The UK Gifting Calendar: Month-by-Month Dates for Presents and Race Days

A good gift giver is mostly a good planner. This calendar collects the dates that matter in a British year, from the fixed festivals to the moving feasts, plus the big sporting days that so many of the people we buy for build their year around.

Month by month

Dates for moveable feasts and sporting events change from year to year, so check each year's official fixtures before planning a surprise.

The moveable feasts

Easter Sunday can fall anywhere between 22 March and 25 April, and Mothering Sunday moves with it. Diwali, Eid and Hanukkah follow lunar or lunisolar calendars, so their Gregorian dates shift each year. Put them in your diary in January, when the year's dates are easy to look up.

Why race days belong in a gifting calendar

For a surprising number of British families, the sporting calendar is the real calendar. The Cheltenham Festival in March and the Grand National in April are the two jump-racing events that reach well beyond regular racegoers: the National in particular is the one day of the year when offices, pubs and families who never otherwise bet run a sweepstake and everyone picks a horse. Royal Ascot in June mixes racing with fashion, and the Derby has been run at Epsom since 1780.

These dates are gift opportunities in their own right. A racing fan's birthday that lands near Cheltenham deserves tickets, a personalised racecard holder or an engraved flask; a family gathering in April can be built around a printed Grand National sweepstake sheet with everyone's names. We have put together a full guide to Grand National and Cheltenham sweepstake kits and race-day gifts, and for the summer, ideas for golfers who like a flutter around the Open.

Order-by dates for personalised gifts

• Valentine's Day: order engraved gifts by the end of January.
• Mothering Sunday: order two to three weeks ahead; demand spikes in the final week.
• Father's Day: order by early June.
• Christmas: aim for the end of November; treat early December as the last safe week for anything needing a proof.

Need help with what to write? Our wording guide has templates for every date in this calendar.

Birthdays and anniversaries: build your own calendar

The single best gifting habit is a personal calendar of birthdays and anniversaries with a reminder two weeks before each one. Add the "big ones" (milestone birthdays, silver and golden weddings) a few months ahead so there is time for a group gift. See our guides to milestone birthdays and anniversary gifts by year.

Written by the Ribbon & Tag editors.