I know most people have shopped by this point in the season, besides for those true brave procrastinators out there who will be shopping this weekend. Perhaps you forgot about someone, or a guest calls and asks if they can bring along a friend, maybe you need a hostess gift or you need something fast. I always try to have a few general small wrapped gifts for this scenario. I like for everyone attending my gathering to have something to open. A coffee mug filled with hot cocoa packets & cookies, a box of Chocolates, a Christmas CD, a stocking filled with goodies are a few great all purpose gifts. Here is my last Christmas related Top 5 post.



1. A bottle of wine - add a ribbon and you have a hostess gift. Don’t worry about trying to match it with the meal; if you give something that you yourself would drink than it will be fine. You can find many decent wines in the $10- $20 price range and most convenient stores are even carrying better known brands.

2. A few gift certificates - if you don’t need them you can always use them yourself.

3. Online Gift certificates - some places have this feature where you can pay with your credit card and print out your own gift card at home. We did this for several restaurants and it was a really great feature that saved us time & gas.

4. Coloring books & crayons are a great last minute gift for most children ages 2-12.

5. Someone once gave me some scratch off lottery tickets in a card ... I never buy these for myself and I had a blast and I thought it was a different gift.

There you go... those are my top 5 ideas for last minute holiday gifts. Can you think of anything to add?

Merry Christmas