It can be hard knowing what sort of car to get. Of course your budget might not stretch to their all time favourite car. If you ask too many questions of the subject it might blow the whole surprise. Maybe you just need to start watching more Top Gear (on Dave if necessary) and spend more time chatting about cars on the road as you are travelling about. This way you get a feel for the types of car you loved one likes, and the colours and car specifications that they are interested in. It's also worth finding out about the dealerships return policies, keeping the receipt of the car that you buy, just in case you read the signs wrong.

Of course it wouldn't be the most economical of presents. However, Christmas time is usually quiet on the car front and to meet their sales target they are prepared to make deals, if it means that they will sell the car. So brush up on your bartering and knock them down and get yourself a good deal, and maybe get them to throw in some extras too such as a free service, a free tank of fuel or 6 months road tax. Remember what your mother used to say - if you don't ask you don't get. Some dealerships are offering fantastic finance deals. Shop around to research the best deals, there are even some 0% deals to be had on selected cars.

Once you have chosen and brought your wow factor Christmas present, you need to wrap it, or at least you need to wrap the keys. It would be pretty tricky to wrap a car, even a small one. If you did manage to wrap the car, you would have to keep it in a garage so that the wintery elements didn't spoil the wrapping paper. The problem just gets bigger and bigger.

The easiest thing to do is to leave the car at your friends or family members until the night before, and then have them sneakily bring it round to your house on Christmas Eve, and park it across the road for the night. They could also pop in for a sherry and a mince pie. If this isn't an option, ask the dealer to hold on to it and bring it round to you on a pre-decided date. Meanwhile wrap the keys up in a small box and let your loved one open the key on Christmas morning.

Make sure that the keys are wrapped up in an easy to spot wrapping so you know when they are about to unwrap the keys, and have your camera ready to capture the moment and prepare yourself for a showering of uncontrollable emotion and kisses.