As the mother of a twelve year old girl, I am one of the lucky group of women who will be honored on Mother's Day. I'm sure my daughter and husband will consult with each other about what I might want, and perhaps they will consider offering me something new – an experience gift. While I completely enjoy getting the traditional presents of flowers, candy, and a new dress, I would also welcome the gift of an experience to share with my family. Most of the mothers I know enjoy nothing more than a day shared doing something special with their families. Creating a beautiful memory together can be a wonderful choice for a Mother's Day gift.
What kinds of experiences might a mother enjoy? The list is wide and varied, and XperienceDays.com offers some lovely choices for unique gifts for mothers. The following list gives only a few of them:
•A brunch, lunch, or dinner cruise in NYC's harbor – a lovely time to share with Mom food, music, and the view of Manhattan.
•A hot air balloon ride over the Catskill Mountains – what could be more amazing!
•A chocolate tour of Boston – enjoying the sweetness of the treats and the historical sights of the city.
•A New York Spa Experience, leaving Mom relaxed after an hour of professional massage.
These are just a few examples of unique experience gifts available on the website of XperienceDays.com. Besides having the fun of sharing this kind of experience with her family, a typical mother will also enjoy the indulgent quality of this kind of gift. How many of us moms take the time to do something like ride in helicopter over Manhattan or take a cooking class on how to create Sushi? However, in our hearts we would completely enjoy the unexpected and unique character of an unforgettable experience gift of this kind. Sharing it with my family would be the most important part of the gift for me, as it would for most moms.
In fact, people in general, not just mothers, get an enormous pleasure out of a happy and significant experience, more than they do from a material gift. In a recent article published by the American Psychological Association, studies revealed that “experiential purchases make people happier than material purchases,” and the authors conclude their article with the injunction: “Both individuals and communities would thus do well to heed the slogan of the Center for the New American Dream: ‘More fun, less stuff!'. We moms are especially inclined to enjoy the creation of beautiful memories with our families, even more than we might enjoy a new blouse or a bottle of perfume.
So, take your mom on a Central Park walk, led by author Sara Cedar Miller, or accompany her on a Central Florida Gourmet Dinner Train, or enjoy with her a Galveston Bay Sail, or any of the other interesting choices available. From my perspective as a mom, I often remember the experience of what we did on Mother's Day longer than I recall a particular present, though I do always appreciate those too. If you want to do something different and very special for your mother this year, consider giving your mom an experience instead of material gift for Mother's Day. You and she will never forget it.
A Card For Mothers Day
Of all of the five senses, science knows least about how we smell. It is known that our olfactory sense is closely linked to memory. Just a whiff of a certain aroma can send a person back in time to distant and near-forgotten memories. All of know what it is like to associate a particular aroma with a particular place, person, or time. Those links are very powerful.
A woman of a certain age has probably had lots of different favorite perfumes over the course of her life. Fragrance is a lot like fashion in that, on the surface, both seem to be dominated by fads, but, in fact, some enduring classics emerge.
Despite the faddishness of the perfume world, there are still some scents that seem almost timeless. I like to put Chanel No. 5 in that category. First introduced in 1923, this venerable perfume is still well liked even by modern celebrities. The newest celebrity spokesperson for the line is Nicole Kidman.
Youth Dew, which came out in the 1950s, is still a classic but it tends to be regarded as more "dated." It's a rich, powerful, Oriental scent that is-as an overall style-a bit heavy for today's tastes which favor light, fruity, on-the-go kind of fragrances.
In the world of perfume, even surviving a decade can put you in the near-classic category like Tresor by Lancome (1990), Obsession and Eternity by Calvin Klein, and Happy by Clinique.
If you want to give your mother perfume this Mother's Day you have two main strategies. You can select one of many new fragrances on the market (which is a good idea if your mom likes to try new things or if you happen to know she likes a particular new perfume) or you can go with the classics.
From time to time, a beloved fragrance is discontinued. A good case study for this phenomenon involves a perfume called Evening in Paris. Created by Ernst Breaux (the "nose" behind Chanel No. 5), this perfume was phenomenally popular and came in a very distinctive deep blue bottle in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s. Its fragrance resembles Chanel No. 5: it's a sparkling adelhyde type floral. But anyone shopping the perfume counters in the U.S. after 1990 could not have found a trace of Evening in Paris. Even if you asked for it, most sales people would not have even heard of it.
Then it came back. It's available in the most unusual of locations: The Vermont Country Store (http://www.vermontcountrystore.com). This catalog typically features country and New England items, not fine fragrance. But this particular retro-scent had a large and vocal fan base and enough requests came in that the company started to track it down. It turns out Evening in Paris is still manufactured, but in France. They imported it and it's back.
The Vermont Country Store also offers other nostalgic fragrances including Tigress and Tweed and some Yardley products.
It gets more difficult when a retro-scent is no longer manufactured. In those cases, you can't even turn to hoarders because perfume (unlike wine) tends to decay with age.
So how do you find a retro-scent that your mom liked way-back-when? When searching for anything nowadays, your first step is the obvious one: Google the perfume name (and possibly some variations) to see if anyone has it. There are many large warehouse type perfume sites that have a little bit of everything. More obscure fragrances may be available on their own site.
Not every story has a happy ending. Some fragrances truly are gone forever. If that's the case, you can go to a perfume website or blog (check out the links at www.theperfume-reporter.com) and ask other perfume lovers.
If a scent is no longer available but people know about it, you can get a description. From that description, a knowledgeable sales clerk or perfume friend (go to the websites) can recommend similar type scents. For instance, if you know your mom's favorite scent was what they call a woody floral, you can get an updated version (Safari by Ralph Lauren comes to mind).
Remember, perfume is much more than perfume today. You can buy a wide range of scent products today including body creams, lotions, shower gels, soaps, and other products for the bath. If your mom has always worn spray-on fragrance, stick to an eau-de-parfum or cologne (the eau-de-parfum is stronger and will cost more). If your mom is getting more streamlined these days, a shower gel and fragrant lotion may fit the bill better. Emollient creams and lotions are good for dry skin. For dry skin, a spray-on fragrance simply will not last very long, so the idea of combining a cream (to moisten skin) and a spray-on is quite practical.
Both Nancy Enright & Joanna Mclaughlin are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Nancy Enright has sinced written about articles on various topics from Mothers Day. Nancy Enright is a staff writer for Xperience Days Inc. Xperience Days offers unique gifts of activities. These Experience Gifts include Dinner Cruises, Helicopter Tours, NASCAR Driving, and hundreds of activities across the US.. Nancy Enright's top article generates over 720 views. Bookmark Nancy Enright to your Favourites.
Joanna Mclaughlin has sinced written about articles on various topics from Mothers Day, Perfumes and Social Issues. Joanna McLaughlin is a freelance writer who writes about fragrance and perfume. She frequently appears on the site http:www.theperfume-reporter.com and has c. Joanna Mclaughlin's top article generates over 14800 views. Bookmark Joanna Mclaughlin to your Favourites.
Best Headphones With Microphone They have made work life easier for support folks as well as added to the broadcast industry. Today they are even aiding people want to talk on the phone while driving by providing hands-free talking