When I say last minute, I mean actually last minute. As in you're on your way to the event. You're already a little late, but you'd like to bring a hostess gift. It's night. Gift shops are closed. You don't have enough time to stop in at Target. But if you can make it to the grocery store and hit the express lane, here are 3 things that could do the trick.

1) Fresh Pineapple
A whole fresh pineapple is just so festive. It's practically it's own party. It's fragrant. It's large so it makes a statement. It will be eaten and enjoyed. And very few people buy them as part of their regular grocery shopping so it feels special and unusual. It even looks great sitting on the counter. Add a bow to transform it from produce to gift item.

2) Movie Candy
Forget about the traditional boxed chocolates that come with a little gold bow and are meant to be given as gifts. Grocery store chocolates are bound to be low quality and reek of last minute and little thought. Instead, stack a few oversize boxes of movie candy and tie them up with a bow. For Christmas giving, red boxes of Hot Tamales and green boxes of Mike & Ikes would look festive and be a nice break from the M&Ms in everyone's holiday candy bowl. Choose oversize boxes to make this an especially cute gift.

3) Magazine Subscription
This is an actual thoughtful, useful gift you can pick up at the last minute, literally in the express lane. Grab a Real Simple or Parents or Atlantic Monthly or GQ or whatever you think your host would like --fashion? food? family? Pull out a subscription card and save it to send in the next day. Roll up the magazine and add a bow. You're all set.

Final note: you may have noticed how all 3 gifts require a bow. And really, since many gifts are at least 75% about presentation, I highly recommend keeping an emergency gift kit in the glove box especially during the holidays. Put a roll of pretty ribbon, a small pair of scissors, a few gift tags and a pen in a ziplock bag and you're good to go for pretty much any gift giving on the run.

Gabrielle Blair is a designer, mother of five and founder of kirtsy. She also goes by Design Mom and keeps a popular blog by the same name. She loves really good ideas and pretty paper products.

Design Mom was named a top parenting blog by The Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart Living, and Real Simple .