I don’t see it as tacky at all.
As I see it, there’s a certain type of person for whom you can buy gift cards and a type for whom you can’t. If your mother is the sort of person who would be pleased with a gift card, by all means, get her a gift card. If not, don’t.
How about giving a gift card along with some cheap, funny or personal item that’s easy to pick up. You’ve given something with meaning and you’ve given something with monetary value.
I use this strategy on my nieces and nephews (especially after the little bitch said, “Glass again?” when I gave her a hand blown piece of art glass).
This assumes that mom will let you know if she’s disappointed with a gift card, especially a generic one. Most moms wouldn’t. I wouldn’t.
Maybe we should poll Doper moms. I’m probably all wet.
I was operating under the safer assumption that a person is often able to judge the emotions of those close, or that the giver knows enough about their mother’s habits and style to know if a gift card would be appropriate.
For example: I have several relatives who love to shop. It’s not so much the item(s) they buy as the process of hunting for and selecting the item(s) that bring these shoppers pleasure. As such, a gift card is a good gift for them, because it allows them the trill of the hunt (so to speak) without having to foot the bill at the end of the expedition. This is the type of person I was thinking of.
Heck, I’m a woman, and I rarely find it easy to shop for Mom and MIL. Not that they’re hard to please–far from it. But how many frames, knick-knacks, and DVD’s do you get them before it’s as mundane as the old “tie or soap-on-a-rope for Dad” routine?
And with my Mom, it’s a real challenge. She lives three states away, so it needs to be something that doesn’t kill me on the shipping, and isn’t too breakable. And as for that gift list. There are some great gift ideas there. But they don’t always work for everyone. In my case: Flowers and scented candles–nope, both Mom and Dad are highly sensitive to scents, it could literally put Mom in the hospital. Candy and fruit baskets–again, no, Mom is diabetic. Gourmet coffees and teas–her fluids are doctor-restricted. Photo frames and albums–they live in an apartment with limited room for such things. Books and DVD’s aren’t bad choices, but then you have to ferret out what they have and what they want–personal tastes can vary pretty widely here. So it’s not always a “snap” to shop for a woman.
A gift card isn’t just a “lazy” choice (sure, it CAN be that, but so can falling back on flowers all the time). It’s not just giving her a quickie, no-thought gift. If you take the time to get a card from a place you KNOW she loves going to, you’re actually giving her the gift of SHOPPING! And I LOVE to shop! 
Not only that, but if you know someone who loves getting a certain KIND of thing-books, clothes, restaurants etc, but don’t know specifically WHAT to give them, gift cards work.
Like, I LOVE to read, but I don’t like it when people buy me books (unless it’s a Xmas gift or for my birthday, and they KNOW what book I want), because just a generic book is kind of sucky, if it’s not something I want to read. OR, if it’s a book I already have.
Or my grandmother, like I said, who liked certain restaurants. You can’t really order them dinner ahead of time.
And clothes-you don’t know their size or their taste. And you save them the hassle of returning something. Or with things like tools and such, you might get them something they already have.
A gift card is not a tacky Mother’s Day gift at all. What is tacky gift, is the bathroom scale that I got my mom last year. :smack:
I’m still living that one down.
IAWTC. My mum doesn’t always know what she wants off the top of her head, but she loves shopping and she’ll visit certain stores regularly; giving her a gift card–to Indigo’s, to Timothy’s, etc.–means she essentially has free money to spend on whatever the next time she goes. Good times all around.
(Edited to add: Speaking of Indigo, has anyone else in the GTA come across the promotion offering the chance to win a $1,000 gift card on a Mother’s Day purchase? Screw Mum, I’m so tempted to try and get it for myself… :D)
Well, she ASKED for something that would go from zero to 120 in five seconds! 
Heh. My Mom always wants me to give her money in a card. That’s what she wants and that’s what she gets. She likes using the money on whatever she wants.
Brilliant! I wish I would’ve thought of that to defend myself with!
I, personally, love to get gift cards for Mother’s Day (especially to Bath and Body Works 
). Getting a gift card is like my hubby and kids saying “Here; go shop. For something for you! Really, we insist!” Beautiful, because, so often when I shop, it’s for stuff the house needs, or stuff the kids need. But that one or two gift cards a year (sometimes I get one for my birthday, too), are just for me. I love it.
Okay, yes, I presume zombies don’t get gift cards for their mothers.
But my question fits so well along with this thread, that I just want to add it here.
Many posters above have said that they don’t think gift cards are tacky at all. And I agree. My Mom and Dad recently sent me their wish list and it basically entirely consists of gift cards to various places.
What I can’t quite understand is, if they are asking for a gift card to, say, one of 5 places, why don’t I just send them cash (or a check) and they can use it where they want? Why does this seem totally weird to me?
Gift cards, of course, are effectively worth less than the equivalent amount of cash, because you can only spend it in one place. If you have a gift card to Target, and Walmart has a better price on something you want, you’re out of luck. In every case where you’d use a gift card, you could also use cash, with more flexibility.
But yet, since I don’t find gift cards to be tacky, why do I find cash to be tacky? Cash has that stigma of “lazy” or “didn’t put any thought into the gift”, but gift cards are really the same way. So why do I feel differently about them?
It’s not tacky unless it’s a $10 gift card for the Jiffy Tattoo Parlor.
My mum loves flowers which can be sent from lots of places in the states to just about anywhere else in the states for not a lot of money if personal delivery is a problem.
YMMV
Is it like the difference between taking someone out to dinner and paying the check, vs. slipping them some cash and letting them pay their own check?
Dude, I’m a mom, and I’m really just happy the kid remembered. I think gift cards are fine-- sometimes people are just really hard to buy for.
Of course, I also don’t get why I get presents just because the condom broke. I made the choice to be his mom. He IS my present. :o
Bolding what I want to address: I ask for gift cards to places where I want to buy things that I can’t bring myself to spend money on because there is a greater need for something more practical. I want to buy makeup at Sephora, but I don’t want to spend my money. If I get a gift card, I can shop there guilt free.
I would say that gift cards are overall tacky, unless the card is for a store you know the recipient would use frequently whether or not you gave them the card. Basically they’re a less efficient way of giving cash; almost never is a given purchase for exactly the amount of the card, so the recipient either ends spending money they wouldn’t have otherwise or leaving money in the store’s coffers.
Mom loves Starbucks and stops for a venti red-eye every morning? Yeah, give her a card loaded up for a hundred dollars. That’ll do her for a month.
Mom loves mystery Find the holes in her library and fill one.
In other news this is the second thing I’ve read on the internet today that makes me miss my mother.