Mother’s Day is May 10th, and if you haven’t started thinking about a gift yet, here’s a simple idea that beats anything shrink-wrapped at a big box store: a handmade gift basket built around exactly who your mom is.

Not a generic spa set. Not a candle she’ll never light. A real basket, filled with things she’ll actually use.

The beauty of a themed gift basket is that it shows you were paying attention. You know she spends every Saturday morning with flour on her apron. You know she’s watched every season of Great British Baking Show twice. That kind of knowing is what turns a gift into something she’ll remember.

Start with a theme, and let everything else follow from there. Think about the one thing your mom always gravitates toward in her free time, and build the whole basket around that corner of her life.

For the mom who bakes everything from scratch, a “Star Baker” basket can be one of the most satisfying gifts to put together. The backbone of a basket like this is a cookbook worth keeping. “La Saison” by Manon Lagreve, a Great British Baking Show alum who recently released her third cookbook, is a beautiful guide to seasonal French-style baking and cooking. If your mom loves the show, she’ll love having a cookbook from someone who actually competed on it. Pair that with a sourdough-scented candle she can light on the rare days she isn’t baking her own bread, and you’ve already got something special. Add a high-quality olivewood bench scraper and a bag of vanilla coconut sugar for a little elevated baking experimentation, and the basket starts to feel genuinely curated rather than thrown together.

The key is filling it with items that feel considered. A good basket mixes a range of prices, too. Not everything needs to be a splurge. One bigger anchor item surrounded by smaller, thoughtful additions hits the right balance.

Presentation matters more than people think. Pick up a real basket, not a plastic bin, and layer the inside with tissue paper or a kitchen towel that can pull double duty as part of the gift. Arrange taller items toward the back, smaller ones in front. Wrap the whole thing in clear cellophane if you want it to look truly finished, and tie it with a ribbon in her favorite color.

The gift basket guide from Taste of Home breaks this approach down beautifully, with themes covering everything from bakers to tea lovers, and all of the recommended items were personally tested before making the list. That level of real-world vetting makes a difference when you’re shopping online and can’t see the product in person.

If your mom’s more of a tea person than a baker, pivot the whole concept. A “Teatime Queen” basket calls for a beautiful loose-leaf tea sampler, a proper strainer, some shortbread cookies she doesn’t have to bake herself, and maybe a cozy novel she can read while the kettle boils. Same logic, different life.

The other thing to remember: the basket doesn’t have to cost a fortune to feel special. A $15 candle, a $20 cookbook, and a $10 bag of fancy sugar add up to a gift that looks and feels like you put real thought into it, because you did.

If your kids are old enough to help, loop them in. Let them write a note for the inside. Let your teenager pick one item that comes from them specifically. It turns the whole thing into a family effort, and grandmothers especially love that.

If you want to order items online and still make the May 10th date, this weekend is a good time to start. Many specialty food items and cookbooks ship within 2 to 5 days, but popular items can sell out fast heading into Mother’s Day week. The USDA’s gift basket labeling guidelines are worth a quick look if you’re adding any homemade food items, just to make sure everything is properly stored and labeled.

She’s driven you to practice, stayed up with you when you were sick, and made your favorite meal more times than either of you can count. A basket full of things built just for her isn’t adequate. Nothing really is. But it’s real, and it’s yours, and she’ll know the difference.