The Best Christmas Gift Cards for Everyone on Your List

Family is where the list gets long. Parents, in-laws, a teenage niece and the uncle who insists he needs nothing all sit in the same column, and they rarely want the same thing. A Farmers gift card covers a lot of that ground at once, with fashion, beauty and homeware under one roof. Amounts run from $15 to $200, so it suits a small gift for a cousin as easily as something bigger for Mum and Dad.

When you really cannot decide, the Merry Christmas Gift Card is our own card with a festive design. The person you give it to picks the brand gift cards they want, and the balance can be split across more than one. You choose any amount from $10 to $1,000. It is the card for the relative whose taste seems to change every year.

Christmas here means long days, a packed car and at least one tent that has seen better summers. For the person who spends January on a track or at a campsite by the river, a Kathmandu gift card goes towards the gear they actually need. Think a better sleeping mat, a rain jacket for the next tramp or a pack that stops digging into their shoulders. Amounts run from $5 to $250, so it works as a small extra too.

For someone who would rather be on a plane than in a tent, a Webjet gift card puts a summer trip within reach. It comes in amounts from $50 to $250 and can go towards flights home to family or a few nights away once the holiday rush settles. They decide where to go and when. That is the part you could never have booked for them anyway.

Beauty and fashion are the easiest gifts to get slightly wrong. Shade, scent, size and fit are personal, and a near miss tends to end up at the back of a drawer. A Sephora gift card leaves those calls to the person who knows their own skin, with amounts from $10 to $200. For someone whose summer wardrobe is due a refresh, a Glassons gift card from $5 to $200 covers a few new pieces for the warmer months.

If they love both, or you are not sure which way they lean, the Style & Beauty Choice Gift Card lets them choose between beauty, skincare and fashion gift cards themselves. It is one of our own cards, with any amount from $10 to $1,000. The person you are giving it to decides whether it becomes a new moisturiser, a linen shirt or a bit of both.

Gamers and readers have one thing in common: they know exactly what they want next, and it is rarely what you would have picked. An Xbox gift card comes in $15, $25, $40, $50, $70 and $100, so it can go towards a new game or extras for one they already play. It suits the teenager who has quietly planned the whole holiday around a release.

For the person who gets through a book a week on the beach, a Kobo gift card from $10 to $50 goes on ebooks and audiobooks. A whole summer of reading fits in the beach bag without the weight of a stack of paperbacks, and none of them come home full of sand.

Some people would rather eat well than own one more thing. For them, the Restaurants and Dining Gift Card turns Christmas into a night out: a long dinner on a warm evening, a table near the water or the favourite local they never book often enough. Amounts run from $50 to $250, which covers anything from lunch for two to a proper celebration. It also suits the couple who have spent all year saying they should go out more and never quite get round to it. It is a gift that gets used up, and the foodie on your list will count that as a plus.

Start with what they actually do over summer. The camper, the traveller, the reader on the beach and the friend who is always booking a table all point to different cards, and most Christmas gift card ideas come straight from that. Then pick an amount that fits your budget and the card's range. Add a personal message on the product page, because a line about why you chose it is what turns a code into a present. At checkout, decide whether the card comes to your own inbox or goes straight to them. It is sent as soon as you order and arrives within minutes.

For more options, browse all our Christmas gift cards, or give the All-in-1 Choice Gift Card and let them do the choosing.

That is one more name you can cross off the list.