Yule spree

Carol O’Callaghan looks at affordable festive gifts that even friends who are not necessarily house proud will welcome

Seven shopping days to Christmas: does it fill you with horror?

If it does, then it’s likely you’ll rush to the shops, and without the luxury of time for afternoons of traipsing around the stores, gift-buying won’t come cheap, as battling with the ever-growing crowds will force you into making impulse purchases, just to get the process over with as quickly as possible.