With Christmas Day almost upon us, have you got your present shopping all wrapped up? Or are you panicking you haven’t bought enough? Vicky Shaw reports on the dangerous phenomenon of ‘gift creep’

SO, you’ve traipsed round the shops, scoured the internet and, after stocking up on Christmas gifts for family and friends, you’re now putting your feet up for a well-earned rest.

But just as you bite into that mince pie and take the first sip of that mulled wine, doubts start popping into your mind.

Will your father-in-law really fit into that reindeer jumper you bought him or should you have gone for extra large? Will your nephew really like the wooden train set, or should you have admitted consumerist defeat and gone for the big, brash plastic one?

Cue the mince pie and mulled wine being abandoned, and you dashing back to the shops. After all, there’s still a whole hour before they close to grab whatever’s left on the shelves, whatever it might be.

If this panic-laden scenario sounds familiar, it could mean you’re a victim of gift creep – a new phrase coined to sum up those little extra presents we snap up at the last minute in the hope they’ll make the original gifts we chose look better.

A survey of 3,000 people, by Currys and PC World, found we spend an average of £16.79 each on such presents, despite the same research also showing most people start planning their presents up to eight weeks in advance of the big day.

But 35 per cent say they feel the urge to buy more because they are disappointed with how their gifts look wrapped up, and 23 per cent say they worry the other person will have spent more.

Dr Karen Pine, a psychologist, says: ‘‘Choosing the right gifts at Christmas is one of the most stressful events of the year, as people feel under pressure to get it absolutely right.

‘‘This pressure leads to a behavioural phenomenon that we call gift creep.

‘‘This is when people buy additional gifts because they worry that what they’ve chosen isn’t enough, or isn’t quite up to scratch.’’ Although this concern about getting things right is principally aimed at the gifts we are giving, it does seep over to the ones we’re receiving too. More than a third of those surveyed said they wish loved ones would stick to a specific list of presents, rather than trying to use their own initiative when buying a Christmas gift, and 30 per cent said they go for the direct approach and tell their nearest and dearest exactly want they want and where to buy it.

Needless to say, the research also pointed to some differences between men and women in their gift-buying behaviour. Women said they start picking up on hints dropped up to 13 weeks before Christmas, while men listen for subtle mentions up to nine weeks before. A wily ten per cent of both sexes said they monitored posts on social media for extra hints.

But while it would be tempting to think all this planning and hinthunting was enough to feel under control of what’s under the tree, the rise of ’gift creep’ clearly proves otherwise.