Last minute Christmas gifts for your girlfriend

Last minute Christmas gifts by how much time you have

Order online only if the shop names a delivery date, not just "Christmas shipping". Last order dates move every year, and a parcel stuck in a depot on the 25th is worse than no parcel.

A few days left: last minute gifts she's already mentioned

Skip the gift-set aisle. Think back over the last few months: what has she picked up and put down, borrowed from you, or run out of and not replaced? Buy that, and write on the tag when she mentioned it.

• Her own version of what she borrows from you. If she's been wearing your scarf since October, get her one in a color you've seen her choose.
• The thing she rations. The hand cream she only uses on special days, the tea she buys one box of a year. Get two.
• The book she stopped to look at. Write on the first page where you were when she picked it up.
• A print of a photo from this year. Many pharmacies and photo shops print from your phone the same day. Choose one she hasn't seen printed, and frame it.
• Flowers, if you know which ones. Not a mixed bouquet: the flower she buys for herself, or the one from a day you both remember. Florists are at their busiest just before Christmas, so order by the 22nd and collect them yourself.
• Tickets to something in January or February. A play, a concert, a game, an exhibition she mentioned. The weeks after Christmas are long, and this gives her something on the other side of them.

Christmas Eve: give her a plan instead of a parcel

Once the shops are shutting, the best present is something with a date on it. Book it tonight, then make the booking feel like a gift: write the day, the time and the place on a card, or print the confirmation and fold it into an envelope with a photo of the two of you.

• A night away in the new year. Somewhere within a few hours, on a weekend you both have free. Not having to plan any of it is the part she'll love most, so tell her it's all handled.
• Dinner at the place from your first date. Book it for the second Friday in January, once the restaurants have reopened and the crowds have gone.
• A class you take together. Pottery, dancing, a cooking class in the food she always orders.
• A winter morning out. Ice skating, a frosty walk with breakfast after, a Christmas light display that runs into January. Check it's open that week, then put it on the calendar for the 27th or 28th, when everyone's tired of staying in.

Christmas morning, nothing ready: make it at the kitchen table

If it's the 25th and you have nothing, don't go hunting for an open shop. Make something before she's up, or before you see her, and put the plan inside it.

• A letter. Pick one moment from this year you keep coming back to: where you were, what she said, why it stuck. End on one thing you want with her next year. Our love letter guide helps with the first line.
• Twelve dated promises. One card for each month of next year, each with something you'll actually do: "March: I plan the whole weekend." She'll hold you to them, which is the point.
• Christmas breakfast her way. Whatever her family makes on Christmas morning, made by you, with a note under the plate.
• A gift that opens on her phone. Your photos, a song and your words in a link she opens when she wakes. There's more on that below.

What to write in the card

The card is where a quick gift gets its meaning, so give it more time than the shopping. Say what the gift is for, not what it is. Three examples:

For lines to send on the day itself, see our Christmas messages for your girlfriend.

If she'll open it in front of her family

• Split it in two. Give her something she can show everyone, and a card she reads later on her own.
• Keep the joke gift as an extra. It's funny as the second present. As the only one, it looks like you didn't try.
• Don't explain the timing. "I panicked yesterday" turns a nice moment into a story about you. Say why you chose it.
• If part of it comes later, say so with something to hold. A card that says "Part two arrives on the 5th", with a hint, is a present. An apology is not.

What to skip

• Whatever the last open shop had. Chocolate, a lighter and a phone charger tell her exactly when you bought them.
• A gift card with nothing written on it. If you give one, make it for the bookshop or café she always ends up in, and clip a note to it with the first thing you'd like her to try.
• Something for the home she didn't ask for. A kitchen gadget is a chore with a bow on it.
• Clothes in a size you're guessing. She'll be polite about it, and then she'll have to return it.

A digital gift she opens on Christmas morning

When nothing else is open, a digital gift still is: a link with your photos, a song and your words. With a premium template you can use "Schedule the reveal" to set it to open on the 25th at the hour she wakes up, in her time zone, and put your January plan inside it. If you're spending Christmas apart, our long distance Christmas gift ideas go further. More on the digital gifts for your girlfriend and Christmas pages.