Christmas gifts for mum without the guesswork

The trouble with a mum who has everything is that she usually knows exactly what she'd like and never buys it for herself. The house, the grandchildren and the dog all come first. So the most useful thing you can give her is not another object, it's a budget with her name on it.

The Mum Choice Gift Card runs from €10 to €500 and she picks where to spend it, which is the one part you were never going to guess right. It's the simplest idea on this list and the hardest to get wrong.

If you'd like to give her the widest choice, the All-in-1 Choice Gift Card also starts at €10. It comes as an e-gift card by email, or as a physical card in packaging with your own message, so there's something in her hand on Christmas morning. She'll still give out to you for spending the money, but she'll say it with a smile.

Our gift cards for her category has more to choose from.

Ask what she does with a free Saturday and the list more or less writes itself.

For the long bath and the early night. The Rituals Gift Card covers the creams and bath bits she uses up and then quietly swaps for the cheaper version. The Treatwell Gift Card goes a step further, towards a haircut, a massage or an hour at a salon she books herself. Both start at €5.

For a bit of colour in January. A Bloom & Wild Gift Card lets her order flowers when she wants them, which is usually after the decorations come down and the house looks bare.

For the room she keeps meaning to redo. The Homesense Gift Card, used in-store only, suits the mum who goes in for a lamp and comes home with two cushions and a throw as well. The IKEA Gift Card is for the bigger job, the shelves for the spare room or a chair for the corner by the window.

These are presents that get used up rather than put away, and that's rather the point.

There comes a stage where the house is full enough and one more ornament is just one more thing to dust. That's when a day or a night somewhere else does what nothing on a shelf can.

HotelCheque puts a night away on the table, and she decides where and when, whether she fancies a city break or a room with a view of the sea. One card from all of you together is easier to sort than five small ones, and it pays for the kind of break she'd never book for herself.

For the quieter version, the National Book Tokens Gift Card is spent in-store only on books and buys her a Sunday afternoon with the phone face down. The Milano Gift Card is spent in-store only on a meal at Milano, so it's lunch out with someone else doing the cooking for once. Treatwell fits here too, for an hour that's hers alone.

The presents that get her out of the house tend to be remembered longest. And if you live abroad, most presents for home involve a parcel and a queue at the post office. An e-gift card skips both.

Setting it up takes a couple of minutes. Choose the amount, write the message on the product page, and at checkout decide whether the card comes to you to wrap or goes straight to her. The e-gift card lands by email within minutes. The physical card in packaging comes by post, so that's the one to order early.

The message is what makes it personal, not the amount. Most Christmas gifts for mum get judged on what was spent, and your mam was never counting. A line about the Sunday she fed nine people, or the week she minded the kids while you moved house, will mean more than anything you add at checkout.

Our Christmas gift cards category keeps the seasonal designs in one place, and any of them will do once you've decided to let her choose.

She'll tell you that you shouldn't have. Let her.