personal finance

Last minute gift ideas for any budget – from experience days to the very best gift cards


Our lives are increasingly busy, with Christmas shopping deadlines just another thing to add to the seemingly never-ending life admin list.

So for all of us last-minute shoppers, e-gifts are often a saviour, meaning we can still treat our loved ones to the presents they deserve, but we can do it all the way up until the evening before – and even Christmas morning itself.

Nowadays there is a huge selection of online and high street retailers offering e-vouchers, subscriptions and gift cards – from Topshop to experience days – and even Nandos. So you’re guaranteed to find one to suit your nearest and dearest.

But perhaps the best thing about the below is that most of them will be delivered straight to your email inbox, or worst case scenario, through your letter box. So no trudging round to the post office, waiting in for deliveries or – worst of all – paying for that dreaded P&P. These are officially the easiest gifts to buy this Christmas.

If you’re looking up ideas now but don’t plan to buy them until a lot later (Christmas can get really expensive!) then thanks to having no postage, most of these also have no deadline at all. Even if you’re buying it on Christmas morning from your phone, no one has to know.

1. Experiences

Fun for big kids and small at Go Ape
Go Ape – a great gift for the big and small kids of the family

Especially good for people who seem to own everything they need already, experience vouchers are a great solution.

Anything can happen – from monster truck driving, to a musical in London, to dinner in a local bistro. These create great memories, cover all price points, and make Christmas last long past December.

You can find experience gifts at:

2. Membership


If you’re gifting an arts and culture fan then a membership to their favourite museum of gallery could be a winning present for Christmas.

A £65 National Art Pass from the Art Fund offers free entry to over 240 museums, galleries and exhibitions across the UK including at the V&A museum.

The Tate also offers membership which can be bought as a gift before 20 December to arrive in time for Christmas day. It offers free entry to all Tate exhibitions at all four venues across the UK, 10% discount at Tate shop and free admission for up to six children – prices start from £86.

3. Subscriptions


If you want to make Christmas 365 days a year, then a subscription service is a great option.

There’s a huge range of subscriptions to choose from nowadays depending on who you are buying for, from Birchbox (which delivers you beauty treats once a month) to razors (for men and women), to snacks, to a good old magazine subscription.


Other highlights include:

This also makes next year’s present even easier as they’re bound to want a renewal!

Magazines are the cheapest of these options at around £18 for the year, whereas subscription boxes are about £15 a month, but you can opt for a shorter commitment than the whole year too.

4. Charity donations

A snow leopard
Adopt a snow leopard

What better way to show the Christmas spirit than to give to charity on someone’s behalf?

Most charities now offer a Christmas package so there’s something for everyone – from paying for a midwife , to planting crops , to sponsoring animals .

Prices start from £4 on World Gifts and Oxfam Unwrapped has a wide selection starting from £5.

Seeing as it’s Christmas, and the weather is getting extra tough outside, you can really make a difference to homeless people, such as purchasing a Christmas dinner, gift or hamper for a homeless young person on their behalf thanks to Centrepoint.

5. Online retailers

Pick up a gift card from Amazon

Another option is online gifts like a giftcard, which lets your loved ones pick their own gift.

One4all giftcards are always a solid choice as you can use them at over 55,000 stores nationwide and online, from Primark to Pizza Express.

You can put from £10 – £400 on the cards too, so this is probably your most flexible option.

Zeek is also a great shout, as while your options are a lot more limited, the site lets you buy giftcards for stores for cheaper than the amount held on them. For example, you can get a £25 Arcadia gift card (for the likes of Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge) for £23.50 – saving you 6%.

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Christmas gift guides

6. Food and drink

A Nandos voucher will go down well with the chicken-lover in your life

If you’re buying for a foodie, getting them vouchers to spend at their favourite restaurant could be a great shout for Christmas.

Tesco’s gift card store has a wide selection of well-known restaurant chains to choose from too.

If you want to treat them to a meal out, you could also opt for an experience package rather than a standard gift card.

Prezzo do a three course meal with a glass of wine for two people for £30 in total – all you need to do is purchase the offer through an experience website such as Buyagift.

Or you could go for something fancy, such as afternoon tea, bottomless brunch, chocolate masterclasses or cocktail making, with a plethora of options (some of which we’ve never even knew were a thing!) on the likes of Buyagift, Red Letter Days and Virgin Experience Days.

Looking for last minute alcohol gift ideas? BeerBods offer a beer subscription service which delivers your loved one craft beers once per week.

6. Fashion stores

Topshop
Fashion fans will appreciate a gift card for their favourite brand

Buying someone who is really into fashion a gift can be a bit of a minefield – avert disaster by picking up a voucher to their favourite store.

Everyone from high street and online favourites like Topshop , ASOS and New Look (who will give you £5 when you spend £30 or more on a gift card), to more high end retailers like Matches and John Lewis do them, so you won’t be short on options.

7. Flowers

Show someone you care with a beautiful bouquet of flowers this Christmas

There are a wide range of flower delivery services that you can order right up until Christmas Eve to arrive in time for Christmas Day.

Interflora , Next , M&S Flowers, Serenata Flowers and Waitrose all offering speedy delivery services for Christmas orders. Check last order times on their websites.

What about returns?

Just as with physical products, most of these services offer returns policies.

Vouchers and concert tickets are much harder to return, but at least they’re easy to re-gift or sell on the marketplaces – they might even make a tidy profit.



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