Panic buying the week before Christmas? We have you sorted

Don’t worry — high street shopping might just save your skin next week if you are leaving Christmas gift buying until the last minute, writes Carol O’Callaghan.

Procrastination is reaching critical mass — leave shopping until Christmas Eve and risk getting caught in over-spending and panic, while hopes of a speedy run around the shops are impeded by retailers enticing us to linger in the aisles with jingly music and scents of cinnamon and cedar belching out of the air-con.