Faced with the daunting prospect of festive gift-buying, one journalist decided to take on an extreme challenge: complete all her Christmas shopping in a mere 60 minutes. With a timer set and a budget in mind, Charlotte Cripps embarked on a frantic online mission to purchase 27 presents before the clock ran out.
The Festive Pressure of Time and Money
The average Briton spends a staggering 41 hours preparing for Christmas, with over six hours dedicated solely to shopping, according to research. Cripps, however, opted for a radically different approach. Functioning better under pressure, she embraced the tight deadline, despite acknowledging a tendency to panic-shop. This year, financial concerns were prominent, mirroring the feelings of a third of Britons who are worried about Christmas's impact on their finances.
Her list was substantial. It included gifts for her two daughters, aged nine and seven, their grandmother, aunts, an uncle, a nephew, and six teenage nieces. Add to that best friends, a psychic, a childminder, teachers, a dog walker, and the family golden retriever, and the total hit 27 separate presents. In a bid for sensibility, she set a price limit of £40 per item, hoping to navigate the hour-long spree without breaking the bank.
The One-Hour Shopping Sprint
The race began with stocking fillers. A quick ten-minute dive into Smiggle's 'stocking stuffers £5 and under' section yielded 13 bargain items, from scented pencils to Squishlicious Collectable Treats, for £37. Moving to Selfridges with a £20 filter, the sheer volume of 1,460 options was overwhelming. After 20 minutes, she had six items, including a creative playset and metallic watercolour pencils, totalling £89. The stockings were sorted, but the budget was already straining.
With only 35 minutes remaining, the main presents demanded attention. A 3Doodler pen from John Lewis (£35.99) and a MYNT3D Super 3D Pen from Amazon (£49.99) were swiftly secured for the children. A photo frame for Grandma (£16) and animal print slippers from M&S (£20.80) for an aunt followed. A detour to Jo Malone for a friend's gift led to a personal indulgence: a £122 Red Roses cologne, taking precious time as she called the store for scent advice on Pomegranate Noir.
The Final Frantic Minutes and the Bottom Line
In the last 15 minutes, panic set in. She decided to send cash to seven teenage nieces and nephews, then raced to Fortnum & Mason. With minutes to spare, she added musical biscuit tins for teachers, champagne truffles, and a dramatic tin of Chocolossus biscuits to her basket, spending £104.55. A rushed extension of ten minutes was needed for the children's friends, leading to a £59.99 spend on Sylvanian Families sets from John Lewis. The dog walker would receive Quality Street. In the frantic rush, the family dog, Muggles, was almost forgotten, but a last-second search secured a Barbour Pheasant dog toy from Harrods for £18.95.
When the timer finally stopped, the total expenditure was £455. While this sum might be less than some spend on a single gift, it was a significant outlay for an hour's work. The challenge took 70 minutes in total—10 over the target—but was still a fraction of the national average of 41 hours of prep time. The experiment proved that while last-minute shopping is possible, it is intense, headache-inducing, and perilous for a carefully planned budget. The wrapping, however, averaging two hours and 41 minutes according to research, remained a task for another day.
