Last minute Christmas gift ideas
It’s Christmas week, and time is ticking so I’ve put a few ideas together for last minute Christmas gifts. A lot of the time, the later you leave it, the harder it is to find a bargain but I’ll say it again: don’t panic. There’s still time to make a budget and shop around a little.
Let’s start with some Christmas gift ideas for under £10. My favourite two shops for reasonably-priced gifts this year have been Lakeland and Superdrug. Lakeland will be able to deliver in time for Christmas with standard orders placed before 7pm Tues 22nd December, and for express delivery orders placed before Weds 7pm 23rd December. They have hundreds of ideas in their online catalogue with various discounts and plenty of gifts under the £10 mark, for example in the picture above we have:
- The Adventure Begins lunch box, reduced to £8.99. Apparently this is ‘manly’, but I wouldn’t say no to something like this myself. Half price and lots of fun.
- Set of 5 global cocktail mixers, reduced to £5.98. The mixers themselves are non-alcoholic, but you can add as much or as little alcohol as you like. They come in a nice presentation box too, for the girl or boy about town in your life.
- Nielsen-Massey Madagascar & Mexican vanilla blend, £3.97. This is a perfect stocking filler for foodies, a decent sized bottle that you can use for baking, savoury dishes, cocktails, hot chocolate, desserts and more.
Gifts under £5 from Superdrug
These will have to be picked up in store if you want them in time for Christmas, or order online for a post-festive treat for yourself. On the right hand side of the main picture above we have:
- Leafy and Lovely boxed candle, reduced to £3.99. Gentle summer meadow fragrance, 130g candle in a nicely-decorated glass jar, and an attractive presentation box. Tick.
- Cafe De Bain sweet vanilla madeleine shower gel, reduced to £1.45. Great quality, better than half price on the whole range, and luxurious packaging.
- Cafe De Bain coconut macaroon indulgent bath creme, reduced to £1.45 for a generous 500ml bottle. Bargain. Pick me one up while you’re there, will you?
- Bubble T bath fizzies with berries & white tea, reduced to £3.99. The whole range is reduced with prices from £1.99, so you could put a couple of items in a gift bag for someone who needs a treat.
Very very last minute ideas
You can always write a card with an IOU in it, or give someone some money that will probably go further in the January sales.
If you do want to hand over a gift on the day, I have two favourite extra-last-minute ideas:
- Gift experiences with printable vouchers
- One of the newer gifting apps
For gift experiences, try a bigger site such as BuyAGift, RedLetterDays (up to 70% off around the site this week) or Lastminute experiences (prices from £10, and lots of discounts). You can print these off on Christmas morning, before relatives or friends arrive.
If you’d like to consider an app, I’ve tried out three recently and the one I’d recommend is SwiftGift. They call it an ‘instant gift messenger’ – all you need is the mobile number of your giftee and it sends them your chosen gift via a personalised text message. Pick from a wide range of gifts on the app from retailers such as Geniegadgets, Iwantoneofthose, John Lewis, Allbeauty and Neals Yard, pay for gift plus P&P, your text is sent, then your recipient gets to choose when and where the gift is delivered to them.
The gift recipient said the process was easy to follow, and the gift arrived quickly and in good condition. This type of prezzie can be bought and sent moments before you see someone (or even from the loo in the pub!), so while there won’t be discounts it has value as a ‘save my skin’ kind of service, and there’s a whole section on the app of gifts under £10.
