Top gifts for your mum

Stuck for ideas on what to buy your mum for her birthday or Christmas?

There are a few secrets to getting the perfect present for your mum. One of the most important things to do is start early. If you've got lots of brothers and sisters then the longer you leave buying a gift, the more chance that all the good ideas will have gone.

Personalised Calendar - Thanks Mum £9.95 This is a really lovely gift for your mum! Give them your Mum's name and they quickly produce a Personalised Calendar with 13 full colour images. Fantastic quality calendar with lovely pictures on each month and her name! Available in 3 sizes too and something she will be able to use all year! Have it start on the month of your choice too, so if you're buying it for her birthday she doesn't have to wait until January to start using it. Adorable present that she will really enjoy seeing each day. Perfect gift for your mum!

Depending on your family depends on how soon you hvae to start. If you've got an eager sibling who buys things three months in advance then you'll have to buy a present four months in advance. Watch out you don't take this too far though and you don't end up buying several years gifts in advance just to get the advantage.

Deciding your budget is important. How much can you afford to spend and how much do you think you should spend? How much do your family spend on gifts? If there's a history of spending as much as £2.50 on a present and never exceeding that then going mad and blowing £50 on a pressie will get some shocked looks. Stick to your family rules too - if you've got a rule that says Christmas presents should be bigger than Birthday presents - whatever your family rules are don't try to break them. You'll only upset people and that's not a good thing.

Once you've started to plan a budget you can start making a list of suggestions. Which authors and musicians does she like? Does she have any albums missing from her collection? Does she collect anything? What hobbies does she have? Has she always wanted to start a hobby but never got round to it? BuyAGift have a great selection of hobby related gift experiences which is worth a look.

Once you've narrowed it down to a few suggestions you then need to speak to other close family members to sound them out (Unless you think they'll steal all your brilliant gift ideas, in which case you need to go undercover and do some detective work to check out your theory on missing books/albums/films etc)

If you want to know what music she listens to then go and have a look where she keeps her CDs! If you want to know what perfume she wears then go and look where she keeps it or ask your dad to!

Find out whether she's planning on buying it herself. You might need to drop hints like "Please don't buy that as someone might be getting you that as a present" - or something more subtle.

Once you've made your purchase then you can spill the beans to the rest of the family and swear them to secrecy and even share the rest of your gift ideas with them.

Sometimes your budget won't stretch to what you want to get your mum so why not ask everyone if they want to chip in and help you all buy a perfect gift for your mum. Some families will like this as it means they don't have to do any more thinking or shopping for the present. It's worth looking into this for more expensive gifts.