Last-minute Chrismas gifts and activities that are emailable or printable or bakeable

 

Depending on where you live there may well be a smaller shop open for emergency snacks. Where I live in Blackheath we have Best One Xpress open in the village (24 hours) and Pravin Supermarket in Blackheath Standard is open from 10 until 3pm. I hear that Deliveroo is likely to be up and running too. 

Here are some ideas for gifts that don't require leaving the house or having them delivered. If a gift for someone hasn't arrived then you can draw or print or email something to give to someone that indicates that something mysterious and delightful is on its way, just currently delayed.

1. Annual Memberships or pre-paid events / courses

I'm a member of the Royal Geographical Society (UK-wide) and a couple of London cinemas. Possibly buying someone a gym membership at Christmas might be a little pointed but perhaps a cookery or photography class or something nice like that, or art gallery membership etc. 

You can buy a ticket for a future event and print out the email to give to someone, or email it to them.

2. Gift cards / book vouchers / iTunes vouchers etc / magazine subscriptions

These can be bought online (you get an e-voucher with Amazon or iTunes) or in shops if you're able to get to one.

3. Bake biscuits / cakes

This one does require a trip to the shops for supplies but works quite well as a last-minute thing if you have a box (cake) or paper bag (biscuits) to put the end product in. Recipes abound on the internet. If you don't have a handy gingerbread man cookie cutter you can cut one out of paper and then place it on your biscuit dough and cut around it with a knife.

Gingerbread men recipe: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gingerbread_men_99096 and see at 3m in this video how to cut out shapes without a cutter.

4. Make salt dough decorations

Pretty much as above, but non-edible (too salty!).

Recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/salt-dough-christmas-decorations

 

5. Printable decorations and colour-in activities

TES (formerly Times Educational Supplement) has all sorts of Christmas Craft activities for kids, many of which are free. Some also have a bit of curricular learning in there too but this one is just for colouring in.

Free DIY ornament: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/free-christmas-ornament-template-11752205

For work I've also made a Christmas Computing zine (A4, folds into a tiny booklet) and a HexaHexaFlexagon (never stops folding!), free: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/JoBrodieCS4FN

Etsy is full of (paid for) printable things to colour in and decorate, including colouring-in placemats to keep kids occupied while at a table. Be careful about bleed through onto your table if using coloured pens. After you've paid you'll be sent a link to download a digital file which you can then print.

Gingerbread house by ArtbyEmilySkinner (A4): https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1112628257/gingerbread-house-printable-paper-craft

Merry Christmas colouring in placemat (A4): https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1106059506/merry-christmas-colouring-and-activity

Search for more Christmas printables: https://www.etsy.com/uk/search?q=christmas+printables

Note: some products are aimed at a US audience and so print out on US letter size which is slightly different from A4 size. Look for products that are tailored for A4 sizing, or that come in PDF form (which you can just shrink slightly and cut off the extra). 

A4 = 8.27 x 11.7 inches (210 x 297 mm)
US letter = 8.5 x 11 inches (215.9 x 279.4 mm)

If you have a Rymans near you they will print items for you (£2.50 set up charge then approx 30p per A4, or a bit more for A3). Other printers are also available of course, though they'll be shutting soon.

We have lots of printable activities / colouring-in sheets / puzzle sheets, all with a computing theme here: https://teachinglondoncomputing.org/christmas-computing/

6. No printer but have a computer?

Here are versions of our puzzles and colouring in sheets which can be done on a computer :)
https://teachinglondoncomputing.org/2022/12/12/snow-day-no-printer-needed-computing-themed-activities-for-those-at-home-snowday-uksnow/

If you like magic we have lots of free booklets you can download and read as a PDF, plenty of tricks involve a pack of cards: https://cs4fndownloads.wordpress.com/magic/

Printable and electronic Christmas gifts for emergencies (also bakeable)

Updated Christmas 2015, original post from 2009 and updated in 2013

Shops in London are certainly open on Christmas Eve (for example the Apple Store (5pm) and Hamleys (6pm) on Regent Street, and John Lewis (5.30pm) on Oxford Street. Larger supermarkets will also be open too and they usually have a pretty good selection of toys, DVDs, stationery, and all those little gift cards (eg iTunes, Debenham's etc).

But if you're not able to get out to shops and want to send something electronically (or print to hand to someone if you have a printer) here are some ideas.

Baked gifts
If you've got time to get some flour, salt and paint you can make salt dough decorations and if your shop also has eggs, sugar and flavourings you can make edible decorations or cakes etc.
 
Gingerbread men (and women) - if you don't have a cookie cutter you can make a template from paper and cut your own. Another recipe for gingerbread biscuits.

From Londonist - How to make your own tube roundel Christmas tree decoration (salt dough and paint)

Voucher codes
Amazon giftcards / gift vouchers
There are options for sending something by email or printing. Don't forget that if you'd normally give someone a £10 book you might need to give them a £15 voucher so they don't have to pay extra for postage and packaging (hat tip @philbradley).

Tickets
Cinema tickets, music tickets etc - note that this works best if you're attending with the person as you may need to show the ticket office the card you use to book. If you want to sort things out so that this step isn't needed it's probably best to ring the booking office, though admittedly they might not be open on Christmas Eve.

Apple music / iTunes vouchers 
iTunes vouchers for music (iTunes store) or apps (app store) - I am not sure if you need to have iTunes on your computer though or if you can do it via other shops, eg Amazon. I believe that if you and your recipient both have iPhones (which are Apple products) you can even send them apps and voucher codes by phone, but I've never tried it.

Memberships
People might enjoy being a member of an event or cinema venue (eg Southbank, BFI). Or gyms if people are that way inclined. Or perhaps classes for things like cookery or photography.

Charitable things
Lend with Care (from CARE)
http://www.lendwithcare.org/gifts/ - charitable microcredit sort of thing, see also Kiva

Toilet Twinning (donate to projects to build loos to improve sanitary conditions)
http://www.toilettwinning.org/

Oxfam Unwrapped

"Missed the last post? Send an e-card gift instead"

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/oxfam-unwrapped?ito=1482 

Decorations, gift tags and things which might entertain children

Activity Village (colour in snowmen, Christmas trees etc)
Printable Christmas crafts including 3D Christmas snowman and tree
General Christmas printables
Christmas baubles (£2.95 to download, but there's enough info to make your own)

Paper plate angels - the whole blog is quite fun

Christmas gift tags
http://freebies.about.com/od/Christmas-Freebies/tp/printable-christmas-gift-tags.htm