Okay, we’ve all been there. Summative season kicks the door in, then it somehow becomes mid-December – and that Secret Santa you signed up for in the innocence of autumn is actually due next Tuesday. With deadlines up to your eyebrows (in addition to the winter of it all), the last thing you want to do is throw yourself at Chantry Place and wander haplessly through its glittery anarchy for hours, the looming potential of going home empty-handed turning your blood cold. What do people actually want? Where on earth do you find it? How soon can they invent telepathy? And why does nobody seem to know how to use an escalator?

Reader: I see you, I feel you, I’ve been you. When you’re in a pinch, the prospect of conjuring up a bunch of unique, affordable gift ideas can feel insurmountable. It’s easy, therefore, to fall into the trap of the panic purchase: the kind of present your giftee gets maybe one use out of before it’s tucked away in a desk drawer. Before you board that bus to Norwich City Centre (with dread settling deep in your bones), take a quick look at this gift guide and avoid charging in blind!

Homeware

Most uni students will likely appreciate a nice bit of homeware (one that isn’t, at this point in the semester, scraped, chipped or burned at the bottom). If you’re shopping for that slightly bougie friend, Jarrolds often has quality brands like Denby available at discounted prices, as does TK Maxx; for the trinket collector, charity shops will awe you with their unique ranges of mismatched crockery. A weird medieval-ish tankard from the 1980s? Sure! Sometimes specific is best: if you’re shopping for a flatmate or friend who loves a really specific meal on repeat, tailor your search towards that (here’s a cute egg cup for your staple breakfast!). Another top tip when choosing between designs is to look to their personal style of dress to narrow down the colours, aesthetics and eras they gravitate towards!

Food

An absolutely genius bit of shopping advice I received from my mother, who consistently wins Christmas: what the people really want is OLIVE OIL. Honey and finishing salts are simple crowd pleasers, or if you’re well-versed in their tastes, consider fun sauces, spreads or jams. Or pasta! Giving repeat-buys and pantry staples – all the better if they’ve got an aesthetically pleasing label – is easy, practical and genuinely thoughtful. (One of my favourite gifts I’ve received so far this year: a huge bag of fancy hot chocolate). Plus, there’s always a sweet treat: Norwich seems to have an award-winning bakery on every street corner, many of which sell packaged goods that’ll keep until your gift exchange. For some more fun, if you can get your hands on some good containers, you could get a few packets of treats then mix and match them into cookie tins for everyone on your gift list. You could also bake your own! 

Clothes

I’m always very, very hesitant to give clothes as a gift. They can take up a lot of space, and it really is incredibly hard to anticipate what someone will actually like and wear. If they don’t like what you pick out, or it doesn’t quite fit, it has the potential of going straight to the back of the wardrobe. My alternative suggestion: sleepwear! Very practical, but at the same time fresh pyjamas just feel like a treat. Once again, be sure to take reference from their personal style, paying attention to fabrics, palettes, decorations, expression of gender. For extra thoughtfulness points, buy a merch t-shirt for a band, show or film they might like – the television and movie store opposite the Forum has a huge selection, as does HMV – then present it as a sleep shirt. It takes the pressure off a bit, and if they like it a lot, they can wear it as an everyday shirt instead! 

Accessories

As someone who seems to shed jewellery like loose hair, accessories are always lovely to receive, but like clothes, they bear the risk of collecting dust if you aren’t perfectly in tune with someone’s taste. If you’re too worried about choosing the wrong metal to face the jewellery rack, consider an alternative accessory: a really warm scarf never goes amiss, and there’s a fantastic selection of cashmere ones at the Market. Keychains are trendy, mix-and-matchable and easy to hunt down second-hand at St. Gregory’s Antiques. Phone charms and key lanyards are so, so useful! 

Miscellaneous 

A quickfire round!

• Bag organisers. Lots of fun little pockets!
• A D.I.Y. cookbook of all your favourite treat-yourself recipes.
• This is very individual-specific, but: nice tea towels. Flannels and reusable face-pads are also cool. 
• I tend to avoid scented candles or perfumed things. Again: potential for pickiness to rear its head. 
• Ice cube trays. In fun shapes!
• A sleep mask. If you want to get really crazy, a silk sleep mask.
• A gift card. Original? No. Appreciated? Personally, always.