Moms give the best gifts, so it stands to reason that you should get the best gifts for Mom when you're shopping for her in any scenario. That includes Mother's Day, her birthday, Christmas, Hanukkah, or any other holiday in your family's life that includes gift-giving. The holiday season is right around the corner, and I've added a few gift ideas with that time of year in mind.
If you're worried you're going to give her a disappointing gift or something she already has, fear not: I've gathered the coolest things we recommend here at WIRED that just about any mom will love. From wellness gadgets that can improve her skin, the best tote bags I've tried, and even a device that puts her digital calendar in an IRL device, moms everywhere can get a ton out of these gifts. Many of these items I've given to my mother, or other WIRED staffers have given to theirs, or it's at the top of my list as a mother of a 4-year-old.
Updated September 2026: I've added two tote bag gift ideas for the fall season, the Wildbird Pregnancy Pillow as a gift for expecting moms, and more options in the gaming section.
Featured Gifts
Next-Level Skin (and Scalp) Care
The must-have gadget for women of almost any age is an LED mask. These masks promise to use red light to erase wrinkles, brighten your skin, and keep acne at bay. I haven't seen much change in my wrinkles in my year-plus of regularly using a red light mask, but I can confirm it makes my skin brighter and calms down acne and scars much faster when I'm regularly treating my skin. HigherDose is a favorite mask of mine because the three-strap design lets it hang on my head rather than squeeze it, making it one of the most comfortable masks I've worn.
My other favorite LED tool actually sits on my head and also comes from HigherDose. The brand's Red Light Hat treats your head with red light to rejuvenate your scalp and hair follicles for better hair growth, and as someone with a sensitive scalp and a hair-pulling problem, using this cap regularly genuinely improved my scalp and hair. It's the healthiest it's ever been, and my scalp is the least itchy, too. I love that this hat also has a battery pack, so I can comfortably wear it anywhere while I treat my head.
A Cool Tote
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Look, nothing says mom life like looking for the perfect bag. I'm in a massive tote phase of my life; I somehow need to either lug an armload of items for myself and my son (or just myself!) or I only need a tiny belt bag. There's no in between.
The Yardsale Day Bag has been my go-to for a variety of needs, from a stylish personal item for a flight to a gym bag to the aerial studio. It's got a waterproof bottom that makes me happy to bring it to the zoo's splash pad, and a magnetic middle separator you can flex to separate the middle of the bag into two medium sections to better divide all your items. Plus, there are a handful of side pockets inside, but none are large enough for my massive Owala water bottle. I have the 30L in Butter, but there's also a smaller 20L version if you're looking for something a little more compact.
If your mom wants something a little more stylish, the Alex Mill totes are always on my mind. They come in a variety of gorgeous colors and are made of coated canvas, so they can put up with daily adventures, and you can customize them with your mom's initials (or even just the word “mom”!) with Alex Mill's hand-painted letter service. It's a simpler tote with no other pockets, but you can use the top snaps to let out the sides or tuck them in, depending on how much space Mom needs on a given day. The weathered color and vibe of these bags also feel perfect for the fall season.
Her Google Calendar IRL
My latest favorite family planning gadget is a digital wall calendar. These handy devices take the Google Calendar I live by (and just about any other digital calendar, if your mom isn't a Google girl) and put it on a physical device I can quickly tap into without needing to grab my phone or bark at Alexa. The Skylight Calendar 2 is my favorite, because it not only includes to-do lists, meal planning, and a recipe book but also doubles as a digital photo frame. That means it displays cute photos of my family most of the time, and then, with a simple tap, it opens the calendar or whatever page I was last on to show me what's on my family's schedule. It does have a subscription fee, though, to get the digital photo frame feature and a few other options, like meal planning. But I think it's well worth it to get so many features in a single device.
For the Expecting Mom
I'm expecting again, and this time I'm on a mission to find a good pregnancy pillow. I tried a large body pillow on the advice of another site for my first pregnancy, and it was honestly an awful experience—the pillow was too large and firm for me to comfortably use, let alone have room for both it and my growing midsection in my bed. Plus, it was heavy to move around, which is annoying when your body already feels too heavy to move around.
So far, the Wildbird Pregnancy Pillow has been the opposite experience. It's slim and light with just enough squish to add a little support under or around my belly without being difficult to get comfortable. It’s beautiful and easy to maneuver around. Wildbird also suggests it for other support positions postpartum, and I'm curious if those will work for me. But it makes for a beautiful gift for any expecting mom and will be one she's excited to put on her bed and curl up with at night.
Chic Sun Protection
I managed to get two different scalp burns in the first few weeks of summer, and I was seriously over it. My 4-year-old loves dragging me into sunny places, and even sunscreen made for spraying into the crevices of my hair hasn't kept me safe. This Solbari wide-brimmed hat is soft and flexible, so it's easy to fold up and store in a beach bag or stroller, and the cotton-linen design keeps it pretty breathable, though you'll want to reverse it to the white side for hotter days. It promises UPF 50+ to protect your head, and the 4-inch brim helps keep my neck safe too. It's cute while still giving plenty of coverage and is a great pick for any mom who is going to be dragged into the sun all summer long.
For the Reader
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Look, I love a Kindle, but if you want to get the best e-reader for your buck, the answer is actually a Kobo. My favorite is the Kobo Libra Colour that's cheaper than the Kindle Colorsoft and can also double as a digital notebook if you add on the $70 stylus. I also prefer Kobo's annotating options: You can write right on the pages instead of in weird pop-up margins and boxes only on Kindle. Kobo also has its own page-turner remote now, which I love to pair with a pillow stand holder so I can lean back and relax without holding up my e-reader while I read. I gave a similar pillow stand to my mom, and now I can spot her last reading spot easily because that pillow is resting there.
Luxurious, Cooling Sheets
If your mom (or your wife) is complaining about sleeping hot, one of the best kinds of sheets to keep her cool is a set of linen sheets. These beautiful sheets from Modern Dane are made of 100 percent European flax linen that's grown in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands and produced in Portugal. These sheets have a weight of 165 GSM, or grams per square meter, which is what linen sheets are graded on instead of thread count. That gives them a medium weight, but these sheets feel nice and light and have been perfect to sleep on during hot summer nights. Plus, these sheets are certified with Oeko-Tex Standard 100 Class 1 and Masters of Flax Fibre certifications. You can choose from a variety of colors and prints that will perfectly match her bedroom design.
Clear Listening
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My husband and I got AirPods around the same time. We were late adopters and longtime fans of our Apple corded headphones. The AirPods 4 aren't the WIRED team's favorite for sound, but I'm one of the many people who can't seem to keep other earbuds in my ears, so Apple's tip-free design is the best fit for me. (Though that means you aren't getting good noise canceling, which is a big appeal for some parents!) If your mom complains that no earbuds seem to fit her, and she's an iPhone user, she might like these as much as I do.
I got my first set for Christmas from my siblings last year, and originally I stuck some pretty stickers on my case to tell the difference between my case and my husband's. I've since upgraded to this stylish case from Troubadour (previously Mujjo), which makes it easy to see which is mine and clip it onto my keys. It's a nice accessory if your mom already has AirPods but struggles to keep track of them or is looking for an easier way to differentiate hers from the other members of the house.
Gamer Gear
Once my kiddo is asleep, you can find me parked on the couch playing video games. I upgraded to a Nintendo Switch 2 ($449) earlier this summer so I could finally buy and play Pokopia ($70), since it's exclusive to the new console, and I already can't wait to use it to play the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time ($60) remake coming out in November. It's also quickly become an experience I can share with my son now that he's 4; he's been helping me and my husband replay Tears of the Kingdom, but he mostly requests we help him build monster-hunting robots and cook food for Link like he's a starving Tamagotchi.
If you're not looking to upgrade her console just yet but need a Switch-friendly cozy game for her, Stardew Valley has another big update in the works and only costs $15. I'm also hoping we see Fields of Mistria ($14) come to the Switch eventually, but the full launch came out in August for Steam users and has major quality-of-life improvements if she has played Stardew one time too many. My husband also upgraded his gaming setup this summer with a Steam Machine (from $1,049), and I have big plans to start using it often for Fields of Mistria. If your mom loves games, she'll love any one of these new devices or new games if she already got herself the new gadget like I did.
Photo Spotlight
As a mom, I take a lot of photos of my family. A lot. And sometimes it feels like all those great photos of my son's milestones go to my camera roll and photo storage to die. There are two solutions I love for this that are incredibly giftable: a digital photo frame she can instantly upload images to, and a printed photo book where you can take the best of the best and put them at her fingertips. I have and love both for different reasons. I love the digital photo frame to add all the photos from a fun weekend at the San Diego Zoo or Los Angeles Renaissance Pleasure Faire for me to relive again and again, but I also love being able to pull a photo book from the bookshelf and relive a specific moment I know is waiting there for me. Aura makes my favorite digital photo frames (followed by Skylight and the Calendar 2 if you want a multipurpose device, but Aura has no subscription fee if you only want photos), while Mixbook has been a favorite of mine for a while when it comes to printing photos, and has great starting prices for its photo books.
A Bird’s-Eye View
If you know a mom who loves to bird-watch (I know one!), you can upgrade her bird feeder to a smart one. Smart bird feeders add a camera to the feeder so she can see a close-up feed of the birds that come to hang out in her yard, and they're adorable to boot, for a little smart curb appeal. WIRED reviewer Kat Merck recommends the original Birdfy Lite as a great gift; it's her favorite smart bird feeder and comes in adorable colors to brighten your mom's yard and catch the eye of neighborhood birds. But the one she and I both have our eye on (her for her mother, me for myself) is the Birdfy Nest Duo, which is actually a birdhouse with two cameras so you can see the birds entering the nest outside and raising a family inside.
An Adorable Pan
I didn’t know I needed a tiny cast iron pan until it arrived. Field Co’s hand-finished, preseasoned cast iron pans are already known for being both lightweight and handsome. But with a mere 5-inch cook surface, this one might even cross the line from handsome into “cute.” But that’s what makes it a good gift: Your mother almost certainly does not have a cast-iron pan this small, and yet it also has real utility. At just 2 pounds, this pan is easy to pull out and stash, easy to maneuver or flip a pancake, easy to serve from, and the perfect size to fit the perimeter of a two-egg omelet. In addition to an egg pan, it’s a great, low-effort, single-serving pan in general—whether for grilled cheese, a little bit of bacon or sausage, or a couple of chicken thighs. The egg pan can be bought all by itself. But for $60 more, the gift set is nice. It comes with a cleaning kit (with maybe my favorite chain mail scrubber in existence), some seasoning oil, and a leather handle cover in cognac, black, brown, or cherry. —Matthew Korfhage
Compression Care
There's a wellness gadget for everything now. Rings that track your sleep and blood oxygen levels, masks to make you look younger, massagers to relax your muscles, and now boots to improve circulation. WIRED reviewer Boutayna Chokrane says her mom loves these compression boots from Therabody to improve circulation, which is a common problem for many of our aging parents. These boots combine compression, vibration, and LED therapy into a single wearable device that comes with eight preset routines to focus on legs, knees, and joints. It's a unique option if she wants better recovery for her legs or better circulation for her health.
Better Espresso
The DeLonghi Rivelia is the best and easiest and most user-friendly superautomatic espresso machine I have tested. What’s superautomatic mean? It means you pour whole beans into the hopper, put milk in the milk carafe, and select the drink you want to make on the touchscreen menu. Then you let the machine do most of the rest. The style of espresso made by a superautomatic machine like this Rivelia is generally a bit smoother and less intense than the sort you get in a café. But the process is also less finicky; you won’t be dealing with coffee grounds and portafilters. What’s especially nice with this Rivelia is the ability to make multiple “profiles” for different coffee drinkers in the house, each with their own favorite drinks—and the ability to swap out bean hoppers to make decaf coffee in the afternoon. The Rivelia is also the machine my own mother, a drinker of lattes and dark-roast beans, loves unreservedly. Like others on the WIRED Reviews team, I often ask colleagues and those close to me to test my top-rated machines over long periods to see how they hold up over months or years of regular use. My mother thanks me nearly every month for letting her test the Rivelia. —Matthew Korfhage
For Ultimate Everything Showers
For most moms, showers are sacred—especially for moms of babies or younger kids. However, heavy metals, sediments, chlorine, and PFAS can cause health problems not just in drinking water, but in water that touches the skin, as well. They can also cause buildup on hair and shower surfaces, making them harder to clean. Many municipalities—including mine—treat water with chlorine, and when I asked him which filter he'd recommend for my own shower, WIRED water filter reviewer Matthew Korfhage suggested the Weddell Duo. It's the only US filter he's found that has certification for chlorine and lead removal from NSF International, and it also cites third-party testing by IAPMO R&T showing it can remove PFAS, though there's no corresponding certification. Still, the Duo has a 2.5-gallon-per-minute flow rate and can remove most chlorine from over 8,000 gallons' worth of showers. It's an in-line filter, so it's easy to install in minutes—just screw it in between your pipe and showerhead. It even comes with a little roll of waterproof tape to ensure a leak-free fit, and because of the horizontal orientation, installation won't affect the showerhead height. The filter needs to be replaced every three months, but refills only run about $25, compared with competitors like Filterbaby or Rorra, which can cost $40 to $45. —Kat Merck
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