Last-minute Secret Santa gifts that do not look last-minute

First, five minutes of thinking

Before you run to the shop, open the app and read what your person left for you: a wishlist, a challenge, or the colour you drew. Then write down three things you know about them. A late gift chosen for the person beats an early one chosen for nobody.

From a supermarket

• A breakfast set: good jam, honey, tea and a pack of biscuits.
• An evening set: hot chocolate, marshmallows and a mug.
• A pasta set: good pasta, a jar of pesto, a wedge of hard cheese.
• The best chocolate on the shelf, three different bars tied together.
• A plant from the flower stand, with the plastic sleeve taken off.

From a bookshop or a newsagent

• A paperback you loved, with a note on the first page saying why.
• A notebook and a good pen.
• A puzzle book and a pencil, for the journey home.
• A magazine about their hobby, with a bar of chocolate.
• A wall calendar for the new year.

Without leaving the house

• A voucher you can print: a bookshop, a cinema, a coffee place near their office. Check first that the group allows vouchers.
• An e-book or an audiobook, with a printed card that says what it is.
• Tickets for a film or a concert in January.
• A subscription for one month: music, a magazine, a streaming service.

Made in one evening

• Biscuits or a cake, in a tin or a box lined with baking paper.
• A jar of spiced nuts or granola.
• A handwritten recipe with the dry ingredients measured into a jar.
• A promise that costs time: a home-cooked dinner, an afternoon of help with a move, a lift to the airport.

Make it look planned

• Take off every price label and the supermarket packaging.
• Wrap the parts together as one gift. Brown paper and string look deliberate.
• Write a card. Two lines about the person change everything.
• In a colour exchange, the wrapping does half the work: buy the paper in the colour first.

Next year

Set a reminder for the week after the draw. In Secret Santa Twist you can mark your gift as ready, and the group sees how many gifts are ready, without names. Being the last one is a good reason to start earlier.