Mother’s Day is an important tradition in Ukraine. You don’t choose to not celebrate Mother’s Day – you just don’t. Unlike the U.S., which acknowledges this day on the second Sunday of May, Ukrainian Mother’s Day is celebrated on the 8th of March. However, the second Sunday of May is also recognized. Symbolized by the elegant Snowdrop flower (Podsnezhnik in Russian), this day is all about appreciating our moms.
Teachers at school would always give us construction paper, scissors, and glue to create our own Mother’s Day cards for our Moms. We would sit in our classrooms and draw flowers and hearts on our congratulatory cards, showing each other our work. Meanwhile, men all over the country are running around various shops, looking for perfect gift ideas for their mothers and wives. As men, most of them are likely to have left the task until the last minute.
On the morning of one long-ago Mother’s Day, my mom and I baked my grandmother a chocolate cake. I was about 6 or 7 years old at that time. We slaved in the kitchen for over an hour, but the rewards were great. When the cake was finished, I stood in the middle of the kitchen, which was stained with white flour due to numerous spills on my part, and licked the spoon coated with leftover icing. But that wasn’t it. When I saw my grandmother’s face as we presented her with her cake (complete with “Happy Mother’s Day” written at the top in melted caramel), I wanted to bake another one…and another one…just to keep seeing her smile.
In my family it was customary for the entire family to get together for an extravagant dinner at our house, with everyone pitching in home cooked meals and desserts. Everyone had their speciality – my grandmother made the most delicious meatloaf, my aunt always brought a tasty salad, and my own mom was famous for her various desserts. As for the men, well, they weren’t really invited – they just kind of showed up! But they always brought a fairly large box of chocolates with them, so their gatecrashing tendencies were forgiven.
Mother’s Day was always a special occasion in my family in Ukraine. Unfortunately, after moving to the U.S. our Mother’s Day traditions were largely forgotten. But every year, I still bake a chocolate cake for my mom to keep Mother’s Day alive.
Most women will tell you – men are extremely difficult to shop for, especially when purchasing gifts for a new boyfriend. With us girls it’s easy – get us flowers, jewelry, shoes, and we’ll be happy. But great gifts for him require much brainpower and creativity. He won’t exactly be thrilled with a brand new designer handbag. Indeed, finding great gifts for a new boyfriend is not an easy task.
With a brand new boyfriend, not knowing all of his likes and dislikes is excusable. Here are some generic categories that your new man might fit into, along with some possible gift ideas for him. Remember that no man likes one thing and one thing only. Try to keep several of his hobbies in mind when choosing gifts for him.
The CAR-A-HOLIC boyfriend is obsessed with anything that has four tires and an engine. If you’ve just started dating, great gifts for him might involve a nice toy model of a shiny V8 sports car. Such presents are small enough gifts for a new boyfriend and will not be overly expensive, but will show him that you care about and approve of his hobby. Try to steer away from purchases that are meant to actually go on or in his car. Men can be very picky about modifying their vehicles and if your gift doesn’t quite suit his tastes, this could create an awkward situation.
Dating a HANDYMAN offers both advantages and disadvantages. If he is good at what he does, you will never have to hire a plumber again. If he thinks 
he is good at what he does, you might just end up with a house in shambles from his projects. Nevertheless, a handyman is always on the lookout for a new trinket to fiddle with, which gives you a great range of possible gifts for him. A talking pedometer with an FM radio, for example, would provide necessary entertainment for your man while he’s working (and encourage him to stay fit at the same time).
If your boyfriend is the type to play World of Warcraft into the wee hours of the morning, you can safely call him a COMPUTER GAME ENTHUSIAST. You can also call him a lunatic, but I do not recommend doing so to his face. Finding gifts for him is not very difficult. Whether it is a game card or the newly released first person shooter he mentioned last week, he is sure to be happy with anything that involves his computer.
This is Liza S., wishing you luck finding great gifts for a new boyfriend.
It is often easy to be lazy when it comes to gift ideas for Mom and Dad. This is Liza S., musing over what to buy for her mom’s approaching birthday as she writes. A sweet birthday card, a bouquet of flowers, perhaps an apron with “World’s Best Mom” stitched into the material should suffice, right? Let’s face it though, guys - unique gift ideas for mom and dad are too easy to come up with to justify slacking off!
Most of us have known our parents our entire lives. We would obviously already be familiar with their favorite hobbies and interests. Unlike occasions such as friends’ birthdays, you can never go too big when it comes to presents for Mom and Dad. Remember Marie, the oh-so-loveable mom from the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, who loved being lavished by her sons and insisted on being the center of their worlds? All mothers want to feel like Marie once in a while. Mom and Dad want to be appreciated and a unique gift idea is a great way to communicate your gratitude and appreciation. After all, they did spend all those years feeding us, clothing us, and keeping us out of their liquor cabinets. Even though Mom and Dad are likely to gripe and complain about how you shouldn’t have spent so much money on them when presented with a lavish gift, you can bet that they will thoroughly enjoy that quiet getaway to the acclaimed resort, paid for by their loving son or daughter.
Parents like to be surprised by unique gift ideas. I once knew someone who astonished his dad with a flying lesson for his 60th birthday! Seeing California from the glass cockpit of a Cessna 172 Skyhawk airplane turned out to be one of the most memorable experiences of his life. When the overjoyed dad returned home to find a brand new Crosley 4-in-1 Entertainment Center with five of his favorite records sitting in his office, his day was officially made.
In conclusion, when it comes to gift ideas for Mom and Dad, think something really special, especially for occasions such as birthdays. ‘Really special’ does not have to be ‘really expensive’, but rather relevant and thoughtful. If your mom has a passion for unique glassware like mine, you can’t go wrong with a set of hand blown champagne saucers from the Milano Collection (there’s one part of my mom’s soon-to-be birthday gift!). One must simply sit down and think back on their parents’ hobbies and interests to come up with plenty of unique gift ideas for mom and dad.