Celebration Ambush? Gift Giving Emergency?

Have you ever experienced the 'Celebration Ambush'? A children's party invitation that somehow hides itself inside the flap of a library book only to re-surface the day before the party, an unexpected Christmas guest or a last minute invite to a birthday meal.

Commence the ensuing 'Gift Giving Emergency'. Like many others, I have a strategy for dealing with this situation by ferreting away an emergency gift stash complete with cards and wrapping paper (oh and there's always wine for adult gift emergencies ......or for me when it all gets too much!).

We have just moved house and don't have as much storage space as we used to so I've had to condense the gift stash to one under-bed plastic box.

To streamline the gift stash, I recommend sticking to a couple of reversible, neutral or plain metallic design gift wrap which can cover any celebration ambush, some plain gift tags, some bottle bags and a pack of flat-packed assorted colour pull bows. The pull bows can tailor the neutral gift wrap to the occasion, you might use the recipients favourite colour, metallic red for Christmas or silver or gold for a wedding anniversary.