
It happened again, didn’t it? You said you were going to be on top of your Christmas shopping this year. You swore this time you would buy and wrap all your presents nice and early. Maybe you did go Christmas shopping a few times, but somehow ended up buying things for yourself instead…? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. So, with less than two weeks to go, where can you find the perfect last minute Christmas presents for everyone? Use this helpful guide to make sure you still get everybody brilliant gifts that arrive in time for Christmas.*
Not On The High Street
Where better to start looking than “the home of thoughtful gifts”? Not On The High Street offers a range of personalized gifts for a unique touch. Unfortunately, these can take up to 30 days to make. This puts a lot of personalized products out of the running for guaranteed delivery before Christmas – but you can still purchase them in advance for birthdays and other occasions! Besides personalized items, Not On The High Street sells plenty of unique knick-knacks and gift sets. If you want something different, you can even gift someone with an unusual experience. If beekeeping or walking with alpacas doesn’t appeal, there are options for arts and crafts, cookery, dance, and photography.
When it comes to delivery, Not On The High Street aims for your order to arrive within six working days. This means as long as you order by 15th December, you should get it before Christmas with standard delivery. If you’re willing to pay more, you might be able to get your order on the next working day with Tracked Express Delivery. Each gift displays its own delivery estimate in the product information, so be sure to check! If there’s a personalized item you really want, double-check the product’s estimated delivery date just in case. Since Not On The High Street is a marketplace for individual sellers, delivery costs and times may vary.
Make the Most of Pre-sorted Categories

With such a huge range of filtered categories, finding a present for each specific person should be pretty straightforward. You have everything from decorations and wrapping to friends, family, pets, teachers, and Secret Santa gift ideas all at your fingertips. If the choice overwhelms you and you end up with a lot of tabs open, don’t worry. Just add all the products you like the look of to your favourites as you browse.
You can even create folders within your favourites so you remember which gift choices are for which person! Once you’re done looking, just click on the heart button at the top of the site to view them all. Then you can go through all your options and decide on the items you’re actually going to buy from Not On The High Street.
Firebox
For gifts with a twist, take a look at Firebox. With the slogan “Not For Everyone,” Firebox proudly provides “alternative” homeware and lifestyle accessories for imaginative people. So what does that mean, exactly? It means that if you have quirky people in your life, Firebox is the best place to find the perfect creative gift for them. Bath sets and gift cards who? You won’t find anything boring here; Firebox is all about the unconventional.
By unconventional, we mean that Firebox products are either adorable, strangely cool, stupidly funny or completely gross. Sometimes two, three, or all of those things at once. Like many online retailers this time of year, to save you some time Firebox grouped some of its products into a “Christmas” category. If you’d prefer to take a look at everything on offer so you don’t miss anything, you can search the main categories for home decor, gadgets, food, games, and books.
You’ve got a bit more time left to relax and browse when it comes to placing an order for delivery before Christmas. Firebox compiled a handy list of order dates for guaranteed Christmas delivery here. Orders for UK delivery have another week left before the cut-off, so you don’t need to stress. In the case of Secret Santa gifts, Firebox will even take the stress of choosing out of your hands with their humorously wrapped mystery box.
Utilize the Firebox Gift Finder
Want to save even more time instead of browsing through everything? With the Gift Finder, you can filter according to gender, price budget and the person’s interests. This will filter the selection to the most relevant gift options.
Go wild and buy everyone you know something a little different this year. But please only buy one of the cheekier gift options if you know for sure the recipient will appreciate the humour! You don’t want to make things awkward at Christmas. If you’re brave enough to risk it though, you can buy a mystery box in one of six categories and see what turns up. It’ll be just as much a surprise for you as the person you’re giving it to!
Argos
Life was simpler back when we could just circle what we wanted for Christmas in the Argos catalogue. One of the best options for availability and price for children’s toys, you can also buy furniture, jewellery, electronics, and clothes from Argos. Take a look through the Gifts section for the offers available across all ranges. Remember to check the promotions of the day to take advantage of every discount!
Essentially a Click & Collect supermarket, Argos makes your Christmas shopping easier. To save time instead of going to a store and looking through a catalogue, just browse online and place your order on the website. You can choose to collect instore or let Argos deliver to your home. When you pay online, all you have to do later is go to the dedicated Fast Track counter in your chosen Argos store to pick up your items. If they are in stock they might be available to collect immediately. The store will hold your items for seven days if you can’t make it right away.
Always Double-Check Opening Hours
Of course, opening hours tend to vary the closer we get to Christmas. Be sure to check when your nearest Argos is open using the Store Finder. Just enter your postcode (like this example Manchester postcode, M11 1DG) and choose from the stores closest to you. Click “More info” underneath to find the contact number for your chosen store. Especially in the last few working days before Christmas, you should call up beforehand to confirm the store’s opening hours. The website might not update to reflect any extended Christmas hours.
If you don’t have the time to physically go to a store, just opt for home delivery. Argos delivers seven days a week, even offering same day delivery. When you buy before 6pm, you can receive Fast Track items by 10pm the same night! Not bad for the same price as standard delivery. This ease and speed make Argos one of the best choices for ordering your last minute Christmas gifts. Additionally, with an Argos Card, you can spread the cost of your present shopping by buying now and paying later.
Boots
Just because you’ve left your Christmas shopping this late doesn’t mean you have to settle for buying any random gift set. You still have time to make sure you select gifts that match each person’s interests. The Boots Christmas shop boasts special offers on over 5,000 products, so you should be able to find something for everybody. You can browse by brand, product type, or gift recipient. If you’re getting your presents all in one place, take advantage of the famous seasonal 3 for 2 Mix & Match!
Though Boots is known as a seller of health and beauty products for women, your Christmas shopping isn’t limited to just those things. And if some men in your life consider themselves too Manly™ for grooming products, don’t worry. There are plenty of soberly packaged gift sets to prove you can be tough and still care about personal hygiene. Besides skincare and perfumes, Boots has a lot of other things to offer as well.
Check Out All Your Options
Chocolates, biscuits, tea, coffee, and kitchenware like mugs and pretty tins are always appreciated. Yankee candles of various sizes make lovely gifts, whatever your budget. For all the kids and baby cousins, nephews, and nieces, Boots sells a range of children’s toys. There’s even a small amount of novelty items available, perfect for stocking fillers or silly Secret Santas. If you don’t even know where to start with finding something a specific person might like, never fear. The Boots Christmas gift inspiration guides are here!
Boots generally deliver within four working days, so place any orders by 18th December at the latest. If you really want to push it, you can leave it a little later and pay for next day delivery. It might be more convenient for you to pick your order up at a nearby Boots store. When you place an order before 8pm, you can collect it from 12pm the very next afternoon (only available Monday to Saturday). To avoid disappointment when you get to the checkout, use the Store Locator to see if your store offers the Order Today, Collect Tomorrow service.
As with Argos, all you need to do is enter a postcode to find your closest stores. Click on “Store Details” for each store to see which ones offer collections. This will be shown under “In-store Services” at the bottom of the Store Details page. While you’re there, you can also check the store opening hours to see what time they close.
The Store Details page will show you a map of how to get to the store if you haven’t been before. Since collecting from a store is free, this will save you £3-£6 in additional delivery costs. You might even spot some extra gifts to buy while you’re in there to pick up your order!
ASOS
Though it’s primarily known for young people’s fashion, ASOS offers more than might meet the eye. Buying clothes and shoes can be tricky if you’re unsure of the person’s sizes, in which case it’s probably better just to buy an ASOS gift voucher so they can choose for themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that option, but it does seem to lack a bit of personal thought.
ASOS currently has 30% off its Gift selection, so get in there while you still have time. There are many fashionable jewellery and accessory options available regardless of gender. ASOS recently branched out into selling cosmetics, so there’s a lot of present choices there for any beauty gurus you may know as well. ASOS offers some cute and wacky bits and pieces, whether they’re little gifts or decorations for home or work. Show your favourite people you know what they’re about by getting them something that matches their aesthetic. This could be homeware or accessories to personalize their everyday gadgets!
ASOS have provided a list of cut-off dates for Christmas delivery here, so if you’re relying on standard delivery then order by 19th December. Due to their current promotion, you can get free standard delivery on orders over £20 until this date. It shouldn’t be too hard to break this total if you’re doing all your last minute Christmas shopping at once!
Take Advantage of Free Next Day Collection
As well, ASOS is running a promotion on Click & Collect. Between 11th December and 10am on 18th December, you can place an online order for collection at your nearest Asda store for free. This includes Next Day delivery, so if you live near an Asda you can get your items even faster at no extra cost. When you check out, just select Click & Collect and enter your postcode to find your nearest location. You might want to make sure that your local Asda offers the “ToYou” service beforehand, just in case you end up disappointed at checkout.
Just visit ToYou’s location finder and search using your postcode. Over 600 Asda stores offer Click & Collect and Returns via ToYou, so it’s likely there’s a location near you. You can even use the postcode for your work address, to see if there’s an Asda you can get to after work or on your lunch break. As long as you order before midnight Monday to Friday and before 8pm on weekends, you can collect all your items the very next day. This will make your last minute Christmas shopping a breeze!
Amazon
When you’re really down to the wire, the best place to go for last minute Christmas presents is Amazon. If you don’t already have a Prime membership, start a free trial! Whether free for 30 days or paying £7.99 a month, it’s well worth it for that speedy one-day delivery. Prime also gives you access to Amazon Pantry, where you can buy health and beauty products at discounted prices, as well as household goods. You can use Amazon Pantry to get all your Christmas snacks and chocolates while you’re ordering presents too!
Amazon offers a range of last minute Christmas deals, so by leaving it this late, you might actually save some money! There are plenty of gifts to choose from, including electronics, toys, books, jewellery, and even alcohol. It should be pretty easy to find something for everyone, and then Amazon will deliver it within a couple of days. Leaving you just enough time to get all the wrapping done! Speaking of which, if you forgot about that too… Amazon’s got you covered there as well. For a small additional fee, you can even select for items to be gift-wrapped for you instead when checking out.
Handy Tips to Help You Shop
Use Amazon’s extensive filters on the sidebar to narrow down your search and save time. If there’s a product you already know you want to buy from somewhere else, see if they have it on Amazon. A lot of the time, Amazon sells the same item for a lower price. Plus, where you might have to pay for delivery on another retailer’s website, you’ll get much faster and free delivery using Amazon Prime.
When you’re looking for Secret Santa bits and bobs or stocking fillers, be sure to browse through Amazon’s Add-On Items. Previously Amazon could only sell these small items in multipacks rather than as individual items, but most people don’t want to bulk buy. As long as you spend £20 on products sold by Amazon, you can purchase any add-on items as well. The £20 can even be made up completely of add-on items! The point is, this is often a great way to buy beauty items and accessories at lower prices than usual.
When you’re searching for your last minute Christmas presents, just remember to filter your search for Prime-eligible products. Go to the sidebar on the left of the screen, and click on the Prime checkbox under delivery options. The page will reload and only display products available for Prime one-day delivery. Then you can avoid disappointment if it turns out an item you want to buy won’t arrive in time for Christmas with regular delivery. If this does happen, you’ll usually find an alternative available with Prime. And even if it does cost a little more buying directly from Amazon than a third-party seller, it’s worth it for the fast free delivery.
*Disclaimer: Christmas delivery times only guaranteed for people living in the UK!