I think my mother has bought me a new calendar for X-Mas every year since I was about 12. It started out with comic book calendars filled with my favorite superheroes, then progressed to my "art" phase when I was 16 with an M.C. Escher inspired calendar... and actually, I still get lame M.C. Escher calendars, so not much has changed.
But I came across the very fun Human Calendar, which is quite a simple idea, but done rather brilliantly. It features the friends and family members of Craig Griffen, all posing as different dates on the calendar. On the present day, the person looks toward, and all of the others stare at that person in sort of a creepy, Brady Bunch kind of way.
So tell your mother to spend her money on buying socks instead of a lame calendar, and enjoy a more personable calendar.