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10 digital Mother’s Day gift ideas so your 2024 gift can reach her in time
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Final warning: Mother’s Day is tomorrow. Have you already chosen the perfect gift for your mom? If not, we’ve come to the rescue with some of the only last-minute options that’ll still get to her with not a moment to spare: virtual gifts. A digital delight for Mom can be emailed, linked, texted and shared to social media to make things fast, easy, and fun. After all, Mom is one of the most important women in your life, so make sure she’s well taken care of this year with a thoughtful gift she won’t be able to stop smiling about.
From the gift of gourmet food to classes she’ll love taking, there are tons of different ways to show Mom you care beyond traditional flower deliveries or gift baskets that may not arrive in time. If you’re having trouble figuring out which digital and virtual gift to send Mom for Mother’s Day 2024, read on for some of our favorite picks. All you have to do is shop, check out and send to Mom. The internet can do the rest.
Best last-minute virtual Mother’s Day gifts
Best virtual Mother’s day gift: Amazon gift card
Amazon
Amazon has just about anything Mom could ever want to purchase. The massive retailer sells all types of items, from clothing to food and everything in between.
An Amazon gift card is sent instantly via email, and all Mom has to do is redeem it on her account. She can start shopping for something she wants within minutes of your presenting her with the gift. That way, if you’re really drawing a blank this year, she can get whatever is on her mind without any muss or fuss.
You can buy digital Amazon gift cards online starting at $25.
Best virtual Mother’s Day gift for moms who love trying new food: Goldbelly gift card
Goldbelly
Give Mom the chance to try some delicious gourmet food with a Goldbelly gift card via email. Mom can shop meals and delicacies from restaurants all over the world, from bakeries to sushi joints and more.
With a gift card, she can choose which foods she wants to try from world-famous institutions and set up a delivery for when it’s convenient for her. If she loves trying new restaurants but can’t travel to each and every one, this is the perfect compromise.
Best virtual Mother’s Day gift for moms who love wine: Firstleaf subscription
Firstleaf
If Mom loves kicking back and relaxing with a glass of wine, sign her up for a Firstleaf subscription. With an introductory offer of $45 for the first month, you can pay for a six-bottle selection of wine sent directly to her door.
Choose from a variety of brands and types, and increase the number of bottles for Mom to try to 12 if she ends up enjoying the subscription. She’ll discover flavors and brands she’s never heard of, and she doesn’t even have to leave the house to sip on some delicious new rosé.
That’s a gift any mom could appreciate.
Best virtual Mother’s Day gift for moms who love flowers all year long: BloomsyBox subscription
BloomsyBox
You could give Mom a bouquet for Mother’s Day. Or you could give her a BloomsyBox subscription for flowers all year long.
This service brings a variety of different blooms to your mom’s door every month, with at least 20 stems packed into each delivery with the Bloomsy Original Subscription, starting at just $60.
You can opt for larger and more varied bouquets as well, meaning Mom will always have fresh flowers in her home thanks to you.
Best virtual Mother’s Day gift for moms who love to learn: MasterClass subscription
MasterClass
If your mom loves to watch YouTube tutorials, participate in group classes, or is naturally curious, a MasterClass subscription will be a delight for her. This subscription service offers hundreds of classes from some of the brightest minds in writing, cooking, songwriting, comedy and much more.
Mom can learn how to cook with Gordon Ramsay, learn about writing comedy with Steve Martin, and even brush up on her singing with Christina Aguilera. She can learn through videos and chats with other learners, and there are even added Q&A sessions with each subject master.
Mom will love adding to her repertoire of knowledge.
Best virtual Mother’s Day gift for moms who love makeup: Ipsy subscription
Ipsy
Does your mom love trying new makeup and skincare products? Give her an Ipsy subscription, which comes to her door each month with a special bag full of sample and full-sized products.
Starting at just $14, this service delivers a new reusable bag monthly, filled with makeup, skincare, hair and other beauty products tailored to her unique needs. Whether she loves nail polish, eye shadow or even palettes, there’s a wide variety of goodies packed into every Ipsy bag.
Each month will be a new surprise that she can tailor to her liking.
Best virtual Mother’s Day gift for moms who collect fragrances: Scentbird subscription
Scentbird
Perfume can be expensive. If Mom loves to collect and try new scents often, help save her some money with a Scentbird subscription. Each month, she can choose a different scent from a catalogue, then she’ll receive it in a free refillable atomizer case.
She’ll get about 120 sprays per month of her chosen perfume, and then she can choose a new one or continue with the same one every month. That way she can rotate through fragrances without spending hundreds to see what they all smell like.
Best virtual Mother’s Day gift for moms who love to read: Book of the Month Club subscription
Book of the Month Club
So many moms wish they had more time to read. Give Mom an incentive to make time with a subscription to the Book of the Month Club.
Each month, a selection of new books are available for Mom to choose from. First as little as $60 out of your pocket, she can chose three books she’s interested in each month and read them — then she can do it all again the next month.
With how expensive books can be, it’s a great price, and plus she gets to broaden her horizons as a reader by trying new genres and authors curated by the club.
Best virtual Mother’s Day gift for crafty moms: Craftsy subscription
Craftsy
Does Mom love to make things? If she’s an artsy type who can draw with the best of them, crochet, decorate cakes, paint or even make paper crafts, she can use a Craftsy subscription.
This learning service offers a wide variety of classes that offer step-by-step instructions across all devices for Mom to learn how to do what she does best: create.
New classes are added monthly with a variety of additional skills Mom can try out. She can try her hand at different types of creative trades, and if you’d like, you can share a membership with Craftsy’s different plans to learn together.
Best virtual Mother’s Day gift for moms who need to chill: Headspace subscription
Headspace
Moms are under a lot of stress. They’ve got to worry about you, the family, work, and so much else. Give yours the gift of peace of mind with a Headspace subscription.
This meditation app can help Mom calm down and chill out with guided meditations, music for focusing, sleeping or just de-stressing, and workouts to help her center herself.
It’s a great way for Mom to unwind and get back to feeling well-rested, healthy, and happy. And it’s all in a simple app that Mom can use while on the go or at home.
North Pole, Alaska — ‘Twas the week before Christmas and plenty was stirring at the Santa Claus House in the city of North Pole, Alaska.
The iconic Christmas-themed store checked its list twice, realizing that it is far more naughty than nice if any of the gifts it sends out arrive late to their destinations around the globe.
“People are used to waiting until the very last minute to shop online, which presents a challenge for us having to process that order and ship it out from Alaska,” said Paul Brown, manager of the Santa Claus House, which for decades has been sending thousands of annual Santa letters to children worldwide.
In North Pole, which is located about 13 miles southeast of Fairbanks, candy canes double as street lights, and Christmas takes on special meaning for resident and FedEx driver Bill Soplu.
“Yeah, this is a wonderful time of the year,” Soplu said. “Everybody’s so happy right now, so it makes our job a lot easier.”
The cold weather doesn’t diminish Souplou’s cheer.
“Just the other day it was 30 above, you know, and then you wake up the next morning, it’s 30 below,” he said.
Nor do the moose.
“We don’t want to mess around with those guys,” he adds.
The gifts Soplu is delivering come from an airfield 20 miles down a frozen road. There are only a few hours of daylight in Fairbanks during the winter months, and the temperature hovers around zero.
An average of 3,000 packages a day come through Fairbanks during the holiday season. Capt. Joseph Erikson is a delivery pilot for FedEx.
“I know there’s a good chance there’s a special present on that plane, and it’s important to get that to that family,” Erikson told CBS News.
Before they reach Fairbanks, shipments from around the world first come through a sprawling FedEx sorting center at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
During the holidays, there are 33 delivery planes a day which fly in and out of Anchorage carrying about 80,000 packages. The planes run around the clock so gifts can span the globe in as little as 24 hours.
“We’ve been putting these plans in place for months so we can make sure we’re getting those packages to our customers,” said David Lewis, senior manager for surface operations for FedEx in Alaska.
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Houston — Donna Thomas is a pollution warrior in Houston, Texas. She wears a mask because she believes a lifetime of breathing polluted air in her community contributed to a stroke four years ago.
Near her home, Thomas points out Texas’ largest coal-fired power plant.
“It’s the oldest thing you can be burning in our neighborhoods. It’s dangerous,” Thomas said.
To respond to communities like hers, the Environmental Protection Agency under President Biden created a new Office of Environmental Justice. It is staffed by 200 people and funded by more than $2.8 billion that goes directly to “disadvantaged, marginalized, and over-polluted communities,” including support for projects that allow neighborhoods to monitor their own air quality.
But Project 2025, a possible roadmap for President-Elect Donald Trump, recommends “eliminating the EPA’s stand-alone Office of Environmental Justice.”
“We already know that everybody’s concerned. We want our EPA to be stronger,” Thomas said.
But that is unlikely, as Trump has vowed to “cut ten old regulations for every one new regulation.”
Many business and industry leaders say environmental regulation is anti-competitive and costs them money. In his first term, Trump cut 100 environmental regulations. Just last week, he posted on social media that “any person or company investing one billion dollars… in the United States, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including…all environmental approvals.”
Daniel Cohan, a professor and researcher at Rice University, sits on one of the EPA’s scientific advisory boards and is skeptical of the claim that environmental regulations stifle business.
“We’ve seen the oil and gas industry prosper and produce more oil and gas than ever before, even with EPA regulations,” Cohan said.
Since the EPA first started regulating clean air in the 1970s, emissions of the most common air pollutants have dropped by almost 80%. But around Houston, there’s still a long way to go. Each year, the pollution from that power plant is responsible for 177 premature deaths, a 2018 Rice University study found.
In a statement to CBS News, the plant owner, NRG, wrote: “…We have a strict policy of complying with all environmental rules and regulations and proud of our environmental record.”
Thomas believes that protecting the environment isn’t a partisan issue.
“Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, you should be protected from all the environmental issues, but you’re not because there’s no justice out here for people,” Thomas said.
And she’s convinced over the next four years that environmental regulation and enforcement will be harder to come by.
