Celebrity When Is Mother's Day 2016? Check out these last-minute gift ideas By Nancy Dunham Updated on December 8, 2020 02:12PM EST Photo: Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket/Getty When is Mother’s Day 2016? Yes, it really is this Sunday, May 8. You already have our ideas for great gifts to buy for your mom, friend or anyone else you want to celebrate on that day. Need more ideas? Well jewelry, electronics and special outings will all be tops on gift lists this year, according to the National Retail Federations’ annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics. Or you could borrow ideas from Lauren Conrad who shared gift ideas with PeopleStyle, which included flowing dresses, chic pots and bags. Sarah Jessica Parker also offered some Mother’s Day gift ideas to PeopleStyle, recommending comfortable flat shows (from her own SJP Collection, naturally) and a recommendation to “spoil mom with a delicious home-cooked breakfast in bed.” Not sure how much to spend? Most Americans will spend an average of $172.22, down a smidgen from last year’s record high of $172.63, reported the National Retail Federation. Want to celebrate a bit more traditionally? Consider National Geographic‘s report that the fledgling idea for Mother’s Day truly began in the 1850s when Ann Reeves Jarvis rallied clubs to work to lower infant mortality, tend wounded U.S. Civil War soldiers and, later, to establish a Mother’s Friendship Day to unite Union and Confederate loyalists. Her daughter, Anna Jarvis, never had children of her own but used the 1905 death of her mother to organize the first official Mother’s Day in 1908. In 1914, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May would mark the annual holiday.