2012 has been a strange year. For all the jubilation and activity of, well, jubilees and the Olympics, there's been just as much doom and gloom speculation and phrases including 'double dip recession' and 'job cuts' cluttering up news headlines. For large swathes of Europe summer failed to arrive - or, at least, stay for longer than a day or two, and now, surprisingly, it's almost time to bid farewell to this year and move on to the next.
Inevitably as the end of the year approaches so too does Christmas and the realisation that it's coming around quicker than an express train on roller skates. Conversations are already being hijacked by talk of the festive season and the gloats of the varying stages at which other people's Christmas shopping is. If you're reading this with a sense of creeping despair at the incomplete - or even un-started - state of your own Christmas shopping then here's something that just might help you when it comes to spending so much time wondering what to get someone that you run out of time: spa gift vouchers.
Let's face it; there's always at least one person for whom the ideas for the perfect gift simply aren't there and heading to the shops for inspiration results in nothing more than miserable wandering from store to store before settling on something that might just as well do. A spa gift voucher is the ideal way to combat just such problems while showing someone that you genuinely care - even if, really, you're not all that bothered.
These days spa gift vouchers are available in a range of denominations to suit all budgets or even certain treatments and - of course, whole spa days. Getting someone a voucher that will give them even half an hours treatment will bring a smile to their face while getting them a voucher for a whole spa day is a sure-fire way to create a very happy gift recipient come Christmas morning.
Ordinarily a gift voucher can seem a tad cold, a "I had no idea what do get you but didn't want to give you cash so here's a bit of paper that'll get you ten quid off your next book purchase wrapped in a generic store card".
A spa gift voucher, however, says "I want you to feel special, enjoy some relaxing, tranquil bliss and come out feeling better." It's a day of pampering in an envelope and doesn't even need wrapping. However, until they're opened they don't appear as impressive or thoughtful so it may well be that the intended recipient is expecting to open the envelope finding the aforementioned gift voucher. Accordingly, the sense of surprise when they open the card and find such a thoughtful and unexpected gift voucher will certainly be up there. Instead of a voucher for books or music they're now in possession of a voucher entitling them to some relaxing indulgence.
There's even the added convenience that the vast majority of spas let you buy a gift voucher online - thus creating even less time spent trudging round shops avoiding the elbows of other last-minute-dash Christmas shoppers.
So for those caught by surprise by the progress and the march toward Christmas, rather than being left without ideas and searching for a last minute gift, spa gift vouchers are not only easy and convenient to buy but are a great way to give someone a gift that will show that, really, you care.