya go.” There are a lot of ways to make gift cards the perfect gift. Such as including it in a handwritten Mother’s Day card, or giving it to her with a bouquet of flowers while out to brunch (if you want to hit all of the top Mother’s Day gifts).
So even though we can scientifically look at what the most searched for Mother’s Day gift is, you still need to put a little thought and care into it. After all the thought and care that your mother or the mother of your children has put into your life, it is the least you can do to show your appreciation. Just don’t get her any jewelry, especially if you live in Arkansas.
