Mother’s day is almost here and the evidence is everywhere! Cards, chocolates and flowers are taking center stage on the shelves and mother’s day adverts are everywhere. Despite this, for the purposes of this blog post (because I hadn’t considered writing it any sooner) I am hoping that many of you have done the other traditional thing and left it last minute to buy gifts.

A bit of a strange thing to hope for, yes, but I have my reasons. The thing is, pretty much every example of a traditional mother’s day gift is in some way packaged in plastic, and a lot of it won’t even be recyclable. So….here’s to hoping you haven’t quite got round to it yet and I can dish out a few little plastic free gift tips that will still see your mum and the environment happy this Sunday. You don’t even have to stray far from the traditional!

Seeing mum in person?

Chocolates

Try making a cake or some biscuits instead of buying the traditional box of chocolates. If it’s a gift from the little ones, then it will have the added bonus of being a fun activity to do together, and if not, well….they’re still fun to make and they will go great with a cuppa when you pay mum a visit.

If you’re not much of a baker, then don’t worry! You can still buy a selection of chocolates that are plastic free, I’m thinking…

• Lindt Lindor Bars
• Green and Blacks
• Supermarket own brand luxury chocolates (most are foil wrapped and in cardboard)
• Galaxy bars
• Rolo’s
• Smarties

Flowers

If you’re already picking up the flowers yourself, why not head to a florist or a market and ask for your bunch of flowers, hand tied and without the plastic? You can even choose your flowers this way so you can include any favourites if you know them.

Alternatively, how about buying a potted plant instead of flowers? You can often find these at a florist or a supermarket and the best thing about them is they last longer than your usual bunch of flowers.

For the avid gardener, or as a lovely way for the kids to spend time with their mum on Mother’s Day, you could instead opt to buy some seeds. Spend some time planting them together and then watch them grow. If you buy bulbs, you can even enjoy them year on year!

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Sending gifts from afar?

For those of us who aren’t lucky enough to be able to pop by for mother’s day in person, it can be quite a challenge thinking about what to send to put a smile on her face, even more so if you are trying to do this plastic free. The traditional gifts (I’m talking about the chocolates and flowers here) are hard enough to find without plastic at the best of times, let alone when you add delivery into the mix.

Chocolates and small gifts

These were the easiest to find plastic free, seeing as I remembered about a brilliant site that I came across a while ago in a search of plastic free Christmas Gifts. GreenTulip is a fantastic site (I have no affiliation – views are my own) and has so many options that would make great Mother’s Day gifts. From a range of tasty chocolate bars packaged in cardboard to beautiful soaps in paper, there are so many options that it might take you more than a few minutes to pick your favourites. The other fantastic thing about the site? You can request all of your packaging to be plastic free! So there won’t get any surprise plastic once it arrives.

Flowers

Flowers are definitely the most difficult to come by without plastic if you are getting them delivered. If you want to send a traditional bunch then you could try calling a local florist to request a hand tied bunch with no plastic, or at least as little as possible. The only other option I can find, if you’re set on the idea of flowers, is to use a company called BloomandWild (again – no affiliation). This company packages the flowers in a cardboard box and although not all are plastic free, it looks like the use of plastic is at least minimal. There are also a few options when you look at their choice of Plants, I especially love the look of this trio of succulents!

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From near or afar, from you or the kids – alternative gifts to make mum smile

Of course there is also the option to go against the grain and opt for something a little different this Mother’s Day, whether you’re visiting in person, planning gifts from the kids or sending love from afar.

It might seem a strange suggestion, but hear me out, perhaps one of the best gifts you could come up with this year is one that involves no gift at all, at least not a physical one.

These days we live in a society that makes us feel like we need to buy gifts for people to show them that we care, but actually, there are so many things that we can do for those we love that don’t involve spending money on material gifts, especially those wrapped in pointless plastic and that often don’t last more than a week.

These alternative gifts can be the most meaningful of all, and all they require is a little thought and a little effort, and sometimes money too – that bits up to you. If you’re wondering what I mean then here are just a few ideas to think about:

• A trip to the theatre
• A day out to the beach
• The promise of weekly phone calls
• Breakfast in bed
• Help around the house
• An offer to do the gardening and plant her favourites
• A baking session with the kids
• Afternoon Tea
• A family photoshoot
• A treasure hunt with the kids based on her favourite places

There’s an endless list of possibilities to build wonderful memories that will last long after mother’s day ends.