Christmas gifts 2015: How late can you leave your shopping at Argos, M&S, Currys, John Lewis, Zara, Amazon, Harrods and more?
Left your Christmas shopping until the last minute this year again?
You’re not alone. Christmas Eve is when the real festive rush sets in, with manic shoppers dashing to get everything done before Father Christmas is due. Last year, payments processor Worldpay estimated it was the single busiest day of the year, processing 26m transactions in the UK alone.
But as anyone who’s ventured into the frenzy in the days before Christmas will know, diving for the last iPad or fighting over the last set of socks in the store is a less than pleasant experience in the flesh.
Infinitely preferable, surely, to do it from behind the comfort and safety of your own computer screen.
But just how late can you leave the online shopping and still be sure to have your parcels arrive safely before Christmas Day? To avoid disappointing your loved ones, we’ve found a nifty online tool put together by courier service ParcelHero, which shows you when most major UK retailers have their last order dates – and it's still not too late for many of them.
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The firm’s head of public relation David Links said:
While no delivery companies want to encourage last-minute deliveries, because of the risk of gifts missing Christmas Day we think it’s best to make sure customers are fully informed of the cut-off dates for placing orders.
It's too late for many traditional stores with final orders as early as 16 December, including John Lewis and Zara.
But others are more forgiving of last-minute shoppers, like Amazon, which allows you to shop on 23 December and still get your gifts before Christmas.
Argos takes the cake (or should that be Christmas pudding?), however, with a same-day service still operating on Christmas Eve.
Try the tool: How late can you leave your Christmas shopping?