The Utterly Inessential last-minute Christmas gift shopping list, from £15 to £9,600

It's the most wonderful time of the year (for buying things that you don't technically need, but really love the look of in any case).

If you’ve still yet to buy something, a subscription to Country Life makes a superb present — it starts off at just £6 for six issues.


Brook + Wilde Marlowe pillow

Pure decadence, this pillow filled with Hungarian goose down isn’t so much a thing to lay your head down on — it’s more like melting softly into a giant marshmallow. The down is ethically-sourced, the covering is Egyptian cotton, and the effect is really rather wonderful.

£229 from brookandwilde.com


Asprey aeroplane cocktail shaker

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A truly beautiful object which also has a function: making a drink. The design is based on the Boeing Stratoliners of the 1930s, with the fuselage, wheels and nose fitting together cleverly.

£9,600 from Asprey


Fairfax & Favor Christmas stocking

If you need something pretty to put the smaller gifts in for your significant other, Fairfax & Favor’s knitted Christmas stocking is a real classic.

£30 from Fairfax & Favor


Mongolian sheepskin cushion

Unashamedly a soft toy for those too old for soft toys, John Lewis’s sheepskin cushions are beautifully soft. They’re available in a surprisingly wide range of colours, though for our money the natural is the nicest of the collection.

£60 from John Lewis


KitchenAid cordless 5 cup food chopper

Just as cordless vacuum cleaners transformed the hassle-factor of getting the hoover out, now Kitchenaid are attempting the same trick with food processors — and it really does make life easier. It does a really superb job of fine chopping — something that our old mini-chopped never managed — and whips up a batter in a few seconds.

£119 from KitchenAid


Yoda coat

For the little Star Wars fan in your life, this adorable coat will turn them into a miniature Yoda. The coat, a tie-in with the Mandalorian TV series rather than the original films, is as well made as you’d expect from — it’s also designed to extend and stretch as your child grows to make it last longer.

£80 from columbiasportswear.co.uk


Soft archery set

It might be too late to get in training for next year’s Olympics in Tokyo, but maybe for the Games after that — this feels like a perfect Christmas Day activity for keeping the children away from screens. At least for a while.

£34.99 from Decathlon


BeerBods subscription

There are a lot of booze-by-post subscriptions out there, and many — we particularly like the Craft Gin Club. But this one is different: all the members get the same beers in the same weeks, and there’s a group online tasting session where they can all compare notes.

From £15/month to £150/year


Christmas gift ideas for ladies

From mothers and sisters to wives and girlfriends, these 12 gifts are sure to bring a smile to the face

Christmas gift ideas for men

From fathers to brothers to lovers, we run through some smart ideas for Christmas presents for the men in your