What should I buy? How much should I spend? Will my Amazon package arrive in time? Chip Content Writer, Sheridan, gets baubles deep in Christmas preparation so you don’t have to.  

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Can you hear that? That’s the sound of retailers placing orders for ugly Christmas sweaters; Starbucks innovating this years festive frappe, and your mum calling every family member to ask who’s hosting Christmas lunch despite her saying ‘she’s not being responsible for it this year’. That’s right, tinsel time is upon us.

We know what you’re thinking (not because we’re spying on you. Nice top by the way).  

‘Chip,’ you’ll say.

‘It hasn’t even been Halloween yet! I don’t want to let Michael Buble out just yet; I only just bought cat ears!’, you’ll cry.

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But we’re realists here at Chip. And if you don’t want to be the family member gifting ‘free hug’ vouchers, you simply have to accept that Christmas preparation starts now. We all know Christmas shopping really should start now, too, but who are we kidding, hand us that pumpkin spiced latte.

Looking over our Chip Saver data, we can see A LOT of you have used Christmas as a goal, so we thought, why not put on some Mariah Carey and get into the spirit early.

Gone are the days where putting money aside during Christmas time was deemed impossible. We’re making Christmas that little bit easier, and now, gift finding easier, too. But don’t ask us for wrapping tips - unfortunately that isn’t one of our redeeming skills.

From your £10 Secret Santa to your I-don’t-need-anything-but-still-buy-me-something relative, we thought we’d get you motivated to create a new goal in the Chip app so you can have a very merry Chipmas (we’re getting coal for using that pun).

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Experiential  

Turn up your nose at materialism? Struggling to find something for your anti-capitalism friend? Create some everlasting memories for your loved ones (and your Instagram feed) with these experience-based gifts:

1. Hit the city for an evening with Secret Cinema. If you haven’t heard of the concept, we assert a healthy amount of peer pressure for you to do so. Now. With the Casino Royale production wrapping up in November, The Stranger Things installment is set to run until February with tickets selling fast. It’s going to be bitchin’.
2. If your Chip balance is looking extra generous, first of all, high five. Second of all, look into the incredible glamping or ‘staycation’ options in your city.
3. Keep British culture alive and book a high tea somewhere swish.
4. And keep the spark alive with this 100 date ideas scratch off poster. Start by scratching off the first box and buy something related to that suggestion.
5. Find a cocktail making class nearby, pair with a DIY cocktail making kit. A long term solution to avoid paying a limb for a cocktail.
6. We’ve saved the coolest one for last: buy them a star! Sun excluded.

Card games ain’t boring

Modern day card games: an equilibrium between the borderline-violent family Monopoly games and the short timeframe where in UNO is actually fun. Everyone has heard of Cards Against Humanity, so here are a few of our lesser known favourites (disclaimer: you might not want to play some of these with Grandma):

7. What Do You Meme
8. If You Had To…
9. Santa Banter (our favourite haunt for games in Shoreditch).
10. New Phone Who Dis

A gift from the heART

The beauty of gifting art is that no one really knows how much you spent on it. You can order a £17.99 print, doll it up in an IKEA frame and it looks like you put in a remarkable amount of effort, and also paints you as a tasteful admirer of the arts. Ha, fools.

11. Look here
12. And here.
13. Ooo and here.
    

For the avid readers

14. For your beloved bookworms, a book subscription is the gift that keeps on giving and a great alternative to gifting an individual read.
15. And on the opposite side of sentiment, novelty books are on the rise, and rightly so. I recently saw a book on reasons why your cat is plotting your demise. Utterly ridiculous yet I still express shipped it to my house.
    

Make it personal

Personalised gifts clearly convey this was no last minute scramble. It also means they can’t regift it. Genius, we know.

16. Grandad will love this one: news publications from their date of birth. Guaranteed win.
17. Leather goodies with their name on it. The Daily Edited or Kikki K do a mighty fine job, personalising everything from phone cases and diaries, to passport holders and suitcases. Still waiting on personalised Tupperware so Kevin* can stop eating my leftovers.
18. Stick your face (or your pet’s face) on a sock or a laptop sleeve. Their expressions as they open it will be equally as rewarding.
19. Just look at these sweet personalised print by Anecdoodles that illustrates key memories/inside jokes between you and your friend/relative/partner/crush on the tube.
20. This family constellation print is a great find.

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For the token eco warrior  

Save the planet while scoring the perfect present; killing two birds with one stone would be the wrong phrase to use here, but you see what we’re getting at.

21. Patch plants have an abundant selection of aesthetic indoor plants just waiting to pimp someone's living room.
22. Earth loving gift boxes from the likes of The Eco Shop, Wearth or Crate Joy.

We are all guilty of neglecting our disciplined spending habits come Christmas time. A gingerbread house here, a mulled wine there. Our job is to keep you on track without you even noticing. That’s our gift to you. Sorry we forgot the card.