Best gifts for mom (2026): e-readers, digital wall calendar, and smart bird feeders

Look, I like A kindlebut if you want to get Best e-reader For your money, the answer is actually Kobo. My favorite is the Kobo Libra Color which is cheaper than the Kindle Colorsoft and can also double as a digital notebook if you add a $70 pen. I also prefer Kobo’s annotation options; You can write directly on pages, instead of just in the margins and weird pop-up boxes on Kindle. Kobo also has a page-turning remote now, which I like to pair with a pillow stand so I can lie back and relax without holding the e-reader at all while reading. I gave a similar pillow to my mom, and now I can easily locate her last reading spot because that pillow is placed there.

Clear listening

My husband and I got AirPods around the same time. We’ve been late adopters and long-time fans of Apple’s wired headphones. AirPods 4 are not affiliated with Team WIRED Favorite audiobut I’m one of the many people who can’t seem to keep other earbuds in her ears, so Apple’s tip-free design works best for me, even though it means you don’t get as good noise cancellation. I got my first set for Christmas from my brothers this year, and originally I stuck some cute stickers on my case to see the difference between mine and my husband’s case. I’ve since upgraded to this sleek case from Mujjo, which makes it easy to know which case is mine and clip it onto my keys. It’s a great accessory if your mom already has AirPods but is having trouble keeping track of them, or is looking for an easier way to distinguish them from other members of the house.

Gamer Gear

When the work day is over, you can find me curled up on the couch with my Nintendo Switch. I recently upgraded to a Nintendo Switch 2 ($449) So I can finally buy and play Poppy ($70)since it’s exclusive to the new console, and I’ve already logged a significant number of hours into the game. It’s similar to Animal crossingBut imagine it was all Pokemon instead of random animals. It has a choke on me, style Animal Crossing: New Horizons I did this in 2020, and there were several times when I was still awake playing when my son woke up in the middle of the night or had an accident. (You could say it helps me be ready to be a parent.) I really like that feeling New joy consAlso, especially with the included Joy-Con 2 Grip. If you’re not looking to upgrade your console yet but need an easy-to-swap switch Comfortable game she has, Stardew Valley It has another big update in the works and it costs just $15.

Her Google Calendar IRL

My newest favorite family planning tool is Digital wall calendar. These easy-to-use devices take the Google Calendar I live with (and any other digital calendar, too, if your mom isn’t a Googler) and put it on a physical device that I can quickly tap into without having to grab my phone or bark at it. Alexa. the Skylight evaluation 2 It’s my favorite because not only does it include to-do lists, meal planning, and a recipe book, it can also be used as a digital photo frame. This means that it shows nice pictures of my family most of the time, and then, with a simple click, it opens the calendar or whatever page I was last on to show me what’s on my family’s schedule. However, it charges a subscription fee for the digital photo frame feature and some other options as well, such as meal planning. But I think it’s worth having so many features in one device.

Highlight photos

As a mother, I take a lot of photos of my family. A a lot. And sometimes it feels like all those wonderful photos of my son’s accomplishments go into the camera roll and photo storage to die. There are two solutions to this that I love and are incredibly giftable: A Digital photo frame She can instantly upload photos and a printed photo book where you can capture the best of the best and have them at her fingertips. I have and love both for different reasons. I love a digital photo frame to add all the photos from a fun weekend at the San Diego Zoo or the Los Angeles Renaissance Pleasure Faire to relive over and over again, but I also love being able to pull the photo book off the bookshelf and relive a specific moment that I know is waiting for me there. Aura is created My favorite digital photo frames (It’s followed by Skylight and Calendar 2 if you want a multi-purpose device, but the Aura has no subscription fee if you just want photos), while the Mixbook was used My favorite for a while when it comes to photo printingand has great starting prices for its photo books.

Bird’s eye view

If you know a mom who loves bird watching (I know one!), you can upgrade her bird feeder to a smart feeder. Smart bird feeders add a camera to the feeder so you can see food nearby for birds that come to hang out in your yard, and they’re also great for showing off some time. Smart curb appeal. WIRED reviewer Kat Merk recommends the original Birdfy Lite as a great gift; It’s her Smart bird feeder favorite They come in gorgeous colors to brighten up your mother’s yard and catch the attention of neighboring birds. But the thing that she and I watch (she for her mom and me for myself) is the Birdfy Nest Duo, which is actually a birdhouse with two cameras so you can see the birds enter the nest outside and raise a family inside.

Adorable frying pan

I didn’t know I needed a mini cast iron skillet until it arrived. Field Co.’s handcrafted cast iron skillets are already known for being lightweight and beautiful. But with just a 5-inch cooking surface, this one might cross the line from handsome to “cute.” But here’s what makes it a good gift: Your mother almost certainly doesn’t own a cast iron skillet this small, yet it’s also of real use. At just 2 pounds, this pan is easy to pull out and store, easy to maneuver or flip a pancake, easy to serve, and the perfect size to fit the circumference of a two-egg omelet. In addition to an egg fryer, it’s a great, low-effort, generally disposable fryer – whether for grilled cheese, a little bacon, sausage, or chicken thighs. Egg pan It can be purchased on its own. But for an extra $60, the gift set is great. It comes with a cleaning kit (with my favorite chain mail cleaner included), some seasoning oil, and a cognac, black, brown, or cherry leather handle cover. —Matthew Corvage

Pressure care

There’s a wellness tool for everything now. Rings that track your sleep and blood oxygen levels, masks that make you look younger, massagers to relax your muscles, and now there are shoes to improve circulation. WIRED magazine reviewer Buthaina Shukran says her mother loves her These compression shoes are from Therabody To improve blood circulation, a common problem for many of our elderly parents. These shoes combine pressure, vibration, and LED therapy in one wearable device that comes with eight preset routines to focus on the legs, knees, and joints. It is a unique choice if she wants better recovery for her legs or improved circulation for her health.

Better espresso

the De’Longhi Revelia It is the best and easiest to use ultra-fast automatic espresso machine I have tested. What is meant by super automatic? This means you pour whole grains into the hopper, put milk into the milk jug, and choose the drink you want to make from the touchscreen menu. Then you let the machine do most of the rest. The style of espresso made by a super-automatic machine like this Rivelia machine is generally smoother and less intense than the kind you get at a coffee shop. But the process is also less complicated; You won’t have to deal with ground coffee and coffee filters. What’s particularly nice with Rivelia is the ability to create multiple “profiles” of different coffee drinkers at home, each with their own favorite brews — and the ability to switch bean hoppers to make decaf in the afternoon. The Rivelia is also the machine my mother loves, drinking lattes and dark roasted beans, without reservation. Like others on the WIRED review team, I often ask my colleagues and those close to me to test my top-rated devices over extended periods to see how they hold up over months or years of regular use. My mother thanks me almost every month for letting her test out Revelia. —Matthew Corvage

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