What to buy? What to buy? What to buy? - Are you looking for new Christmas Present ideas?

If you are struggling for Christmas present inspiration, then using a theme from your favourite book or film could bring some fresh ideas and inspiration.

Stuck for present ideas? Are you hunched over a list that begins and ends with socks? Then don't let it drive you to drink because this blog is for you.

Our household opts for the easy way out and everyone makes their 'Santa' list and puts it on the kitchen noticeboard. 'How unromantic', 'how practical', 'I wish my family would do that', I hear you call. Yes it does take away the surprise element, but before this system I was often surprised by receiving a dozen pairs of socks and three copies of the same DVD (this can still happen if you don't cross things off the list!).

But what if family, friends and colleagues don't know what they want or can't bring themselves to be presumptuous enough to say out loud they would really like a forty inch flat screen TV? This leaves you falling into the black hole of Christmas creativity, the gravity of which is inescapable.

Here is my amnesiacs antidote... Consider your giftee's to be the characters in one of your favourite film's, book's or TV programme's. For example, Dicken's A Christmas Carol, my all time favourite Christmas story. Enough varied characters to fill any-one's stocking. The trick is to buy for the character and not the person.

Everyone knows a Scrooge; that charming person in your life who can peel a Christmas Tangerine in their pocket. What would you buy for Scrooge to raise a begrudged smile? How about a Automatic Digital Coin Counting Money Bank Jar for less than a tenner (there is a bit of Scrooge in us all).

Scrooge was famous for having no friends. If this fits your character then perhaps an electric toothbrush might subtly push them in the right direction.

The Ghost of Christmas Past is possibly the Granny or crusty Uncle who's present is haunted by their past. They always had a white Christmas, children were seen but not heard and they were grateful for a shiny apple and a tin soldier. Much as you would happily roast their nuts on an open fire perhaps you could bring some warmth to their hearts and a tear to their eye with the new improved release of 'It's a Wonderful Life' or if a face lift is out of your budget try the new vibrantly retouched version of the uplifting 'White Christmas'. Who said nostalgia's not what it used to be!

The ghost of Christmas present sits on a mountain of food and good things, his cup well and truly running over. Shopping for the person who has anything is the ultimate nightmare before Christmas. If this person is a bit full of themselves, brash and opinionated, then they may well have some fellow feeling with the inimitable Jeremy Clarkson. 'The World According to Clarkson' may help them to laugh at themselves as well as the world at large.

This is the strong, silent type or a grumpy teenager. They won't tell you what they want for Christmas but they might point and grunt. Likely to spend all their time immersed in a book or glued to their phone while cut off from the outside world with their iPod cranked to the max. Why not give them more of the same. eReaders could be the future of books and Kindle's storage for 3,500 tomes will keep them incommunicado for life.

Is there a downtrodden, threadbare, underpaid and slightly eccentric work colleague on your list? Then you need to inject a little inspiration into their hopelessness. A long woolly scarf won't cut it but a copy of Susan Boyle's new CD 'The Gift' might just be the perfect gift. If you are lucky they may even break into a chorus of Hallelujah to express their gratitude.

Christmas is all about the kids, right? I come from a generation where catapults and bows and arrows and boxing gloves were top of this boy's Santa list. If such pugilistic pleasure has been condemned by the health and safety kill-joy's, I would still have been ecstatic to find a Nerf N-Strike Stampede NCS bulging out of my Christmas Stocking. I can see the cat running for cover as three darts per second of unbridled mischief were let loose on Christmas morning.

For the little princess on your list how about the Barbie Pink 3-Story Townhouse. A pinnacle of pinkness surely no little girl could resist. I don't think Barbie will ever go out of favour and a little imagination an make believe cant be a bad thing.

So don't be a Christmas Turkey, take the plunge and get shopping, and if you can't face the shopping scrummage.... well there is always Amazon!!!

Merry Christmas one and all.

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