Last Minute Christmas Gift Ideas

If you are like most people, you will finish all your Christmas shopping, and then at the last minute, discover you have forgotten to buy a gift for someone special. The stores are sold out of most everything good, gift cards seem too impersonal, and you really don't have a lot of cash left over to spend.

After you finish admonishing yourself about it, what are you going to do to find a last minute quick and easy Christmas gift?

Let's look at some quick and easy last minute Christmas gift ideas.

Last Minute Christmas Gift Basket

Gift baskets are always a favorite for a quick and easy last minute gift idea for any holiday or special occasion. Just about anything can go into a gift basket, with a bit of paper, colored cellophane, a few ribbons or bows, and you have an instant quick gift. Plus, the types of things you can put into a Christmas gift basket don't have to be specialty 'gift' items.

For example, you can go to any hobby store and pick up various sizes and styles of baskets, and then put just about anything you can imagine into the gift basket. You can make a fruit basket, using fruit you can buy in the regular grocer store, but snaz it up with some quick decorations. Inexpensive light body fragrances in a small gift basket can make a nice quick gift basket idea. Travel sized personal items in a small baggie or basket decorated with bows and ribbons and you have a perfect gift for a travelling friend.

Assorted candies, chocolate, juices, fruits, nuts, popcorn packages, mints, gum and other snack items that you can buy at a grocery store or convenience store at the last minute can all make a creative gift basket if you decorate it Christmasy.

Last Minute Christmas Cookie Gift

Cookie mix, boxed mix, frozen mix - however you can find it, cookies are a great gift to give for a last minute gift idea. You can find decorate paper plates, plastic ware and colored cellophane and wrap sets of cookies with little bows or ribbons for a great last minute gift. This works well with brownies, muffins, sweet breads, pies, etc. If you are lucky enough to find metal tins, placing confections and sweets into a tin makes a great last minute gift idea without spending too much money.

Last Minute Christmas Gift Cards

Okay, so it was mentioned earlier that gift cards are impersonal, and this is often true, but a gift card is still less impersonal than no gift at all. If you want to personalize a gift card, find a store that specializes in something you know the gift receiver likes, and add a personalized card. For example, I love Bath & Bodyworks. A gift card to this store would be most welcome to me, particularly special if the giver wrote a card that said, "I know how much you love all the scents at B&B, so I give you this gift card so you can pick your favorite!"

Last Minute Re-gifting Idea

Confession time: one year, I knew I wouldn't be seeing my father until two days after Christmas, but I was about to go to someone's house on Christmas day, and I had completely forgotten a gift for that person. I knew that one of the gifts wrapped under the tree for my father would make a great generic gift for this person too, so I carefully removed the nametag card and placed a new one on it, knowing that I could replace the gift to my father when the stores opened again.

Just be careful if you do this to choose the right gift and not give the person a Christmas gift you intended for someone else!

Another way to re-gift for a last minute Christmas gift idea is to find something in your home that you haven't used yet that might be able to be given as a gift. I have plenty of unopened fragrances or bath salts and oils in my bathroom that could be dusted off and wrapped for a last minute gift that are still brand new. I also have several unopened bottles of wine in the cabinet rack that are untouched. These items could make last minute Christmas gifts in a pinch.

Last Minute Gift Shopping Spree

If the gift is for a friend or a teenager in your family, and particularly if it's an elderly person who doesn't get out of the house much, you can make a fancy card with a coupon for a lunch together after the holidays. My grandmother adored this when one of my family members gave her a lunch and spa day together after the holidays. However, if you give this gift, be sure to keep your promise, or else that person gets no gifts and feels sad for being stood up.

Last Minute Gift on Order

If worse comes to worst and you can't come up with anything to give as a last minute gift idea, the final suggestion I will make is to go ahead and order a real gift online and print out the receipt along with a picture of the item. Black out the price, fold the picture and receipt into a card, and let them know what day they can plan to receive their gift. It's not quite the same as opening a present on Christmas Day, but if it truly is the thought that counts first and then the gift, this should work just fine as a last minute option when you've run out of other options.