Have a professional photo portrait done and give it to her in a nice frame. I know it seems egotistical to give a picture of yourself, but most moms love to display photos of their progeny. It’ll probably be her favorite gift and will thus trump your siblings, unless of course they give her pictures of grandchildren.
Do you have any more info about this? I just looked at the USPS web site and can’t find anything about custom stamps.
Custom stamps. I really like that idea.
They did this a few years ago. I don’t know if they kept it going. She would like that sort of thing.
I also like the photo idea.
Does she listen to audiobooks? Does she use the internet? Can she adapt to knew technology? If so, get her an Ipod Nano. Most of the time people don’t adapt to new technology because they don’t really see the utility of it, but listening to audiobooks through a nano is so much nicer than the tape player or even a CD player that it is worth the bother of learning how to do it.
Then, you and your siblings can buy her gift certificates to Itunes for the rest of her life.
She is a bit of a technophobe, I’m afraid. I did get my brother a new video iPod though. I don’t want one, my B&W is fine for me. He likes new toys.
I think the photo of myself is taking the lead.
If you give your mom a photo of you holding a yellow sticky that says “SDMB”, you can probably score some points in idle thought’s contest.
See here. 
I just saw them advertised on the Yahoo! front page yesterday, so it wasn’t to hard to find them via a Yahoo! search.
Tremendous! Thank you – I had never heard of this before. Now it’s just a matter of picking an image and figuring out who would appreciate them the most…
The stamps are great, but remember that the price of a first class U.S. stamp is expected to go up to 39 cents in early 2006.
Might help if we knew more about your mother - how old is she, does she live in an urban area or small town, does she have any hobbies, does she like to travel or read or go to concerts or movies or theater or to restaurants?
I know how hard it is to buy for parents…my aunt is 80 and her kids bought her a ticket to fly out here to visit me in Las Vegas. She has been here several times and it was a perfect gift. But she loves to play her nickel slots and hit the buffets so it was an easy sell.
One thing my aunt liked from her last birthday is that everyone in the family bought her gift certificates from all the stores in the area…Walmart, KMart, Target, Home Depot, the local grocery store, the gas station, a dress shop…the list went on and on. She loved it! Now she has an excuse to get out of the house, do some shopping (for free) and pick up stuff she probably would not normally have bought for herself. Plus every time she used a card, she would call whoever gave the card and tell them what she bought - so it was also a good excuse for a few follow up phone calls.
Actually, I know her pretty well and that does not seem to help much at all in selecting a gift. She lives in Frederick, MD, the second-largest city in the state. No hobbies, thank God she has a part-time job or she would never get out of the house.
I am leaning toward some photos. And maybe some stamps of the photos.
I had a similar quandary last Christmas but I came up w/ a fun idea; I got my folks a subscription to Netflix and boxes of stuff you’d eat @ movies in the theatre. They live 12 hours away from me, so I told them it was b/c if I could I’d take them to movies for a year as a gift. I don’t know to what extent your mom’s a technophobe, but if she at least can get online and click on buttons to select movies for her list she’ll be alright.
Netflix! I like it. I need to learn more, since I am not presently a subscriber of course.
I’m probably your mom’s age, and I’m wishing the people who suggested car detailing, window washing, and housecleaning were MY kids. Great ideas.
Does her car have remote-start? I don’t know how cold it gets in Maryland, but remote-start is great on cold mornings.
One of my sons gave me a professional portrait one year, but it sits in a closet. Looking at it just made me miss him.
It’s verrryy handy; set up a list of the movies you want to see from those on their website (they have tens of thousands) and Netflix mails them to you. Included w/ the dvd is a prepaid return envelope. She can keep it however long she likes, although a new one won’t be sent until she sends back the old one (via mail). The most popular subscription allows three out at a time. They arrive seperately. She (or someone on her behalf) would have to maintain her movies list online. My mom and dad are 60 and had no problems doing so. The only complaint I heard from them is that Netflix didn’t have ‘Yentl’ - sorry Dad!
When she redeems the gift certificate, your mom will have to register a credit card but it isn’t charged unless something goes horribly wrong. I suppose you could redeem it for her and use your credit card if she’s wary about sending her information ‘out there’ like I know some older people are.
It’s something she won’t have to dust and will get daily/weekly use out of. If she doesn’t already have a dvd player, that would be a nice accompanying gift; mine was less than $50 and is quite spiffy.
Netflix - AWESOME idea!
I have the service and I love it. I am not someone’s mom but I can’t see how anyone at any age wouldn’t like it.
Since she doesn’t have any hobbies and that concerns you, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to thoughtfully choose a hobby for her - like caligraphy (buy her a set of pens and a book), knitting (some yarn and a book, or some patterns you’d like to wear!), or even something crazy like a “red hat” for the local “Red Hat Society” or singing lessons.
But I defer to Netflix. Rock on.
Don’t give her a fruit basket. Cook’s Illustrated rated a bunch of nice expensive ones and said they’re pretty much crap.
I may steal the Netflix idea for my own parents. They’re so freaking hard to buy for! If they want a thing they go buy it themselves, especially my dad. But you’d have to keep up the subscription, AFAIK there’s no “pay one lump sum” plan. I love my Netflix, though - you get this great sense of accomplishment when you can put one of your little envelopes in the mailbox and wait for another one!
If she’s a technofobe, she wouldn’t know how to burn a cd, but she would be able to play one, right?
Burn a cd for her with er favorite songs. You could check out (on sites like these) what music was popular when she was a teenager, and make a cd out of those songs. Most people have lots of memories attached to the hits of their teenage years.
And I second, third, the photo idea.
How about borrowing a video camera and burn a DVD of you and your family singing Christmas carols?
My brother got my aunt a light for her closet ceiling last Christmas. He knew she wanted one. The 
look on her face when she opened the gaily wrapped present and found it full of electrical conduit and wire was priceless. But she was thrilled. He installed it for her a couple of weeks later.
You could do something similar for your mom. If you won’t be around to install them, could you go in with one of your brothers or sisters–you get the fans, they do or arrange to do the installation. It would be easy enough to get a Home Depot gift card, put in some pictures of ceiling fans, and give it to her. Then she could choose the fans and have them installed when she was ready. If it turns out she doesn’t want fans after all, she can have something else done.