Christmas might well come but once a year, but as far as commercial interests and town centres are concerned, you can safely say that about two months a year are dedicated to it ? so it's roughly eight times the length of a typical British summer. And how do we choose to spend this vast chunk of our calendar? Shopping, fretting, making unfeasible family arrangements and getting grumpy about the ridiculousness of it all.



Most people don't really subscribe to the often heard notion that Christmas is a time for family fall-outs. It's probably one of the few times of year when people get to meet and catch up ? especially now families are scattered all over the country. Any friction comes from the delicacies of fitting a year's worth of unmet aunts, siblings, kids and clan elders into two evenings and still catching the inevitable reality TV grand finale.

And therein lies the problem. We spend so little time with our immediate families ? let alone the relatives whose name you sometimes forget ? that we might sometimes feel like we don't know them well enough to select an appropriate Christmas gift.

So when it comes to actually buying the christmas gifts, what happens? We get the gift-buyer's equivalent of a writer's block. We amble around the city, gazing at window displays, constantly resisting the magnetic urge of sock vendors, chocolatiers and those select specialist stores that sell gift vouchers. Such offerings may well be the dream present for the sockless cocoa addict with an aversion to using cash (Hi, Uncle Trevor!), but they are not exactly the most fitting way to show your deep regard for someone who has just sent you a Christmas card out of the blue (even though you're convinced you attended their funeral in 1998).

Become personable ? get personal

Fortunately there's a great way to select a gift for someone you know like the sole of your foot ? and all you need to find out about them is the scantest detail (a birthday, a significant year in their life, a star sign, their occupation, a hobby or even just their name). It's the personalised gift ? and if you've got an internet connection you can cross out most of your Christmas list in one sitting.

Browsing round gift websites such as http://gettingpersonal.co.uk isn't just a way of satisfying the awkward entries on your list. It's a wealth of ideas that you can freely claim as your own, even though it's the result of the company's vivid (and sometimes disturbing) imagination. The types of things that you never even knew existed and certainly can't be found in the shopping precinct are right there in front of you, waiting to be snapped up by Your Smugship.

Items abound containing the name of the lucky recipient (whatever it may be), and they range from the humorous to the somewhat touching, with countless opportunities to tie in an aspect of their personality. It shows you really know them (or at least know someone who does).

And after a few minutes on the site you'll start to realise that you could actually satisfy someone close to you with Christmas gifts you just know they'd love: a white-knuckle driving experience; a relaxing day in a spa ? anything, in fact, to get them out of the house for a day so you can have all those boxes of chocolates to yourself.

For further information regarding our Christmas Gifts range, please visit our website at:

http://www.gettingpersonal.co.uk/christmas-presents/christmas-gifts.htm