Jewelry has been the single highest-dollar gift category for both Valentine's Day and Mother's Day in the U.S. for the past several years, according to the National Retail Federation's annual consumer surveys, run with Prosper Insights & Analytics. In 2026, shoppers are on track to spend $7.0 billion on Valentine's Day jewelry and $7.5 billion on Mother's Day jewelry — both record highs for their respective holidays. Below is what NRF's own published survey data actually shows, read directly from its press releases rather than the round numbers that get repeated on marketing blogs without a source attached.
Valentine's Day: Jewelry Wins on Dollars, Not on Popularity
Jewelry is a strange case in NRF's Valentine's Day data: it consistently ranks around fifth in popularity, behind candy, flowers, greeting cards and an evening out, yet it still comes out on top in total dollars spent — because a piece of jewelry costs far more than a box of chocolate or a bouquet. In 2023, 21% of shoppers said they'd buy jewelry, totaling $5.5 billion. By 2025, that had grown to 22% of shoppers and $6.5 billion. The 2026 survey put both numbers at their highest yet: 25% of shoppers planning to buy jewelry, totaling $7.0 billion — a 27% increase in total spending over three years, outpacing the growth in the share of shoppers actually buying it.
Mother's Day: An Even Bigger Jewelry Moment, With a Dip in Between
Mother's Day jewelry spending is larger in raw dollars than Valentine's Day, and the trend line isn't a straight climb. NRF's 2022 survey put jewelry spending at $7.0 billion, with 41% of shoppers planning to buy it. That figure actually eased to $6.8 billion in the 2025 survey (percentage of buyers wasn't broken out that year), before jumping to a record $7.5 billion in 2026 — a 10.3% increase over 2025 — with 45% of shoppers now planning to buy jewelry, the highest share NRF has recorded for the holiday. The data doesn't say why 2025 dipped before 2026's jump; NRF's releases don't offer a reason, so that's a real fluctuation worth noting rather than a story to fill in.
Valentine's Day vs. Mother's Day, Head to Head
Lined up against each other, the 2026 numbers put Mother's Day $500 million ahead of Valentine's Day in total jewelry dollars — $7.5 billion versus $7.0 billion — and Mother's Day also pulls a much larger share of shoppers into the jewelry category, 45% versus 25%. That gap makes sense given who's being bought for: Mother's Day spending is spread across every adult child buying for a mother, mother-in-law, grandmother or stepmother in one household, often more than one gift at once, while Valentine's Day spending is generally one gift for one partner. Both holidays still land jewelry in the same position — the single highest-dollar gift category, even though it's far from the most popular one by number of buyers.
What These Numbers Actually Measure
It's worth being precise about what NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics are reporting: these are pre-holiday surveys of stated purchase intent, not confirmed point-of-sale data collected after the holiday. Each survey runs in the one to two weeks before the holiday and covers a large, consistent sample — the 2026 Valentine's Day survey polled 7,791 adults, and the 2026 Mother's Day survey polled 7,877, both with a margin of error around plus or minus 1.1 percentage points. That's a reliable read on what shoppers plan to do, and NRF's own past forecasts have tracked closely with actual retail performance in other categories, but “planned to spend” and “actually spent” aren't identically the same number, and NRF doesn't publish a reconciled actual-spend figure afterward.
Why Jewelry Keeps Beating Flowers and Chocolate on Total Dollars
NRF's own surveys point to a reason beyond price: shoppers say what they want most is a gift that reads as genuinely thought-out. In the 2025 Mother's Day survey, 48% of respondents named “finding a unique or different gift” as their top priority; in 2026, that was 46%, still the single most-cited priority ahead of price or convenience. Flowers and chocolate are gone within days and largely interchangeable from one retailer to the next. Jewelry — particularly a personalized piece carrying a name, birthstone or date — is one of the few common gift categories built specifically around not being interchangeable, which lines up with why shoppers keep naming it as the higher-effort, higher-dollar choice even while buying it less often than they buy flowers or candy.
NRF's 2026 Mother's Day survey breaks that priority down further: 46% of shoppers named finding a unique or different gift as what matters most to them, ahead of every other stated priority in the survey. The same release shows online stores and department stores tied as the top place shoppers plan to buy from, at 33% each, with specialty stores — including local jewelers — at 29%. Read together with the spending figures above, the pattern is consistent: shoppers say uniqueness is what they're optimizing for, and jewelry is the highest-dollar category that can deliver on it without requiring the kind of months-long lead time a fully bespoke, one-of-a-kind piece would need.
What This Means If You're Buying for a Partner or Your Mom
The uniqueness factor shoppers keep naming in NRF's surveys is easiest to act on with a piece that's actually specific to the person receiving it, rather than a generic style pulled off a shelf. For a partner, that might mean a piece built around both of you — a heart necklace with both your names and birthstones or a two-birthstone ring pairing your two birth months in one setting. For Mother's Day, a piece that works around kids' names or birthstones tends to fit the “unique gift” priority directly — our guide to personalized gifts for mom walks through the options in more depth, and if the card is the part you're stuck on, our Mother's Day messages guide has real examples rather than generic templates.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do Americans spend on jewelry for Valentine's Day?
According to the National Retail Federation's 2026 survey with Prosper Insights & Analytics, U.S. shoppers are expected to spend $7.0 billion on jewelry for Valentine's Day — more than any other gift category, even though only 25% of shoppers plan to buy it.
How much do Americans spend on jewelry for Mother's Day?
NRF's 2026 survey put Mother's Day jewelry spending at a record $7.5 billion, with 45% of shoppers planning to buy jewelry — up from $7.0 billion and 41% of shoppers in 2022.
Is jewelry really the top Valentine's Day gift category?
By total dollars spent, yes — jewelry has outspent every other Valentine's Day gift category, including an evening out, flowers, candy and greeting cards, in each of NRF's recent surveys. By number of buyers it ranks lower, around fifth, since fewer shoppers buy it but each purchase costs far more.
What percentage of people buy jewelry for Mother's Day?
45%, according to NRF's 2026 survey — up from 41% in 2022. That's a higher share of shoppers than Valentine's Day sees for jewelry, which tracks with Mother's Day's larger total dollar figure.
Why did Mother's Day jewelry spending dip in 2025 before rising in 2026?
NRF's published data doesn't give a reason — spending went from $7.0 billion (2022) to $6.8 billion (2025) to $7.5 billion (2026), and the surveys don't explain the year-to-year change. It's worth reading as a real fluctuation in a single-digit-billion-dollar category rather than a steady trend line in either direction.
