The 22 Best Last-Minute Valentine’s Day Gifts

Made out of stretchy nylon lace in an intricate floral pattern, the Hanky Panky Signature Lace Boyshort—our pick for the best women’s underwear—is sexy without sacrificing comfort. While not as smooth as silk, the lace isn’t scratchy either, and this pair doesn’t have side seams to dig into your valentine’s hips. The curve-hugging cut, which shows a bit of cheek in the back, is also flattering on a wide range of body types.

Based on a large-scale study on women’s pleasure, OMG Yes offers hundreds of instructional videos with demos, diagrams, and practical tips for sexier times. You can watch any of the videos solo, but doing it together as a couple is surely the most fun approach, with a range of techniques, such as framing (how to mentally stimulate your partner) and edging (approaching and withholding). The service is a one-time payment—not a subscription—so you can just charge your credit card, load up a video, and get right down to … learning.

Red roses are a classic Valentine’s Day choice, but the real things can be a bit romantic for some relationships. Enter the Lego Roses, which add a playful touch to the idea and have the added benefit of lasting forever. Each flower features red petals, (not painful) thorns, green leaves, and adjustable-length stems. The 120-piece set fits nicely in a bud vase has a charming, not chintzy aspect.

A new favorite here at Wirecutter, the Dylan Clogs from Crocs belie the brand’s fugly reputation with a smooth toe box and a textured exterior that approximates full-grain leather. They’re still as comfortable as the originals and made out of the same tough-as-nails proprietary resin. Supervising editor Hannah Morrill gave a pair to her partner, who has been wearing them nonstop ever since.

Sometimes it can be tough to articulate what your person means to you. The fill-in-the-blank What I Love About Us book is a way to solve romantic writer’s block. Each page features a helpful prompt, such as “I love the sound of your ___ you when you ____” and “I’m so glad you love my ___.” It’s your choice if you want to fill it in with messages that are sensuous, saccharine, or serious. At 4.5 by 3.25 inches, the mini book is about half the size of a paperback—just long enough to express your feelings, but not so much that it’s a slog.

With classroom valentines and no messy breakups (yet), kids can be the holiday’s most enthusiastic and pure boosters. We love this pretty 19-inch J.Crew Factory Girls’ Heart Locket Necklace for the youngs. The necklace is made of gold-painted brass and steel, so your heart won’t drop if they lose it, but the locket is still easy to click open and close, and it’s surprisingly durable. Supervising editor Hannah Morrill gave her then 4-year-old daughter one two years ago, and it’s still in heavy rotation. If you’re near a J.Crew store, you can put in an order online and pick it up on the same day.

Valentine’s Day is a perfect time to blow someone’s mind with a personalized shoutout from a celebrity crush, and Cameo is a great way to do just that. Maybe your dad would love a pep talk from Bo Derek. Have a best friend who would swoon over kind words from none other than One Tree Hill’s Austin Nichols? And don’t tell us your mom wouldn’t love the sweet sounds of Kenny G’s sax just for her. Cameo is particularly convenient: Most personalities on the platform can deliver in 24 hours. Whether you opt for someone meaningful or absurd, staff reactions to the service have ranged from gobsmacked to thrilled to truly touched.

If you’re unsure about the florists in your love’s local area, we recommend our also-great pick for online flower delivery, Teleflora. Unlike many online services, which rely on carriers like FedEx that can get delayed, Teleflora uses a network of local florists, and bouquets are hand delivered, which means they’re more likely to arrive on time and less likely to get damaged en route. Though it’s always best to order Valentine’s Day flowers as soon as you think of it, you don’t need to order with Teleflora weeks in advance: You can filter your delivery speed by “Same Day” (the cutoff is typically 2 p.m. on weekdays and noon for weekends) for last-minute arrangements. However, we recommend ordering at least a day or two in advance of a big flower holiday like Valentine’s Day when florist shops get cleaned out.

Let’s say it’s Valentine’s Day eve and you’re reading this guide. Nothing is cheekier than popping out to Target or CVS for this Ferrero Rocher Collection 48 Piece Gift Box before your shame spiral gets the best of you. Though not as nuanced as our favorite boxed chocolates, these beloved checkout-line treats are a delight in textures, featuring a creamy chocolate-hazelnut filling in a crispy wafer shell, which is studded with hazelnuts and enrobed with chocolate. In addition to the classic hazelnut milk-chocolate Ferrero Rocher treats, this box also features dark chocolate Rondnoir and white almond coconut Raffaello truffles.

Everyone could use a posh and cozy robe to lounge around in at home when hard clothes just seem like a “nope,” and Natori’s Shangri-La Robe is our favorite lightweight option. The inseam pockets don’t pucker on the hips, and the kimono-style collar lies flat and smooth. Its thin, slinky material feels great against the skin and is flattering on a range of bodies. It even comes in a dozen pretty color options to suit anyone on your list.

If you have a movie lover on your list and they’ve already exhausted their usual streaming suspects (The Criterion Channel, Netflix, and so on), then the next film frontier they should explore is the art-minded Mubi. The service offers indie and international classics (like Nights of Cabiria, Pierrot le Fou, and But I’m a Cheerleader) as well as titles your recipient is not likely to have seen before. The films are curated into delightfully niche categories, too, like Hungarian animation and movies about movies.

Useful for newbies and seasoned home cooks alike, NYT Cooking has recipes and tips that’ll get the chef you love out of their same-soup-every-week rut. The Valentine’s Day recipe collection is especially inspired, with dinner ideas (Cast-Iron Steak, Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese Sauce) and dreamy sweets like Flourless Chocolate Cake or Chocolate Shortbread Hearts. The app also makes it easy to save and quickly access favorite recipes on the Recipe Box page, which is organized by type of meal or cuisine.

There’s no wrong way to enjoy popcorn, but if your valentine has been microwaving unimaginative bags of the prefab variety, a dedicated popcorn bowl such as W&P’s The Popper, which they can use with their own kernels and seasoning, is a great upgrade. A favorite among the popping methods we’ve tried, this silicone bowl is dishwasher safe and collapses to about 2 inches tall for easy storage. And it can pop up a bowl of the good stuff in just about two minutes.

As this anthology’s name suggests, the literary short fiction collected here examines love and desire, through journeys across bedrooms and therapists’ offices, modern sex clubs, and a 20th century Parisian sex theater. Edited by writers R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell and featuring works by literary darlings Alexander Chee, Roxane Gay, and Carmen Maria Machado, among others, this book is not a bedside read for just anyone on your gift list. But it makes an excellent choice for an open-minded friend or for a lover you’d like to explore its pages with.

Something about an instant camera is irresistible—it’s more fun to shoot with (and to see the results from) than the camera on a smartphone, and it avoids the usual pressure of taking a picture over and over until everything is perfect. If your loved one feels the same, they might like the handsome Fujifilm Instax Square SQ40, our top-pick instant camera. It’s easy to use and has a rotating ring for close-ups and an automatic built-in flash for low-light environments. It produces creamy and film-like photos, with rich, saturated colors.

For the insatiable scholar—or just the person who has exhausted all the palatable content on Netflix—membership to MasterClass will prove to be an invaluable gift. Your valentine will be able to take a variety of virtual classes with famous instructors: cooking with Yotam Ottolenghi, skateboarding with Tony Hawk, writing with David Sedaris, acting with Natalie Portman, and on and on. It’s also a great gift for people with curious kids: Deputy editor Christine Cyr Clisset reports that her small children watched the Alice Waters cooking episode by themselves, “and my now 8-year-old can make an amazing salad dressing.” Now, that’s a gift that keeps on giving.

For your literary loved one, a book subscription box that sends them a new hardback every month makes a fabulous gift. For those who would prefer an element of control—but don’t want to get overwhelmed with options—we like Book of the Month, which offers readers a choice among five recently released books (and also helps direct your giftee to more books they may want to check out later). The picks are always books released during the month in which they’re included, and they span a range of genres to keep your gift recipient engaged.

If you’re not totally sure what kinds of sweets your sweetie prefers, a great way to get around the problem is to send a Sugarwish eCard. With it, your gift recipient can select their favorites online, whether they like Sour Patch Kids, Jelly Bellys divvied up by flavor, or more esoteric offerings like Banana Heads (though if that last one is their favorite, we’d reconsider the relationship). Select the box size, eCard design, and delivery method (email or messaging, including text and social media). The eCard and a redeemable code then arrive on a day of your choosing to make it a sweet one for all involved.

If your loved one is ready to level up their morning coffee, get them the OXO Brew 9-Cup Coffee Maker. It produces pour-over-quality brew, but with push-button ease. We’ve recommended this model for years and used it regularly in our office. We particularly like that the carafe keeps coffee warm without scorching the brew, that it has a programmable start time, and that it has an automatic pre-infusion cycle (which wets the coffee before brewing for better extraction).

Whether your loved one commutes across town or shuffles across the apartment to work from the couch, the Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug is the best travel mug for keeping their drink hot and preventing leaks. We’ve tested the Zojirushi mug for years, and it has consistently kept liquids hotter than the competition, even after eight hours in the harsh environment of a freezer. This means your gift recipient’s morning java or tea will still be piping hot by the time they get to work—or find it in the kitchen after forgetting it hours earlier. Either way, they’ll never have to suffer the disappointment of a tepid sip.

A body pillow might not seem like an amazing Valentine’s Day gift—especially since it’s sort of like replacing your partner—but if your special someone is a side- or stomach-sleeper and already likes to hug a pillow when they sleep, they might just love the Sleep Number Cool ComfortFit Body Pillow (a pick from our guide to body pillows). The shredded memory-foam fill molds precisely to the body and nicely supports the hips, knees, and abdomen; as a result, it can help reduce or eliminate aches and pains in the morning.

If your partner has been curious about weighted blankets (or just likes the sensation of sleeping under piles of heavy comforters), they may like the Baloo Weighted Blanket (pictured above). Some people find that sleeping under a weighted blanket helps them feel calmer and better rested (although there isn’t conclusive scientific evidence to back up those claims). The Baloo Weighted Blanket looks just like a comforter; you can even buy a lovely linen duvet cover for it. And unlike many other weighted blankets, this one can go right into the washer and dryer.

This article was edited by Hannah Morrill and Jennifer Hunter.

We love finding gifts that are unusual, thoughtful, and well vetted. See even more Valentine’s Day gift ideas we recommend.