• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, April 22, 2010

Aw, Mom, we really love ya: The typical consumer is planning to spend a little more on Mother's Day this year, with the National Retail Federation reporting that consumers are planning to spend about $126.90 on gifts, cards and celebrations.

That's up a little from $123.89 last year, and total spending for the holiday -- celebrated on May 9 this year -- is expected to be around $14.6 billion. Mother's Day continues to be the second-largest U.S. consumer spending holiday.

Flowers are still the most popular way to treat Mom right -- purchased by 65.2% of those who celebrate, amounting to about $1.9 billion for the floral industry. The survey, conducted by BIGresearch and based on about 8,100 adults, found that some 51.8% will treat mom to a brunch or dinner out, spending $2.9 billion.

And of course, it wouldn't be Mother's Day without greeting cards: Hallmark says it is the third-largest card-sending holiday in the U.S., with 141 million cards exchanged. Among Hispanics, it is the largest card-sending holiday.

And this year, Hallmark is making sentiments for Mom both more personal and more high-tech. "This will be the first Mother's Day that consumers can send mobile greetings from Hallmark," Sarah Kolell, a spokesperson for the Kansas City-based company, tells Marketing Daily.

Also new this year: Webcam Greetings for Mother's Day, which invites recipients to install an application on their computer that can recognize the card, and play pre-programmed 2D or 3D animation on the screen. And there are new Mother's Day DVD Greetings, which include a card and a DVD, allowing the sender to upload personal photographs and create a customized slide show set to music.

Rival American Greetings is also emphasizing personalized messages, offering "Say It Display It" greeting book cards, a collection of inspirational quotes that people can personalize, adding their own photos.

But the main trend, says Kolell, it that the expansion of Mother's Day to many women continues. "Consumers increasingly want to recognize all the moms in their life," she says, "which means their own mother, their mother-in-law, or maybe a friend who has three little kids and is having a hard time. So it's really important to have a variety of options and sentiments and price points, so a card can be right for that particular relationship."