Mother’s Day 2024 jewelry sales are expected to hit $7 billion, outperforming all other retail categories by a wide margin.
According to the annual survey released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics, Special Outings are projected to come in second at $5.9 billion in sales, while Electronics should rank third at $3.5 billion.
Overall Mother’s Day spending is expected to reach $33.5 billion this year. That figure is the second highest in the history of the survey, following last year’s record $35.7 billion.
“Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate the women who play a meaningful role in our lives,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Retailers know the significant importance of this day and are ready to help their customers with a wide selection of meaningful gifts for loved ones to show their appreciation.”
Exactly 40% of respondents said they will be buying jewelry for their moms this year. That’s 8 percentage points higher than the tally achieved in 2014.
According to the NRF, 84% of US adults are expected to celebrate the holiday. Of that group, most (59%) will be purchasing gifts for a mother or stepmother, followed by a wife (22%) or daughter (12%).
On average, those celebrating plan to spend $254.04 on Mother’s Day gifts and celebrations, the second highest per-person figure in history. The biggest spenders are expected to be those between the ages of 35 and 44, who are budgeting $345.75.
As the leading authority and voice for the retail industry, NRF provides data on consumer behavior and spending for key periods such as holidays throughout the year. The Mother's Day spending survey of 8,213 U.S. adult consumers was conducted April 1-8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you classic songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we feature three-time Grammy winner Tim McGraw singing Billboard's #1 country hit of 1998, “Just to See You Smile.”
In this song about selflessness, unconditional love and heartbreak, McGraw portrays a hard-working Texas miner who is willing to do just about anything to make his girlfriend happy — and that includes delighting her with fine jewelry.
McGraw sings in the very first verse, “You always had an eye for things that glittered / But I was far from bein’ made of gold / I don’t know how but I scraped up the money / I just never could quite tell you no.”
The miner leaves his job in Amarillo to relocate with her to Tennessee, but the relationship quickly breaks down. The girlfriend finds a new lover and our hero graciously tells her that he’s happy for her.
“And given the chance I’d lie again,” he admits. “It’s worth all that’s lost / Just to see you smile.”
Released in August 1997, the song would go on to spend 42 weeks on the Billboard Country chart — the longest chart run for any country single in the 1990s.
“Just to See You Smile” was the third single from McGraw’s fourth studio album, Everywhere. Both the song and the album topped the Billboard Country charts.
The son of New York Mets star pitcher Tug McGraw, Samuel Timothy “Tim” McGraw was born in Delhi, LA, in 1967. Tim was brought up by his step-dad, Horace Smith, and didn’t know that the famous athlete was his biological father until he was 11. He signed his first record deal with Curb Records in 1990 and married country singer Faith Hill in 1996.
McGraw has sold more than 80 million records worldwide, and 25 of his singles have gone to score a #1 position on the Billboard U.S. Hot Country Songs chart. In addition to his three Grammy Awards, the artist has earned 14 Academy of Country Music awards, 11 Country Music Association (CMA) awards, 10 American Music Awards and three People’s Choice Awards.
He is currently embarking on his "Standing Room Only Tour '24," with 27 performances scheduled from coast to coast through June 29.
Please check out the audio track of McGraw’s performance of “Just to See You Smile.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“Just To See You Smile”
Written by Mark Nesler and Tony Martin. Performed by Tim McGraw.
You always had an eye for things that glittered
But I was far from bein’ made of gold
I don’t know how but I scraped up the money
I just never could quite tell you no
Just like when you were leavin’ Amarillo
To take that new job in Tennessee
And I quit mine so we could be together
I can’t forget the way you looked at me
Just to see you smile
I’d do anything
That you wanted me to
And all is said and done
I’d never count the cost
It’s worth all that’s lost
Just to see you smile
When you said time was all you really needed
I walked away and let you have your space
Cause leavin’ didn’t hurt me near as badly
As the tears I saw rollin’ down your face
And yesterday I knew just what you wanted
When you came walkin’ up to me with him
So I told you that I was happy for you
And given the chance I’d lie again
Just to see you smile
I’d do anything
That you wanted me to
And all is said and done
I’d never count the cost
It’s worth all that’s lost
Just to see you smile
Just to see you smile
I’d do anything
That you wanted me to
And all is said and done
I’d never count the cost
It’s worth all that’s lost
Just to see you smile
During Thursday's installment of Today With Hoda & Jenna, co-host Jenna Bush Hager recounted how she nearly lost ALL of her fine jewelry — including her sapphire and diamond engagement ring — at JFK Airport in New York City.
The 42-year-old daughter of former President George W. Bush recalled how she lost track of a bag of jewelry as she was "racing to a shoot" while on assignment for the Today show.
Hager explained to co-host Hoda Kotb, "I don't have much nice jewelry, but everything I had was in there."
When Hager finally arrived at the shoot, she realized her precious keepsakes were nowhere to be found.
“I was stressed," she said. "I get to the shoot and I’m looking around. I’m like, ‘Oh no, I had a whole bag of jewelry.’”
Hager quickly reached out to Jack, a member of the NBC morning show's security team.
She explained: “I said, ‘Jack, I just took off at JFK. I know it’s gone, but can you just see what the airport says?’"
In a stroke of good fortune, a fellow traveler had spotted the unattended bag and did the right thing.
“Some lovely man who I’ve never met returned it to security,” she said.
Even though the story had a happy ending, Hager didn't share it with her husband of 15 years, Henry Chase Hager. He only learned about the incident on Thursday morning — at the same time as Kotb and the show's five million viewers.
“I couldn’t even tell Henry because if I lost our engagement ring, it’s priceless,” she said. “So, I harbored a secret from Henry, too, which was hard.”
Jenna and her twin sister, Barbara, were 20 years old when their dad, George W. Bush was inaugurated as President of the US in January of 2001. Henry popped the question to Jenna in 2007, and the couple tied the knot the following year. They have three children.
Seven-time All Pro center Jason Kelce revealed on Wednesday that he lost his 2018 Super Bowl ring in a kiddie pool full of chili during the "Lombaby" Games on the campus of the University of Cincinnati (UC).
The Lombaby Games pit UC student-athletes against academics in goofy, Olympic-style games, including one where contestants searched two pools filled with Skyline Chili for Kelce's Super Bowl ring along with other decoy rings.
In the end, the decoys were found, but the authentic Philadelphia Eagles ring emblazoned with 219 diamonds and 17 green sapphires had disappeared.
"I legitimately lost my Super Bowl ring in this event," Jason Kelce said during Wednesday's episode of "New Heights," a podcast he hosts with his brother, Kansas City Chiefs star, Travis. "They could not find it."
The rings were hidden in socks and submerged in the chili. Jason Kelce feared that the sock containing his Super Bowl ring might have been kicked out of the inflatable pool and thrown away by mistake.
"What did you expect to happen?" Travis said. "You're such [an]… imbecile."
"So I think we safely assume that my Super Bowl ring is now in a landfill somewhere in the Cincinnati tri-state area," Jason told his brother.
Jason and Travis had served as referees and commentators for the UC event.
Jason had hoped that his support team might be able to use a metal detector to scan the chili after the event was over. As it turns out, Skyline Chili has trace amounts of iron in it, which rendered the metal detector useless, according to the recently retired 36-year-old center.
He has since submitted an insurance claim and hopes that the ring manufacturer, Jostens, can supply a replacement.
Each 10-karat championship ring boasted a gemstone total weight of 9.15 carats and contained symbols on every surface that told the story of an underdog team that overcame all obstacles to roll through the playoffs and eventually defeat the Tom Brady-led Patriots by a score of 41-33 in Super Bowl LII. It was the first time the Eagles raised the Vince Lombardi Trophy aloft in the team's 85-year history.
Jason, who is considered one of the best centers of all time, announced his retirement on March 4, 2024, after 13 NFL seasons with the Eagles. Younger brother, Travis, 34, just claimed his third Super Bowl ring as a tight end for the champion Kansas City Chiefs. He is famously linked romantically to pop princess Taylor Swift.
Welcome to Music Friday when we like to shine the spotlight on inspirational songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, five-time Grammy nominee Brandon Heath seeks divine intervention in “Diamond,” his 2012 song about a young coal miner who "has only scratched the surface." He wants to be a better man, but needs God’s help to find the “diamond” buried deep inside.
He sings, “I got something down inside of me / That only You can see / Help me dig a little deeper now / And set that diamond free.”
For Heath, the diamond symbolizes the ability to bring his life to the next level — a life of clarity, not confusion, of compassion, not cruelty, of ambition, not excuses.
In the last lines of the song, Heath invites the Almighty to seek him out in the coal mine: “Come down with your old flashlight / Underground, black as night / No telling what you’re gonna find in me.”
“Diamond” is the fourth track on Heath’s fourth studio album, Blue Mountain. The album is unique because each song takes place in the Blue Mountains and is told from the point of view of a particular character. The real and fictional players featured in the songs include his grandfather, his mentor, a farmer, a coal miner and a death-row inmate. Each song weaves a message of hope, love and redemption.
When it was released in 2012, the album earned strong reviews and a #5 spot on Billboard‘s US Christian Albums chart. It also reached #97 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
“[The songs] are all kind of telling my story a little bit,” Heath revealed to The Clarion-Ledger. “[They talk] about my own fears, and my own desires. As a songwriter, it was more fun to give someone else my own voice. I think the best way to describe a place is to describe its people. And so, all these characters tell a story about what Blue Mountain is and who lives there.”
Born in Nashville, TN, Brandon Heath Knell turns 45 in July. The son of a police officer dad and hairdresser mom, Heath received his first guitar as a Christmas gift when he was 13. In high school, he converted to Christianity and explored his spirituality by participating in faith missions to India and Ecuador. Those trips helped inspire a career in contemporary Christian music.
Please check out the audio track of Heath performing “Diamond.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“Diamond”
Written by Brandon Heath, Ross Copperman and Lee Thomas Miller. Performed by Brandon Heath.
My father’s father broke this ground
Daddy mined till we laid him down
Only God knows what they found beneath
Now here I stand in my own boots
Ax to grind and a point to prove
Tangled up in my own roots, it seems
I got treasure up in Heaven
I got dirt all over me
I have only scratched the surface
Of the man I’m meant to be
I got something down inside of me
That only You can see
Help me dig a little deeper now
And set that diamond free
Why do I do the things I do
All the things that I don’t want to
Act like I don’t fear You at all
Hard head and a heart of stone
Older now but I haven’t grown
Any riches that I have to show are small
I got treasure up in Heaven
I got dirt all over me
I have only scratched the surface
Of the man I’m meant to be
I got something down inside of me
That only You can see
Help me dig a little deeper now
And set that diamond free
Set it free
Set it free
Set it free
Set it free
Come down with your old flashlight
Underground, black as night
No telling what you’re gonna find in me
Set it free
Set it free
Lord, set it free
Set it free
Come set it free
Set it free
I got treasure up in heaven
Set it free
I got dirt all over me
Set it free
I got treasure up in heaven
Come dig a little deeper now
And set that diamond free
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