Forgot Mother's Day? Check her wishlist before you buy anything

It is Saturday evening, Mother's Day is tomorrow, and there is nothing in the house except a bottle of wine you were saving. Before you drive to the petrol station for the last bunch of tulips, check whether your mum already has a wishlist somewhere. There is a good chance she does, and it will save the morning.

Find the list she has already made

A lot of mothers keep a list without calling it one. Saved items on a shop's site, a Pinterest board, a note on the phone, a Happy Giftlist link she sent your sister in March. Ask your brothers and sisters, ask your dad, look at what she has favourited. You may find she has wanted the same Ottolenghi cookbook, the same hand cream or the same kitchen scales for months. Buying from her own list beats guessing, and at nine on a Saturday night it is a lot faster.

When the thing on the list cannot arrive by Sunday

Order it anyway for delivery next week, and give her a card tomorrow with a picture of what is on its way. Most mothers find the card and the wait rather charming, and they get to open something twice.

Digital gifts are the quickest fix. A year of a streaming service, an audiobook subscription or a meditation app can be switched on tonight. A gift card for the shop where her list lives, with a printout of the exact three items you spotted on it, also works and lets her choose the moment herself.

Turn the list into an afternoon

Some of the best Mother's Day gifts are not parcels. If her list is full of novels, set up the armchair with a lamp, a pot of her tea and two hours where nobody asks her anything. If there are baking tins on it, bake the thing together on Sunday afternoon. If it is knitting or watercolours, sit next to her and do the same thing badly.

Pair the afternoon with the item ordered for later. She gets the time now and a parcel on Thursday.

What you can still buy with no notice at all

E-books, online courses and software arrive the moment you pay. Several skincare brands and department stores deliver the same day in the bigger cities. A spa treatment, a restaurant voucher or a pottery class often has a Sunday slot if you phone the place directly instead of using the booking form. Same-day flowers go with any of these.

A subscription box is worth a look too. The first one takes a week or two, but a card explaining what turns up every month reads as a real plan, particularly when the box matches something already on her list.

Make it look planned

A short handwritten note that says why you picked the thing from her list, or when you heard her mention it, does more than any wrapping. Put together a small basket: one wishlist item, plus whatever you can find locally on Sunday morning, a bar of good chocolate, a candle, flowers from the market. The mix of planned and last-minute reads as effort. The petrol station tulips on their own read as Saturday night.

Most mothers care about being noticed, far more than about price or timing. A gift from her own list proves you paid attention at some point this year, and that beats an expensive present bought in a hurry with no story behind it.

For next year, you or she can create a wishlist well before May, so whoever is buying, in April or the night before, knows exactly what to get.